Release Manager Change Management

Anant Gokhale

Chicago, IL 309-***-**** *********************@*****.*** https://www.linkedin.com/in/anant-gokhale-4862a125/

Agile Change and Release Manager

Dynamic Change & Release Manager with over 15 years of experience orchestrating seamless technology transitions within large-scale organizations. Proven track record of leading complex change and release processes, from conceptualization to execution. Skilled in dissecting intricate problems, adept at devising iterative processes and driving the release and change management lifecycle. Passionate about collaborating with stakeholders to understand their needs and ensure smooth transitions. Champion of emotional intelligence, fostering positive relationships with both employees and customers.

Dedicated to ensuring that change and release processes are meticulously planned and executed to minimize disruption and maximize success.

KEY SKILLS

ITIL - Service Strategy, Design, Transition, Operations and CSI Project Planning and Management Client Relations Team Leadership Agile, Waterfall, and Kanban Stakeholder communication Organizational Skills Process Mapping Six Sigma Audits Statistical Analysis Trends Benchmarking Service Measurement Metrics DevOps

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

JPMorgan Chase, Chicago, IL August 2022 - March 2024

TPM – Agile Change and Release Manager / DevOps

Functioned as TPM – Change and Release Manager for Loan IQ, orchestrating release windows and cycles across Loan IQ portfolio, effectively managing change and resolving issues that impacted scope, schedule, quality and change management processes using Agile principles and values.

•Orchestrated the coordination of release content and efforts, aligning them meticulously with business priorities within the framework of IT Service Management (ITSM) principles to maximize value and adhere to Service Level Agreements (SLAs), while also managing change processes. Monitored and measured progress meticulously to ensure that application releases were not only delivered on time but also met budget requirements.

•Spearheaded Release Readiness reviews, Testing reviews, (Kanban board) Milestone reviews, and Business Go / No-Go reviews, ensuring that every aspect of release aligned seamlessly, met stringent quality standards, and complied with Service Level Agreements (SLAs), while integrating IT Service Management (ITSM) practices, including change management. Maintained and managed the Incident register.

•Led and coached cross-functional development teams in ITSM disciplines, overseeing environment setup and IT operations for end- to-end release cycles, orchestrated release schedule, and audited the Service Now Change and Incident management tickets.

•Seamlessly integrated Agile Lead process enhancements into daily standups, sprint planning sessions, and sprint retrospectives, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and empowerment within the team, while adhering to IT Service Management (ITSM) standards and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and managing change effectively.

•Identified and proactively managed risks that could impact release timelines, applying agile methodologies to swiftly address and mitigate potential delays.

•Implemented Agile reporting practices, leveraging JQuery / Widgets through Jira to provide comprehensive and real-time updates to management team, fostering transparency and alignment with project progress and objectives.

•Developed comprehensive agile metrics reports (velocity, burndown charts, and quality metrics), leveraging data from Jira and Bit bucket to track sprint performance, identify bottlenecks, and drive continuous improvement initiatives, resulting in 15% increase in team velocity.

•Conducted team building activities, release retrospective meetings (what went well and what could be improved) and identified actionable improvements.

•Oversaw and coordinated Go-Live activities, including the execution of deployment plans and checklists, ensuring a smooth transition during release implementations, with a strong focus on IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices, meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and effectively managing change management.

•Actively participated in successful migration efforts, including early life support and performance testing, and conducted functional and regression testing. Utilized a strong background in agile methodologies, managing Loan IQ configurations through CI/CD pipelines, while adhering to IT Service Management (ITSM) principles, meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and effectively managing change.

•Led migration from Loan IQ version 7.6.2 to 7.6.4, navigating through obstacles by implementing thorough change management practices and actively participating in Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings. Ensured a smooth transition, incorporating comprehensive performance testing of version 7.6.4 and comparing its performance data with production to validate improvements. Managed successful monthly and off-cycle releases with stringent adherence to change management protocols, ensuring consistent system updates and functionality enhancements.

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•Spearheaded development and implementation of new feature for global application users: Loan IQ Online Help, with feature providing comprehensive assistance and guidance to users worldwide, enhancing their experience, facilitating seamless navigation of application, and prioritized based off Product backlog.

•Implemented branch merging process, ensuring code integration and deployment cycles.

•Collaborated with product teams to design and build new Loan IQ product offerings that expanded its reach into new growth markets.

•Implemented DevOps practices, with expertise in devising and implementing advanced branching strategies to enhance software development workflows and introduced Bit bucket branching model, resulting in 30% reduction in code conflicts.

•Fostered a culture of continuous improvement, where team members were encouraged to experiment, learn, and adapt ways of working.

•Implemented just-in-time delivery CI / CD practices to accelerate feedback loops and planned and executed performance testing, with strong focus on thoroughly testing and validating test cases.

Client: State Farm Insurance, Bloomington, IL May 2018 - August 2022

DevOps Engineer

Oversaw team of 20+ IT professionals to successfully manage 12+ major technology releases per year with projects ranging from $120K - $470K+, requiring 12K+ resource hours. Overseen the processes of change and release management.

•Directed all facets of ITIL projects, encompassing capacity planning, resource allocation, meticulous project documentation, proactive client engagement, and effective change management practices. Ensured seamless execution and delivery in alignment with ITIL principles, emphasizing the automation of repetitive tasks for efficient release management

•Enhanced project-wide efficiencies by implementing automation and dashboards in Jenkins, effectively monitoring the progress of 350 - 400 bugs/defects and enhancement tickets throughout the release lifecycle, while adhering to rigorous change management protocols as per ITIL standards.

•Proactively addressed and resolved project risks, roadblocks, and obstacles, while strategically securing resources to expedite deliverables. Emphasized the importance of change management in streamlining processes and mitigating risks associated with releases, following ITIL guidelines.

•Managed a high volume of 25+ customer requests per day, streamlining processes through automation where possible to enhance responsiveness and efficiency, while ensuring changes were meticulously managed and communicated in accordance with ITIL principles.

•Successfully performed migrations while working on a project for Jenkins, SonarQube, Ivy to Maven, Ant scripting, and GitLab runner. Adapted to varying technologies and tools while emphasizing change management practices to ensure smooth transitions and deployments following ITIL methodologies.

•Prioritized work within the ITIL team and maintained a backlog of future tasks for consideration and prioritization, with a focus on automating repetitive tasks to streamline workflow and adhering to change management principles outlined in ITIL.

•Collaborated directly with other product owners, system engineers, program managers, developers, testers, and customers to define features and technical user stories.

•Developed good knowledge of software development processes, CI / CD pipelines, and Agile / Waterfall methodologies.

Client: State Farm Insurance, Bloomington, IL May 2010 - April 2018

Change, Release, and Configuration Lead

Executed ITIL based Change and Release Management processes, ensuring there was no disruption or degradation of service during lifecycle of the change.

•Worked with customer to plan and schedule tactical business and technology events, such as software maintenance or minor / major releases that impacted changes to the big application, in a manner calculated to minimize disruption to customer's business.

•Collaborated with developers, product managers, and operations engineers to define, manage, and execute milestones for each monthly release.

•Engaged with development teams not currently under Release Management to establish release management processes.

•Built and aligned organization’s release calendar, working closely with development managers and enterprise-wide release managers from other platform teams and facilitated Go-no-Go for every release.

•Provided Knowledge of Release Management, Configuration Management, Identity and Access Management, and affinity with Process Management.

•Acquired technical soundness to detect and mitigate risks, created key metrics, and identified opportunities to make tactical improvements to release management process.

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•Managed activities between Release Management and Change Management, Problem / Incident Management, and QA / Testing.

•Monitored compliance to existing change management process, ensuring correct approval process was followed for both regular and emergency changes and followed up non-compliant changes made outside change management process.

•Participated in PwC audits for Change and Release Management, with each product team working with colleagues at all levels to perform Change Management and provide Change guidance and support.

•Prioritized work within agile team and maintained backlog of future work for consideration / prioritization.

•Took responsibility for development of ongoing enhancements and created and prioritized user stores with agile teams.

•Constructed high-level product epics and features and incorporated agile experience, navigating SDLC and pull from experience using Scrum, Lean, and Kanban to ensure success.

•Built an idea board for Retrospective.

EDUCATION

Bachelors in Finance, Accounting, and Taxation

Mumbai University, India

Computer Applications Diploma

Mumbai University, India

CERTIFICATIONS

ITIL - Intermediate and Foundation Certification

Certified Scrum Master

Studying for Professional Scrum Master I* (plan to complete by end of May)

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Service Now HPSM Maven AWS Cloud Version One JIRA SQL MySQL Microsoft Office Bit Bucket

Git Gitlab Jenkins Service Manager Service Now CI / CD Pipelines / Shell / VB Scripting / Macros Python

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