Blessing Akpan, CSM

Laurel Maryland, ***** 240-***-**** ad2h49@r.postjobfree.com www.linkedin.com/in/blessing-akpan-csm PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

An accomplished, highly motivated Certified Scrum Master with vast knowledge and 4+ years of experience with Agile best principles and values. Skilled in implementation of Agile frameworks (Scrum and Kanban), and generating Agile metrics reports. A Servant Leader capable of mentoring and coaching teams to become self-organizing and collaborative. Collaborate with Product Owners to translate user stories, business requirements, short and long-term release goals, remove impediments and facilitate conflict resolution while maintaining a high energy with an attitude of empowerment and transparency. As a firm believer of Program Increment and Scrum of Scrum ceremonies, I build on existing Agile methods, while seeking new and innovative ways to optimize workflow for teams to deliver quantifiable results that are sustainable in a complex environment.

SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

● Certified Scrum Master with multiple years of diversified experience in Agile Software Development with dynamic, hands-on management of software development projects that meet demanding time restraints and exceed all expectations in a DevOps environment

● Collaborated closely with product owner on backlog refinement to keep product backlog relevant & prioritized, removing impediments, and ensuring acceptance criteria were agreed upon and stories were in state prior to the sprints.

● Strong negotiation and collaboration skills with stakeholders at different level.

● Helped teams to remove impediments that were beyond their self-organizing capabilities and shielded them from external distractions.

● Utilized Agile Scrum practices and Software Development Lifecycle methodologies to help the team increase their average velocity.

● Assessed scrum maturity of teams, organization, and coached teams to higher levels of maturity at the pace that is sustainable and comfortable. Also, facilitated various meetings for scrum teams. Skills:

- Software Development Life Cycle

- Backlog Refinement and Grooming

- Scaled Agile Framework and best

Practices

- Jira, Confluence and Azure DevOps

- Retrospectives

- Story Mapping

- Root-cause Analysis (RCA)

- Microsoft Office Suite

- Team Collaboration

- Negotiation and Interpersonal

Skills

- Servant Leadership

- Emotional Intelligence and

Coaching

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

DOVINA TECHNOLOGIES August 2019 – Current

Agile Scrum Master

Lead and facilitated scrum ceremonies (sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives).

Shielded teams from external interferences and helped ensure the team has the capacity to deliver the committed goals.

Enabled the scrum team to meet sprint goals by understanding and removing any blockers.

Monitored and managed dependencies on other teams and external projects to ensure potential issues were resolved.

Tracked and communicated team velocity, sprint/release progress, resource availability.

Successfully used Agile/Scrum Method for gathering requirements and facilitated user stories workshop.

Documented User Stories and facilitated Story Point discussions to analyze the level of effort on project specifications.

Utilized Jira and Confluence for uploading and managing backlog items, requirements, defects, reporting and for future needs tickets.

Used JIRA to maintain product backlog, sprint planning, sprint backlog, create and track user stories, and managing sprints. Also, created Scrum and Kanban boards, status reports and burn down charts.

Partnered with other scrum masters on our programs team, to ensure our ways of working were consistent across teams.

BIOTECH PEST MANAGEMENT February 2017 – Sept 2023

Human resources Manager/Executive

Ensured end-to-end process analyses for continuous improvement efforts and alignment across the systems.

Coordinated with internal and external partners to ensure effective adoption of improvement and fostered organization learning.

Established workflow processes, monitored daily productivity and implemented modifications to improve overall team performance.

Coached and Fostered collaboration among administrative team members

Provided guidance and support on process transformation, and change adoption efforts across internal teams

Identified inefficiencies and developed recommendations to mitigate compliance and risk.

Rendered decisions and support the implementation and administration of the policies and procedures to ensure third-party and corporate compliance.

Partnered with all business units and external partners (Vendors) to maintain strong relationships and partnerships across the organization and network of members.

STALLIONAIRE NIGERIA LIMITED January 2012- June 2017 Business Development Manager

● Monitored and studied key consumer and market data to create internal strategies for further use to gain competitive advantage

● Partnered with all business units and external partners to maintain strong relationships and partnerships.

● Analyzed and assessed market shifts to maximize opportunities and establish possible leads.

● Generated sales by executing complete sales cycle process and break-even rate-tracking

● Collaborated with suppliers to expand our market, thereby gaining competitive advantage through price margins and bulk purchasing

● Exceeded sales goals and improved profitability by aligning sales strategies and business plans with market trends.

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Certified Business Analyst (CBAP)

EDUCATION

Bachelor’s degree, Biochemistry

Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria

Strategic Business School

REFERENCES

To be given upon request

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