Highly seasoned Agile Coach and Scrum Master with a track record spanning over twenty years. Dedicated to delivering exceptional software solutions across diverse environments. Recognized for adept leadership in Agile software development, guiding teams to success through coaching, teaching, and empowering. Known for fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.

Demonstrated strengths in:

Agile Coach

Scrum Master/Kanban facilitation

Professional Coach

Agile Project/Release Management – SAFe RTE

SAFe implementation

Lean Process Improvement

Value Delivery

Program Management

Quality Assurance (testing) Management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Sr. Scrum Master, Seagen/Pfizer (Unify Consulting) 08/2023 – 3/2024

Assigned Scrum Master/Coach to two Data Engineer/Power BI scrum squads. These teams produced data and reporting that supported Bio-Med operations. Coached and trained all team members. Ensured teams practiced good value delivery practices. Including frequent collaborations with customers and stakeholders. Teams worked on back-end data management and Power BI reporting.

Used process improvements and Problem-Solving workshops through established methods enabling increased predictability in delivery of value.

Transitioned one of the teams from Scrum to Kanban methodology. This team was used as a model for Kanban conversion across the organization. Focused on ways of working improvement.

Used QA background to help with a Power BI checklist to help with injecting quality and consistency in reporting. This was also used as a example for other squads to use.

Agile Coach/Scrum Master, PepsiCo (Unify Consulting) 11/2022 – 7/2023

Assigned Scrum Master/Coach to 5 large teams supporting an internal AI application (NRM). This is designed for marketing and account managers to improve revenue, profit and sales with AI driven predictive data by creating promotional and pricing planning calendars across all of PepsiCo.

Implemented, improved, and facilitated all ceremonies. Including, Sprint Planning & Refinements, Team syncs (stand-ups) Reviews and Retrospectives. Also aided in processes in delivery of value. i.e., Timelining, Release meetings, triages and etc. As a SAFe SM assisted with PI Planning Prep and execution.

As an RTE, Implemented and executed a Release Train for all teams on the NRM project. This release train delivered quick responsive and repeatable releases of features and enhancements to production. This included creating and executing a release calendar and implementing ad-hoc releases. This process delivered Product capabilities on schedule or ahead of schedule to the delight of our users.

Improved, communicated, and maintained metrics that proved general team improvement, especially velocity. Contributed to mindset transformation as they adopted SAFe methodologies.

SAFe Agile Coach/Scrum Master, T-Mobile (Unify Consulting) 07/2019 - 11/2022

Assigned Scrum Master/Coach to two mobile app scrum teams. Interviewed/coached/trained all team members. Enabled a switching of Team goals and Team members to the desired new team composition. Improved, communicated, and maintained many metrics that proved general team improvement.

Facilitated all team ceremonies and also assisted with PI Planning. This included process improvements and Problem-Solving workshops (in PI Planning) through Scrum/SAFe methods enabling increased predictability in delivery of value. Transitioned teams from Rally to Jira and aided Product Manager with transition to Jira Align – became Jira admin for value stream.

Created a Community of Practice and facilitated meeting for all Agile professionals at T-Mobile

Handpicked to be the scrum master for two teams working on the highest priority digital project at T-Mobile. Released the software on time with high quality. Used as a model project for the future of becoming a digital company utilizing Agile SAFe methodology.

Agile teacher, Microsoft (Unify Consulting) 06/2019 – 07/2019

Delivered targeted Agile training for two teams

Worked to tailor the class syllabus and executed it to delight of management

Agile Coach, Premera Blue Cross (Unify Consulting) 03/2019 - 06/2019

Transitioned multiple agile teams from one software lifecycle tool to a new one, improving visibility to work and cross-functional planning.

Facilitated team planning process improvements through Scrum and Kanban methods enabling increased predictability in delivery for business stakeholders.

Collaborated with cross organizational coaching team to building training and share best practices.

Agile Coach/Sr. Scrum Master, Alaska Airlines 05/2017 – 03/2019

Transformed the operations department into an agile organization.

Split the 21-person team into two teams and used Kanban to help team visualize and improve delivery.

Identified areas to coach the team including general agile training and follow-up workshops.

Coached Product owners and managers on creating user stories, using affinity and agile release planning.

Program Manager/Agile Consultant, Apple Leisure Group 10/2015 – 03/2017

Scrum Master/Agile Coach for new teams creating new e-commerce website for travel agents.

The teams were able to create and support, a system using SOA (microservices) that unified 3 acquired travel applications into one system.

The teams not only met the company’s desired date for initial delivery but used CI/CD to satisfy the functionality of the full system into production on time.

Started up another team (database ETL) using Kanban to track progress, which increased the overall velocity of the team.

As Release Manager, coordinated sprint releases for all teams into production and was able to significantly reduce the time needed for releases.

Served as administrator role for Jira/Confluence.

Agile Coach, J.P. Morgan Chase 10/2014 – 10/2015

Management Consultant and Scrum Master for J.P. Morgan Chase (FTE) Scrum Master/Agile Coach for two teams on a re-write of the Chase online banking website.

Provided Program and Project management support (agile metric reporting) for Management/Executives.

Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Capitol One – ShareBuilder 01/2013 – 10/2014

Facilitated and coached three cross-functional scrum teams in software development for Enterprise investment website. The teams moved themselves to high performing with improved velocity and commitment reliability.

Coaching of team members continuously improved team happiness and opened up creativity & innovation.

Conducted company’s Agile Community of Practice and assisted company in adopting Agile.

Facilitated Scrum stand-ups, backlog maturation & poker pointing workshops, planning meetings, sprint reviews and retrospectives.

Scrum Master & Management Consultant, Dendreon Inc. 3/2012 – 01/2013

Scrum Master - Lead Dev/Test teams for two groups.

Initiated Kanban process for maintenance and operations team.

Improved the velocity of Enhancements team by employing various methods including XP pairing, story decomposition and milestone management.

Facilitated Scrum stand-ups, sprint planning meetings, sprint review/retrospectives and reporting to stakeholders.

Helped them to turn a heavily Regulated bio-tech firm from a waterfall process into Agile(scrum). This drastically reduced the time it takes to implement software changes through to production.

Program Manager/QA Manager, Amdocs 11/2004 – 02/2012

As Program Manager - Supported Dev/Test teams for several SOA Service teams including SMS, MMS, Reporting/Data Warehouse and Billing.

Facilitate Scrum stand-ups, sprint planning meetings, sprint review, review/demos and retrospectives.

As QA Lead/Mgr – worked with the dev teams to provide technical specs as guidance for technical teams’ approach.

Worked with teams to create stories and break them down into sprint ready tasks.

Also, coordinated Projects across teams.

EDUCATION

Columbia College

Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration ● Emphasis in Management Information Systems

Southwestern Illinois College /Aviation School

Associate of Applied Science in Aviation Electronics; Pilot training; FCC Avionics Radio License

U.S. Navy Veteran– 8 years’ service Personnel management; Foreign Service; Navy Achievement Medal; Honorably Discharged; Security Clearance-Secret

Certifications: CSM, SAFe Scrum Master, SAFe RTE

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