Vijaya Kumar

Lead Transformation Coach

VISA – H*B

Charlottesville, VA 22901

+1-805-***-****

Certifications

International Coaching Federation –

ICF

Coaching Supervision – Aug’23

Professional Certified Coach –

Jan’22

Project Management Institute – PMI

Disciplined Agile senior Scrum

master-Sep’21

Agile Certified Practitioner-May’14

Project Management Professional-

Jul’13

Scrum Alliance

Certified Scrum Professional-May’21

Advanced Certified ScrumMaster-

Apr’21

Certified ScrumMaster-Apr’16

Scaled Agile

SAFe Agilist- Mar’16-Nov’19

SAFe Program Consultant-May’16-

Apr’19

International Consortium of Agile –

ICAgile

Agile Coaching-Feb’18

Agile Team Facilitation-Sep’17

ICAgile Certified Professional-

Nov’16

EXIN

ITIL Operational Support and

Analysis- Jun’15

ITIL Release, Control and Validation-

May’15

ITIL Foundation-May’14

Lean Six Sigma

Verizon Lean Six Sigma Green Belt-

Oct’18

Scrum.Org

Professional Scrum Master I-May’19

Professional Scrum Master II-

May’19

Large Scale Scrum ( LeSS)

Certified LeSS Professional-Jul’21

Professional Summary

Multi-faceted IT Leader with 19+ years of progressive experience in IT& ITES industry with strong focus on Agile Coaching / Methodologies,Project & Program management, enterprise release management, consulting, training and SME in Agile Software Development.

• Certified in Professional Coaching, Agile coaching, Scrum / SAFe / LeSS and Project management .

• Demonstrated success in spearheading critical timebound programs and projects spanning across global locations, leveraging Project management skills, techniques and tools with a blend of Agile methodologies and scaled agile framework .

• Passionate about building hyper-productive teams, fostering an environment for collaboration and rallying teams to achieve organizational goals, and digital transformation.

Work Experience

Lead Transformation Coach – Wells Fargo Sep’20 to Jan’24

• Spearheaded Digital & Innovation teams (credit card and Home lending - 23 Teams – 182 team members) to demonstrate the value of empiricism in enabling planning, continuous improvement, and thoughtful data-driven decisions.

• Managed Financial Health teams (6) to transform from waterfall to Scaled agile framework and successfully facilitated their ART launch.

• Collaborated with Business stakeholders in defining the Product Roadmap, Release schedules and sizing the backlog.

• Established disciplined, effective Agile teams and Team of Teams to embrace and exhibit agile mindset, by guiding the team in agile principles and practices which included new team workshops and team launches.

• Initially guided teams through Agile Release Train events, with intention of upskilling the Release train Engineer/ Product Manager, and transferred accountability over initial sprints (model, coach, and empower).

• Offered credible alternative options regarding process initiation, work structuring, and utilization of value streams. Facilitated initial communication/ collaboration within and between ARTs to help align program goals to deliver a final product, with a goal of a self-sustaining team.

• Modeled servant leadership and empowered teams by proactively mentoring key roles in an Agile Release Train such as Release Train Engineer, Product Management, Product owner and Scrum master.

• Ran point for the quarterly assessment of teams’ agile maturity with Wells Fargo developed in-house Agile Maturity assessments. Developed and implemented coaching plans after a collaborative discussion with Agile teams with the Agile Assessment as the benchmark.

• Coached both new and problematic Team of teams towards sustainable performance. Provided feedback on cadence. Proactively coached teams in understanding and use of generally accepted Agile/Train metrics such as predictability, Cycle time, Throughput, sprint churn etc.

• Demonstrated strong analytical, organizational, and decision-making skills, balancing competing demands for quality, scope, schedule, and cost effectively.

• Established environment conducive to team effectiveness, fostering good relationships with stakeholders and protecting teams from distractions Skills

• Project Management

• Release / Change Management

• Agile Methodologies

• Product backlog / Story Mapping

• IT Governance

• Emotional Intelligence

• Conflict Management

• Team / Organization Development

• Facilitation / Story Telling

PM Tools

• PM Tools – JIRA, Azure Devops, MSP

• Comms – Confluence, Trello, Mural

• Office – MSOffice & G-Suite

• Plugins – Portfolio, User Story

• Metrics – Eazy BI, Tableau

• RM/ CM – Service Now

Career Accomplishments

• Managed a 6 credit card teams in 2021

for delivering a solution to solve 20% of

fraud issues.

• Improved the capacity utilization of

Verizon Enterprise solutions with the

DMAIC process - moving the metrics

from 15% in Jan 2018 to 85% in Aug

2018.

• Brought down the average delivery

time for minimum viable product

(MVP) from 120 days to 80 days in

2017.

• Managed a team of analysts to

complete the decommissioning of

assets in Verizon Data centers resulting

in 4M cost savings.

• Played a significant role in delivering 65

projects on time for Verizon – Frontier

deal.

Scrum Master – SS&C Intralinks Jan’20 to Aug’20

• Served as Project manager and Scrum Master for Investor Vision teams ( 2 in India, 1 in NY and 1 in Bucharest) in successfully migrating from legacy system to new age digital platform for alternative investments .

• Applied formal project management methodologies and reporting practices in line with Intralinks IT project guidelines and principles, to ensure timely and effective delivery .

• Analysed and reviewed existing processes and technologies and evaluated effectiveness and efficiency of existing processes/systems and proposed new solutions to enhance current business processes, operations, and information process flows.

• Worked closely with development teams, QA teams, and project management teams and contributed to the overall success of the project and tracked initiatives around development and continuous improvement.

• Trained new agile teams on Agile Values and Principles and Scrum Framework. Facilitated backlog creation/ Refinement sessions for newly formed product teams.

• Facilitated Scrum events with stakeholders. Shared the observations of teams’ interactions among themselves and with the stakeholder community. Worked with teams on effective engagement opportunities.

• Coached Scrum Masters, Product Owners on self-management and Emotional Intelligence. Coached teams on dysfunctions to enable team’s high performance. Enterprise Agile Coach – Infosys Dec’18 to Dec’19

o Managed project forecasting for Verizon – Infosys SOW and provided revised forecasts and variances to management every month including timely reporting of actuals to forecast as well as key project changes, variances, and risks. o Worked as Single point of contact for incoming new work requests, assisting senior management with continuous portfolio management (status, projections, resource planning, new request monitoring), ongoing budget reviews (actual vs budget analysis, projections, periodic reporting), and cost projections in future across portfolio.

o Managed portfolio of projects through full project management and software development lifecycle, complying with Infosys’s internal policies and processes for IT project delivery and change management.

o Lead Agile culture by actively engaging with ART/team roles in Onshore – Offshore Delivery Model and Process Harmonization (Infosys – Verizon). o Partnered with the Infosys Quality teams to identify agile process improvements that will result in measurable quality, predictability and efficiency improvements concerning cycle time, quality, and delivery of business value and enhanced employee engagement.

o Mentored SPCs, Agile coaches, RTE, Scrum Masters and Teams in continuously improving agile maturity & effectiveness across delivery organizations using agile metrics.

Agile Coach – Verizon Dec’14 to Dec’18

o Worked on EIS, VRD and Concept to Cash program initiatives as a Release train engineer. Served as expert on Scaled Agile Framework to senior management and lead SAFe implementation in collaboration with project managers, line managers, business analysts, and product managers.

o Organized and facilitated community coaching camps, ‘Ask Anything on Agile

“sessions, and COE/COP events to satisfy the needs related to SAFe implementation. MD Award, Performance Excellence & SPOT Awards for Agile delivery, training and coaching from 2015 to 2018.

Career Highlights

Promoted and awarded AVP title within

18 Months of joining Wells Fargo.

Three Promotions in a span of 9+ years

in Verizon – Joined as an analyst and

was promoted to senior analyst,

consultant and then senior consultant.

Performance Excellence award for

spearheading the 2015 major and

minor releases for Verizon Enterprise

Solutions with zero production issues

and backouts.

Education

o Bachelor of Science 1997-2000

Area of Study – Mathematics, Physics

and Chemistry

Andhra University, India (NAAC A)

o Post Graduate Diploma in Business

Management 2017-2019

Area of Study – Business Management

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management

Sciences, India (NAAC A+)

o Master of Arts 2019-2021

Area of Study - Psychology

Indira Gandhi National Open University

, India (NAAC A++)

Languages

• English

• Telugu

• Hindi

• Spanish

• German

o Served as part of the PPM team and played critical role in establishing the portfolio Kanban. Facilitate Scrum of Scrums and PO Sync for VES Portfolio. o Worked with Senior Managers, Delivery leads to address and resolve impediments raised. Brought down average MVP delivery timeline from 120 days to 90 Days. o Conducted organization-level training and workshops on SAFe, Agile, and Scrum for all levels of employees. (Software engineer to Director). Developed training material, courses and workshops.

o Helped in identifying training needs and chalking out training programs for individuals and teams. Conducted SAFe, IC Agile training for ~1400 Employees. o Facilitated System Demos and Problem-solving workshops. Successfully improved the estimation efficiency to 95% and resource utilization to 85% through a six-sigma greenbelt project.

o Radiated team’s delivery trends on weekly executive forum. Communicated analytics and proposed action items to respective Directors/Managers. Analysed and optimized budget & capacity at VES Portfolio/Program/Project Level. o Liaison between the project and support teams. Managed & coordinated project teams infrastructure needs, PRs, Licenses, and Portfolio Training requirements Scrum Master – Verizon Jan’12 to Dec’12

• Worked as a scrum master for Primebller and Global Contracting teams.

• Facilitated Scrum of Scrums for VES – Ordering portfolio. Work with Senior Managers, Delivery leads to address and resolve the impediments raised in Scrum of Scrums.

• Radiated the team’s delivery trends on the weekly executive forum. Collaborated with project managers, line managers, business analysts, and product managers for successful implementation of scrum and agile methodologies across their teams.

• Facilitated agile practices across teams and enabled them in realizing and understanding the art of facilitation.

• Evangelized scrum values and events, helped teams in removing impediments. Tracked and communicated sprint/release updates to the stakeholder community. Release and Change Manager – Verizon Jul’10 to Dec’11 o End to End responsibility for Ordering and Sales portfolio Minor and Major releases. Facilitated executive Checkpoint calls during the releases .( 200 Applications ). o Supported and tracked all production releases for successful completion. Ensured necessary documentation & records are created/scheduled for releases and updated accordingly throughout releases. Monitored Crisis bridge post-release for performance issues.

o Tracked proposed Code drops/changes with input from Application Development, Project Managers, Operations, Executive Management and other groups. Established support plan with resource requirements for each change. o Facilitated Task Plan Review Calls with application groups, technical teams and Operations ensuring that all relevant issues are presented, and all appropriate functional areas provide adequate representation.

o Operated deployment bridge and coordinate all change-related activity. Contacted resources to resolve issues during change activities. Communicated proposed changes to procedures or processes as required.

o Served as first point of contact for all production issues during managed deployments. Provided direction, leadership and/or crisis management during deployments as required to ensure all objectives are achieved. o Participate in status and Go/ No Go decisions.. Ensured health check completions and monitor Crisis bridge post-release for performance issues Honors & Awards

WellsFargo Champion Team – 2021Q4

Verizon SPOT Award for Quality and

Process Improvement – Oct’18

Verizon SPOT Award for Quality and

Process Improvement – Jun’18

Verizon SPOT Award for Leadership –

Jun’17

Verizon SPOT Award For Team Work –

Jul’16

Verizon Above & Beyond performance

award – Oct’15

Verizon SPOT Award For Team Work –

Sep’15

Verizon Performance Excellence award

– Sep’15

Verizon SPOT Award for Accountability

– Mar’15

Verizon SPOT Award for Accountability

– Jul’10

Verizon Above and Beyond Award –

Sep’09

24/7-110 Percenter Award – Aug’06

Freelance Experience

Professional Coach, Assessor and

Mentor – May’22-Present

Coach & Mentor Professional coaches

by observing the coaching

conversation of upcoming coaches in

line with the ICF – PCC Markers

Scrum/ICAgile Trainer- Jun’18-Present

Provide a two-day workshop on Agile

methodologies such as Scrum, SAFe and

Kanban. Facilitate Agile coaching

workshops encompassing the primary

agile coaching skills of facilitation,

teaching, mentoring, Professional

coaching and team development.

IT – Project Manager – Verizon Jul’07 to Jul’10

o Managed Verizon VCOP tool teams - Responsible for developing a comprehensive project plan, directing the project team, overseeing project execution, coordinating project communication, and ensuring proper documentation is created. o Managed Data Centre Infrastructure projects across Verizon Business and its data centres in the US. Completed 200+ projects involving the build & maintenance of 3000+ Servers with a budget ranging from $200k to $2M. o Managed multiple implementation projects simultaneously, utilizing communication/organization skills to acquire, implement, test, and certify applications and servers necessary for Verizon Telecom’s initiative. o Worked with system engineers, S/w developers, purchasing groups, Network, Storage, Middleware, Automation, security teams and other Verizon Telecom support resources located throughout North America to ensure information is disseminated in a timely manner, risks are identified and mitigated efficiently meet project milestones. Facilitated, tracked and reported project requirements, scope, timelines and milestones in regular status meetings. Documented outstanding issues tracked till closure in accordance with the project milestones and deliverables. o Encouraged compliance with Verizon Security standards when non-standard configurations are introduced. If necessary, escalate issues to Management for resolution.

o Established communication plans, reporting mechanisms and project tracking methods to ensure all required implementation steps are complete on time and under budget.

o Status reporting and client/project coordination and timely completion of Verizon IT infrastructure projects. Ensured operational cohesion to complete projects on specified production dates.

o Provided world-class implementation and support of Wintel and Midrange

(Windows, Linux, and UNIX), Decommission projects and Storage computing infrastructure for Verizon's telecom/business units in support of internal customers. Resolution Specialist – 24/7 Customer Jul’05 to Jul’07 o Manage a team of 12 members. Troubleshooting the authorization and signal issues including all billing-related queries and adjustments and resolving billing-related disputes.

o Responsible for training, providing feedback & developmental needs to Juniors. Side by side and remote barging for the agents and giving them feedback for performance enhancement. Performing Quality checks for the team members. o Responsible for RTA, Schedule Adherence, AHT & OCR of the team. Maintain the AHT, checking the CMS and floor support.

o Sending the daily and weekly quality and OCR reports. Generating weekly reports for the technical issues, quality and efficiency of the process. Weekly Business Review with Ops Manager.

Technical Support Associate – Nipuna Services Jul’04 to Jul’05 o Troubleshooting the small and home office network configuration and sending technicians to verify the network configuration. Creating new usernames and passwords for the customers. Configuring and solving the problems relating to MS outlook and outlook express. Resolving first-level OS problems (Windows and Mac) Technical Support Associate – Dell Nov’03 to Jul’04

• Provide hardcore technical assistance for OS (Windows), which includes installing and repairing the OS up to the need.

• Responsible for analysing the cause of the issue and ship the necessary parts or book an appointment with a technician.

Volunteering

Meet-Up Groups

Scrum buddies- A 250+ member

group sponsored by ScrumAlliance,

focused to support Scrum Masters

to strengthen their facilitation,

presentation, and coaching skills.

Agile Tribe -A 2782-member group

to share and learn all about agile

and related practices.

Regional Scrum Gatherings

Hyderabad 2022 – Volunteered in

facilitating three sessions with the

speakers and moderate the QnA.

Egypt 2021- Volunteered in the

Coaches Clinic to provide

clarification and guidance on

Coaching careers.

Pro-Bono Coaching

Offer relationship coaching for

couples.

Career coaching for early-stage.

professionals and new graduates .

Life Coaching and Motivation.

Scrum Mentoring

Offer 1-1 mentoring for new scrum

masters and agile coaches.

Provide subject matter expertise to

resolve impediments in professional

environment.

Community Involvement

Traffic Control Volunteer during the

rush hour traffic at Financial District

, Hyderabad.

Active participant in CSR Activities

such as fund raisings for flood &

Covid victims, Weekend Education

in Orphanages, Clean & Green

Campaigns.

Frequent Donor of Blood

Publications

1. Gurazada,A. Rayapeddi,A. Lanka,V. Agile Transformation: Where does it end or is it perpetual? International Journal of Innovative Research and Practices Vol.6, Issue 9, September 2018 ISSN 2321-2926.

2. Laxmi Narayan, K.Uma Pallavi.Nirmala Kumari, Y.Vijaya Kumar, L. Efficacy of Life Skills Training on Emotional Maturity among Adolescents International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods (IJARESM), Volume 11, Issue 2, February-2023, ISSN: 2455-6211

3. Lakshmi Narayana K, Nirmala Kumari Y, Vijay Kumar Lanka, Uma Pallavi Quality of Life among Adolescents: Stress, Anxiety, Depression International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods (IJARESM), Volume 11, Issue 3, March-2023, ISSN: 2455-6211

4. Lakshmi Narayana K, Vijaya Kumar Lanka, Nirmala Kumari Y, Uma Pallavi Life Satisfaction and Life Stress among Working and Non-Working Women International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods

(IJARESM), Volume 11, Issue 4, April-2023, ISSN: 2455-6211 Project/Presentation(s)

• Presented in multiple forums about the significance of team dynamics and bonding in Wells Fargo. Presented Patrick Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of a team” to the coaching community and in the Agile Community of Practice. Also presented the influence of unconscious bias on team innovation.

• Presented the “Secret Sauce of Scrum” in Regional Scrum Gathering Pune-2021. The topic covers how scrum can be used as a team development model as per the 12 C’s model along with stretch collaboration and understanding of the influence of Bias.

• In 2018, successfully completed the Verizon Lean Six Sigma – greenbelt project for the Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Using the DMAIC process stream lined the capacity and utilization processes along with reporting the same for the VES teams. In this endeavour I have worked relentlessly with stakeholders from different levels of the Organization i.e., from senior management to new joiners, which had a positive effect on the JIRA (Project management tool) adoption levels which helped in reporting the release estimations and actual utilization of the VES teams. As a part of the Agile COE team, I have also defined the standard procedures and coached the teams to adapt the changes in a shorter period. This project resulted in improving the utilizations metrics from 15% to 85% and estimation efficiency to 95%.

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