Catherine Ackerman

773-***-**** ad4ri6@r.postjobfree.com Minooka, IL LinkedIn

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

Results-driven Agile Project Manager and Scrum Master with 8+ years of experience leading and managing multiple projects with cross functional agile teams. Proven ability to facilitate Agile ceremonies and implement Scrum framework to improve team collaboration, productivity and deliver projects on-time. Adept at identifying and removing obstacles that impede team progress and coach team members to improve their skills in Agile methodologies. Strong communicator and problem-solver with a track record of leading high-performing teams and delivering exceptional results.

SKILLS:

● Agile Methodologies, Risk Management, Quality Assurance, Resource Allocation, Stakeholder Management, skilled in facilitating Agile ceremonies, Product Roadmap, MVP, SDLC,

● Core Skills: Product Management, Strategic Roadmap Development, User stories, Product Metrics, Gathering, analyzing, and translating business requirements into functional specifications that are used to design and implement solutions, Budget and scope management

● Tools: Jira, Trello, Google Workspace, Salesforce, PowerBI, Microsoft Suite, Confluence, Miro PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS:

● ICP Certified Professional - ICAgile

● Professional Scrum Master (PSM 1) - Scrum.org

● Situational Leadership (SLII)-The Ken Blanchard Companies PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Adtalem Global Education

Agile Project Manager Scrum Master July 2016 – Present

● Coach and led 2 scrum teams, focusing on developing their communication skills, boosting confidence in their daily tasks, and supporting their professional growth within Adtalem

● Develops, monitors, the scope, budget, and schedule of multiple projects and project portfolios of high complexity projects

● Assists the team in preparation for PI Planning, Demos, and Inspection and Adaptation

● Facilitates team transparency by escalating impediments and shares progress by the team to the appropriate channels

● Manages and oversaw the end-to-end project management activities, orchestrating seamless project execution from initiation through planning, execution, monitoring, and closure while delivering results in alignment with strategic goals and objectives

● Consistently promotes open communication and transparency within the team, reinforcing psychological safety to encourage colleagues to comfortably raise impediments as conflicts arose.

● Utilizes summation reports to track and share essential metrics, fostering accountability and transparency among colleagues and driving continuous team improvement by leveraging strengths and identifying growth areas.

Team Lead Project Consultant July 2013 - July 2016

● Effectively managed stakeholder relationships through polished communication and follow-through, ensuring alignment with project objectives

● Collaborated with the leadership team to identify and incorporate all business deliverables into project plans, ensuring clear responsibilities and due dates.

● Served as a dedicated Scrum Master, fostering Agile practices within the organization and facilitating effective Agile practices to enhance product efficiency and delivery.

● Managed relationships between team, stakeholders and product owners to gain a shared understanding of sprint goals and definition of done

● Facilitated planning sessions by organizing burndown charts and sprint data to display progress of team within each sprint

● Ensured present and available for the team to answer questions, remove impediments and assist with creating solutions

Agile Project Manager Scrum Master (Part Time) July 2023 – November 2023 Iwishbag

● Developed and initiated conversations leading to successful completed projects with a firm deadline involving various scopes of environments within sprints

● Continuously identified impediments and addressing them quickly assisted with driving results which led to an increase in team productivity. The team accomplishes scrum events by maintaining psychological safety and confidently

● Scheduled and lead the 4 primary ceremonies of Scrum (Standup, Sprint Planning, Sprint Retrospective and Sprint Demo

● Drove quicker delivery of value and continuous improvement by utilizing feedback and metrics to identify areas of opportunity within the team and then guide to improvement.

● Collaborated with key stakeholders and Product owners to ensure product requirements are met and delivered quickly

● Increased product knowledge assisted with facilitating backlog refinement.

● Helped teams across a value stream embrace Agile Core Values, adopt and apply Agile Principles, and implement Agile practices

EDUCATION:

Masters in Business Administration

Keller Graduate School of Management

Bachelors in Psychology

Dominican University