RICH STEWART

Castle Rock, CO ● 850-***-**** ● ad3mhs@r.postjobfree.com ● LinkedIn profile

SUMMARY

As an Enterprise Business Agility Coach with current technical skills, I accelerate business performance in technology organizations through enterprise, business line, and team coaching and training. I build great relationships with colleagues at all levels of an organization as the foundation upon which I coach individuals, teams, and leaders to achieve strategic, structural, process, and technical agility. I use a system thinking, pattern-based approach to identify and resolve constraints that limit business outcomes, flow, and quality.

SKILLS

Agile transformation leadership

Agile coaching & training

Agile frameworks & methodologies (SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, DevOps)

Program & Project Management

Lean Portfolio Management

Organizational Change Management

Executive Coaching

Systems thinking, patterns, context, and complexity

Value Stream Management

Product Management

ALM Tools (Jira, Azure DevOps, Rally, Aha!)

CI/CD, BDD, TDD, Test automation

Theory of Constraints

OKRs, 4DX

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

HUMANA, Remote 5/2023 – present

Lead Agile Coach (Contractor)

Coaching and training in implementing SAFe at the Agile Release Train (ART) and team levels within Specialty Pharmacy.

Serving as Sr. Agile Coach for a new Agile Release Train (ART) that launched in June 2023, and which completed its first Planning Interval (PI) and PI Planning for its second PI.

ART delivered on 86% of its committed features in the first PI.

Served as interim Release Train Engineer (RTE) during a two-month gap in that role.

Coaching a new RTE who transitioned from a Sr. Scrum Master role.

Coaching Product Managers and Product Owners on intake, prioritization, and backlog refinement.

Coaching Scrum Masters continuously in maturing their Scrum processes and mastering core competencies.

Coaching a team that we converted to Kanban in the second PI due to the nature of their work.

Conducting training of SAFe courses, including Leading SAFe, SAFe Scrum Master, and SAFe for Teams, plus customized SAFe Workshops, as needed.

Providing ongoing consulting on implementing 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) with operations and senior leaders.

Supporting the use of ADO and the development of dashboards with team metrics throughout the organization.

Created Power BI dashboards for ART and team-level metrics.

CAPTECH CONSULTING, Denver, CO 7/2021 – 2/2023

Sr. Agile Coach /Release Train Engineer

Utilized Agile and SAFe experience to mature many teams and programs for multiple clients. Provided ongoing thought leadership within the management consulting practice area.

Served as Sr. Agile Coach supporting multiple Agile Release Trains within a larger Solution Train at a hospitality client.

Served as Release Train Engineer for an Agile Release Train within a larger Solution Train at a hospitality client.

Served as Sr. Agile Coach within a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE), implementing Lean Portfolio Management for a financial services client. Led value stream mapping sessions. Developed estimation models based on WSJF.

Led or co-led multiple internal Agile Communities of Practice.

Supported clients using Jira, teaching, and developing ART and team-level dashboards with Agile metrics.

IHS MARKIT, Englewood, CO 4/2016 – 6/2021

Product Operations Manager - automotiveMastermind, an IHS Markit company 2/2021 – 6/2021

Matured product management and delivery operations in partnership with support groups, including marketing, training, and support. Note: automotiveMastermind is a 350+ person company wholly owned by IHS Markit.

Restructured and standardized processes within the Aha! product management tool.

Restructured and standardized the integration between Aha! and Azure DevOps, allowing for greatly improved visibility on the progress of strategic initiatives.

Delivered training on using Aha! and its integration with Azure DevOps and provided team metrics in Rally and ADO.

Global Head of Business Agility Solutions 6/2020 – 2/2021

Headed up a global team focused on providing business agility solutions based on the outcome of assessments.

Provided ongoing executive and team-level process and structural agility coaching for over 10 business lines spanning financial services, energy & natural resources, and transportation.

Provided executive coaching on strategic goal setting and execution utilizing 4DX for multiple financial services business lines ranging from $40M to $400M in annual revenue.

Principal Agile Coach 4/2016 – 6/2020

Served as an Enterprise Agile Coach and Scrum Master for multiple global software teams.

Developed and delivered experiential Agile training to a division of nearly 500 colleagues in Boulder, CO, as part of an Agile transformation. Training delivered to executives, managers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Teams.

Led Agile practices for multiple, large, globally distributed teams, leading to over 80% sprint and release-level delivery. This success led to the largest single-year growth in revenue for the electronic parts business in the company’s 40-year history.

Successfully scaled a business line’s Agile practice from two to six globally distributed teams and approximately 60 delivery team members. Matured Agile practices of machine learning and data lake development teams.

Contributed regularly to the corporate Agile Community of Practice to mature and increase awareness of Agile & Lean principles and practices throughout the global product development community.

Led the successful migration of 1100 colleagues from Rally to Azure DevOps on a tight timeframe.

Provided ongoing training, coaching, and mentoring on Agile & Lean to teams across the 15,000-colleague organization.

Provided leadership and coordination to mature DevOps practices between developers and operations.

Provided ongoing training and coaching to business lines, teams, and individuals on implementing OKRs.

COMCAST CABLE, Centennial, CO 6/2015 – 4/2016

Agile Coach/Scrum Master (Contractor)

Served as Agile Coach and Scrum Master for three Agile Business Intelligence/Analytics teams within the Customer Experience Division.

Provided continuous leadership in maturing Agile as tailored for BI teams.

Coached several new Product Owners in all aspects of product management, from strategy to portfolio and backlog management.

Trained several new team members on Agile concepts and practices and improved team dynamics for a global team.

Implemented metrics, leading to improved throughput, quality, and sustainability.

TIME WARNER CABLE, Denver, CO 12/2014 – 6/2015

Scrum Master (Contractor)

Facilitated Scrum and Kanban practices using Jira with TWC TV (IP video delivery) web and mobile teams.

Led two successful major feature releases within the first four months.

After two months, promoted to Delivery Lead for a key initiative implemented by eight client application teams.

Provided leadership in adopting SAFe Program Increment planning for fourteen development teams.

TELETECH HOLDINGS (renamed to TTEC), Englewood, CO 4/2013 – 12/2014

Scrum Master

Served as Scrum Master for web and mobile development teams as part of an internal startup focusing on personalizing customer support.

Provided ongoing Agile coaching to newer team members.

Matured Agile practices, improved team velocity by 30%, and the overall quality of deliverables.

Successfully lobbied for a Product Owner position, recommended hire, and partnered with a new Product Owner in maturing user story writing and storyboarding for web and mobile development.

Provided development leadership, leading to a $2M+ contract with the first client after a successful beta program.

TALISYS, Golden, CO 6/2011 – 2/2013

Senior Program Manager

Managed IT programs and projects to enhance functionality for a leading securities brokerage software product. Managed internal IT infrastructure upgrades. Partnered with PMO Director on implementing best practices in program and project management, Agile development, portfolio management, resource management, and enterprise status reporting.

Implemented Agile frameworks, leading to immediate improved productivity of development teams.

Managed infrastructure upgrades of Microsoft Project Server, SharePoint, and Team Foundation Server to 2010.

Led analysis and design for innovative use of Team Foundation Server to manage the SDLC of the portfolio of projects.

Participated in the redesign and implementation of the corporate intranet in SharePoint 2010.

CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE CORPORATION, Tallahassee, FL 4/2006 – 5/2011

IT Director

Directed all IT projects, program & portfolio management, and resource planning for a $2.5B, 1400+ employee state-run Florida property insurer. Established a Project Management Office and began the Agile transformation of the organization. Managed all financials associated with a $47M IT operational expense budget. Managed five direct and 24 indirect professionals at three Florida locations. Reported to the CIO.

Improved throughput of personal lines policy system production support team by 55% by implementing Agile.

Hired and coached initial members of Citizens’ first Agile transformation team.

Facilitated Executive IT Steering Committee.

Created a Business Analysis Center of Excellence for over 25 corporate business analysts. Established business and technical requirements standards and templates that reduced project rework by 15%.

Achieved a 30% increase in on-time completion of projects.

Established an IT vendor management program and selected the top 15 strategic vendors. Reduced outstanding contractual and vendor delivery issues by 60% within the first three months.

Developed IT governance processes, including business case and return-on-investment (ROI) analysis for proposed projects. Improved selection process resulted in an average three-year ROI of 15% on a $25 million project portfolio.

SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS, Tallahassee, FL 8/2004 – 3/2006

Supervisor of Consulting Services

Led the engagement for three custom application development teams. Led competitive solicitation responses to several Florida state agencies. Served as project manager for large-scale projects.

Grew the size of the Tallahassee office by 30%, resulting in a revenue increase of $550,000 through leading proposal response teams that won competitive solicitations.

Achieved a 70% rate of follow-on sales resulting in over $400,000 of additional revenue.

Project managed a 20+ member project team at the Florida Department of Health that successfully deployed a new healthcare management system to 67 county health departments.

I. S. CONSULTING, Tallahassee, FL 7/2002 – 7/2004

Project Manager and Senior Web Developer

BRANDT INFORMATION SYSTEMS, Tallahassee, FL 9/2001 – 6/2002

Senior Web Developer

INFINITY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, Tallahassee, FL 1/2000 – 8/2001

Senior Developer and Project Manager

STEWART CONSULTING, American Samoa 6/1999 – 1/2000

Software Developer & Y2K Site Manager

EDUCATION

University of California, Davis ● Electrical Engineering ● Ph.D.

University of California, Berkeley ● Physics ● M.S.

University of California, Davis ● Physics ● B.S.

CERTIFICATIONS

Modern Artificial Intelligence with Zero Coding – 2023

AI for Business - AI Applications for Business Success - 2023

AI for Business Leaders – 2023

SAFe 6 Practice Consultant (SPC) – 2023

SAFe 6 Release Train Engineer (RTE) – 2023

SAFe 5 Release Train Engineer (RTE) – 2022

SAFe 5 Program Consultant (SPC) – 2021

Certified Scrum Professional – Scrum Master (CSP-SM) – 2019

Certified Scrum Professional – Product Owner (CSP-PO) - 2019

SAFe 3.5 Program Consultant (SPC) – 2015

Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) – 2015

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) – 2015

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – 2012

ITIL Foundations - 2007

Project Management Professional (PMP) – 2003

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