Scrum Master

SOUNKALO KONE

PROFESSIONAL SCRUM MASTER

************@*****.*** / Phone: 443-***-****

Rosedale MD, 21237

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

Dynamic Scrum Master with extensive experience in guiding organizations through their Agile transformation journey. With over 5 years of driving Agile transformations and managing projects for IT groups within Banking & Finance, I have a proud history of cultivating customer-centric teams to deliver high-quality solutions that meet the needs of stakeholders. Expert at driving the adoption and enforcement of Agile practices at the project level, removing impediments, promoting cross-collaboration, and fostering self-management. Enthusiastic about developing strong collaborative relationships with my teams and other key stakeholders across the organization.

Skills & Technical Proficiency

Active DoD Secret Clearance

Skilled Collaborator & Negotiator across organizations

Process mapping and documentation using MS Visio

Excellent Communication Skills

Strong fact-finding, analytical and technical writing skill

ERP & SaaS Software Implementation & Management

Data collection, presentation & reporting

Change and Transformation Leader

Advanced proficiency in Smartsheet, Rally, Jira & Confluence

Technical scrum manager for SaaS solutions

IT, Software & Engineering SDLC applications

Scale Agile Framework (SAFe) /Scrum & Waterfall Methodologies

Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio)

Team building, leadership, and conflict resolution

Fluent in French, English Languages

Technical & business requirement facilitation

Project/program management with Agile/Scrum

Adept at client and customer relations management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Air Force Reserve (AF reserve Senior Leaders/ AF Colone’s Group, REG)

Pentagon (Washington, DC) 06/2023 – Present

Reviewing and drafting vacancy announcement request for colonels’ assignment.

Processing applications and drafting experience summaries for Colonels.

Constantly updating the Senior Leader Management Database and Commander listing.

Drafting and flowing Colonel’s assignment actions and communicating with hiring authorities and mission partners throughout the Air Force, Reg Air Force, Space Force, Joint Staff and other DoD agencies.

Full access to SLCMS (Senior Leader Career Management System) to be able to manage all the O-6 assignments.

Wells Fargo Bank

Scrum Master 02/2020 - Present

Facilitate all Scrum Events such as Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective and Product Backlog Refinement/Grooming.

Lead teams to develop the definition of ready (DOR), which serves as the entry criteria for screening the product backlog items before they can move from the product backlog into the sprint backlog.

Manage and lead team to develop the definition of done (DOD), to serve as the exit criteria for screening the sprint backlog items before they can become part of the potentially shippable product increment.

Ensure that I keep the development teams focused so that working software is delivered at the end of the sprint, which is our primary measure of progress.

Manage the resolution of impediments for teams during every sprint so that nothing prevents them from achieving their sprint goals.

Work closely with product owners to ensure the product backlogs are prioritized, updated and current.

Leverage metrics such as burn-down/burn-up charts, velocity, capacity, cycle time and predictability ratio etc. to monitor progress and improve teams’ performance.

Empower teams to become self-managing/self-organizing and cross-functional during the software development lifecycle.

Train, coach, and mentor different teams on their Agile journey.

Wells Fargo Bank

Scrum Master 01/2019 – 02/2020

Helped my teams to transition from waterfall to agile through training, coaching, and mentoring and made sure that they embraced the agile mindset.

Used all the scrum ceremonies as a platform for transparency, inspection and adaptation, which ensured that the teams met their sprint goals consistently.

Facilitated discussions between the product owner and development team on ensuring that each of the user stories they worked on had a clear and understandable acceptance criteria

Regularly reviewed the product backlog to make sure that it was healthy - Detailed appropriately, Emergent, Estimated, and Prioritized (DEEP).

Proactively identified, resolved and/or escalated impediments within the scrum team to the management for resolution.

Organized knowledge transfer sessions among my team members so that they could become generalized specialists, which in turn improved the product development process.

Created and followed up on sprint retrospective action items, which led to continuous improvement of the scrum team.

Facilitated the estimation of user stories where the development team assigned story points to user stories based on their level of complexities, unknown and efforts.

Identified opportunities for cross-collaboration across the teams within the organization, which made the development process more efficient.

Ensured team's trust and safe environment where problems could be raised without fear of blame or being judged.

Supported and worked closely with the Product Owner, development team and stakeholders in applying the scrum framework.

Participated in the PI planning where I facilitated the breakout sessions for my teams, helped them identify and resolve dependencies and risks.

Ensured that my team participated in the program backlog ahead of the PI planning where they got insights about the potential features for the next PI.

Participated in the Scrum of Scrums where I provided updates on the progress of my team towards the PI objectives.

Participated in the Inspect & Adapt session for the ART, especially the problem-solving session where we analyzed and determined the root causes of our issues.

Wells Fargo Bank

Brokerage associate & Business advocate 02/2014 - 01/2019

Created a good liaison between financial advisors and affluent customers to facilitate a smooth transaction after uncovering customer investments needs.

Provided a full range of banking services to individual and business customers, emphasizing personal financial assessment and customer service.

Proactively met with customers face to face and over the phone to discover their financial needs and provided product and service recommendations.

Assisted with all new accounts (affluent and Business) and deposits.

Conducted individual financial analysis to determine appropriate loan and credit options.

Furnished program and product information to all new and existing clients as requested.

Designed and proposed sales and promotional campaigns to enhance client base.

Upheld bank security policies and procedures in all conducted business.

Maintained and updated customer profiles on a regular basis; cross sold consumer and business deposit and loan products that assist in retaining and expanding the relationship with new and existing clients.

Developed and maintained relationships with partners (financial advisors, mortgage specialist, merchant services, business banking) to maximize sales opportunities and achieved sales standards with the goal of acquiring 100% of the client’s financial services.

EDUCATION:

Master of Business Administration in Finance – Strayer University

Bachelor of Science- Economic Management – University of Bamako, Mali

CERTIFICATIONS:

PSM 1: Professional Scrum Master Maryland Life & Health license

CSPO: Certified Scrum Product Owner Series 6 & 63

US Air Force Reserved: Secret Clearance

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