Scrum Master Agile Coach
Resume:
P. Kurt Smith Sr. IT Agile Coach / Scrum Master
SAFe SA, CSM
Fairfield Glade, TN 38558
**********@*****.***
Summary
Established Agile Coach, SAFe Agilist, Scrum Master and Application Development Manager with over 35 years of proven Team Management, Individual development, Large corporate delivery, Agile training / mentoring, Servant leadership, and resolving conflict in both Agile and Waterfall environments. Seasoned communicator and Leader with strong risk identification and mitigation skills. Experienced facilitating effective retrospectives which influence and drive change.
Work Experience
Owner / Operator - Smith Solutions
Agile Coaching / Project Management
08/2023 - Present
Project Management consulting services:
oAgile Scrum, XP, and Kanban Certified Scrum Master
oCertified SAFe Agilist
Performed Domain Management consulting services:
oSupply Chain, Fulfillment and Store Replenishment Domains
Performed small Enterprise Automation services:
oLow cost web site development / management
oBusiness process automation and tuning solutions
Performed Legacy Development Services:
oPro C and Pro Cobol development on UNIX, Linux, Windows, Wang, IBM platforms
Provided staff augmentation and site team building.
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors
Agile Coach / Sr. Scrum Master The Mosaic Company
08/2021 – 08/2023
Agile Coach / Sr. Scrum Master The Mosaic Company Sr. Scrum Master / Agile Coach - Apex Systems (The Mosaic Company)
12/2020 – 08/2021
Coaching the Portfolio Management Office leadership and coaching staff on Agile and SAFe transformation practices
Coaching the Scrum Master core on tooling, SCRUM and SAFe practices and other related topics
Utilized team coaching competencies to build performing teams and establish sound Scrum cadences
Trained the teams in Scrum, Continuous Delivery, Built-in-Quality, Kanban and SAFe
Ensured that the agreed Agile processes/practices are followed.
Created and maintained physiological safety and team trust & live by Lean Agile Values
Facilitated various Scrum activities & represented the teams in all ART level events for alignment
Acted as servant leader to remove roadblocks reported by the team
Facilitated cross-team collaboration
Helped the teams achieve their commitments and objectives day to day and sprint-to-sprint.
Established strong working relationships with other teams across the organization to identify dependencies and align priorities and deliverables
Helped the teams in backlog creation and refinement
Helped Product Owners in running product inception workshops and User Story mapping workshops
Coached on prioritization techniques, estimations etc. as well as awareness on test & release automation practices etc.
Worked with Product Owners and Stakeholders on engagement
Agile Coach / Scrum Coach – Apex Systems (Next Era Energy)
12/2019 – 12/2020
Coaching the Scrum Master core on tooling, SCRUM and SAFe practices and other related topics
Facilitate Scrum Ceremonies like sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospective and sprint demos
Coach team members, external teams, Product Owners and Stakeholders on Agile practices
Serve as liaison between technical and non-technical departments.
Communicate with other management, developers, product managers and technical support specialists on product issues
Facilitate effective communications and collaboration among team members and across teams
Assist the Product Owner in keeping the backlog refined
Ensure cross-team coordination
Maintain relevant metrics that help the team see how they are doing
Help manage dependencies among teams and third parties
Perform other job-related duties as assigned
Preferred– 5 years’ recent work experience as a scrum master of 1-2 teams, Scrum education or certification preferred
Focus on driving IT efforts for business domains such as Field Tools
Manage vendors and budgets at the team and project level
Owner / Operator - Smith Solutions
Agile Coaching / Project Management
7/2019 – 12/2019
Project Management consulting services:
oAgile Scrum, XP, and Kanban Certified Scrum Master
Performed Domain Management consulting services:
oSupply Chain, Fulfillment and Store Replenishment Domains
Performed small Enterprise Automation services:
oLow cost web site development / management.
oBusiness process automation and tuning solutions.
Performed Legacy Development Services:
oPro C and Pro Cobol development on UNIX, Linux, Windows, Wang, IBM platforms
Provided staff augmentation and site team building.
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors
Agile Coach / Sr. Scrum Master – The General Insurance Company
7/2017 – 7/2019
Agile Transformation(s)
Stewarding change
Coaching the Scrum Master core on tooling, SCRUM and SAFe practices and other related topics
Understanding organizational and project management culture and affecting practices
Agile Coaching / Mentoring on prescribed SDLC and related frameworks
SAFe Agile training and pre-implementation
Scrum framework ceremony facilitation
Adapting XP concepts to the Scrum framework
Facilitating creative retrospectives to affect change
Agile Coach / Sr. Scrum Master – Vaco Nashville, LLC
(BMI Nashville)
2/2016 – 7/2017
Understanding the organizational and project management culture and affecting practices
Coaching/mentoring on methodology as it is implemented and used during the project development life cycle
Removing team impediments while promoting self-management
Drive agile based SDLC for software development creating necessary standards, tools, and best practices
Perform planning - Sprint, Capacity - and execute
Understanding team dynamics in order to improve productivity efficiency of Scrum teams
Participate proactively in developing and maintaining team standards, tools, and best practices
Assist with internal and external communication and improving transparency
Ensure the teams are practicing the core agile principles of collaboration, prioritization, team accountability, and visibility
Partner with all project team roles and stakeholders.
Coach and support project team members as needed.
Empower the team to self-organize where possible
Constantly improving our standards of work
Ensure sprint resource stability
Schedule and prepare for demos with team
Schedule and run Sprint retrospectives
Protect team from distractions
Facilitate discussion and conflict resolution (no triangulation)
Facilitate the prioritization and resolution of defects/bugs
Continue education in related disciplines.
Host daily stand-ups
Product backlog grooming in liaison with Product Owners (BA's)
Ensuring user stories are well formed and have clear and concise acceptance criteria in liaison with Product Owners (BAs)
Measuring sprint performance and escalating issues as needed
Track and communicate team velocity and sprint/release progress
Monitor task completion (and RTC compliance)
Agile Coach / Sr. Scrum Master – The Select Group
(Wendy’s International)
5/2015 – 1/2016
Perform Agile coaching to further help define Wendy’s overall Agile approach and best practices
Train Business Analysts to be Scrum Masters
Train Business Analysts to be Product Managers
Serve as liaison with Product Owners / Sr. Leadership on SAFe practices and Agile implementations
Develop transparency of the Agile operation to the Business Partners through Iteration / Project Reporting and Reviews
Serve as Senior Scrum Master for multiple App Dev Teams
Guide Product Managers to clearly define Acceptance Criteria
Guide the Scrum Teams toward team maturity
Influence Scrum planning towards best planning practices
Facilitate daily Scrum activities and meetings
Owner / Operator - Smith Solutions
Agile Coaching / Project Management
8/2014 – 5/2015
Project Management consulting services:
oServed as Agile Scrum, XP, and Kanban Certified Scrum Master
Performed Domain Management consulting services:
oSupply Chain, Fulfillment and Store Replenishment Domains
Performed small to medium Enterprise Automation services:
oLow cost web site development / management.
oBusiness process automation and tuning solutions.
Performed Legacy Development Services:
oPro C and Pro Cobol development on UNIX, Linux, Windows, Wang, IBM platforms
Provided staff augmentation and site team building.
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors
Iteration Manager/Solution Architect – The Gap Inc. Direct
8/2008 – 8/2014
XP Iteration Manager / Agile Thought Leader
Provide an Agile collaborative environment utilizing TDD/BDD, Pairing, Xtreme Programming and SCRUM techniques. Coach Agile concepts and benefits to team members and peers.
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors as a member of the project Lead Team.
Facilitate and empower self-organizing onshore/offshore Scrum teams (team sizes 9-24) through DONE on project stories and iterations.
Facilitate daily stand up meetings / iteration planning meetings.
Track team daily accomplishment, next commitment, blocker status.
Track project velocity and story status metrics to provide project level burn up / iteration level burn down metrics to Leadership.
Drive solid acceptance criteria/back log mgt. with Product Manager.
Drive team member engagement through Agile concept awareness coaching and team building exercises.
Recommend cross functional coordination/pairing opportunities.
Provide management of story backlog tracking tool.
Provide direct feedback / recommendations on project resources.
Projects:
oSolution Architect / Scrum Lead – Upgrade Oracle Retek WMS/interfaces from version 6i to version 11g.
oSolution Architect / Scrum Lead – Design and deliver an automated testing framework for Oracle Fusion legacy systems. Third party vendor search and negotiations to supply an automated testing tool for Oracle Forms.
oSolution Architect / Scrum Lead for IBM WebSphere WBI middleware maintenance teams – onshore and offshore.
oSolution Architect / Scrum Lead for the Retek warehouse management system (WMS).
Sr. System Analyst / Replenishment Domain SME - Goody’s Family Clothing
8/2006 – 8/2008
Project Manager of multiple projects with budgets ranging from 750k to 1.3 mil and team size(s) up to 15 people.
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors
Build / Lead cross departmental teams through maintenance and development projects.
Recommend resource development opportunities.
Provide team member engagement incentives and team building exercises.
Provide direct feedback on resource performance to resource Director for annual performance reviews / increases / promotions.
Provide project health and status metrics to Directors / CIO.
Provide Domain SME services for the Goody’s Replenishment Domain.
Projects:
oPM / SME - Implement and support the Retek WMS as a final solution for the Knoxville site.
oPM / SME - Implement a WCS (Warehouse Control System) material handling system to control carton movement throughout the building using conveyors and sorters.
oPM / SME- Design and deliver a full service warehouse location and picking system as a temporary solution to the company’s warehousing pack and hold conversion needs.
oPM / SME - Design and deliver subsequent subsystems to support the warehousing effort and needs
Owner / Operator - Smith Solutions
6/2003 - 8/2006
Project Management consulting services
Domain Management consulting services:
oSupply Chain, Fulfillment and Store Replenishment Domains
Small to Medium Enterprise Automation services:
oLow cost web site development / management.
oBusiness process automation and tuning solutions.
Legacy Development Services:
oPro C and Pro Cobol development on UNIX, Linux, Windows, Wang, IBM platforms
Staff augmentation and site team building.
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors
IT Manager of Distribution Systems - Exact Software
10/2000 - 6/2003
Manage multi-budget(s) ranging from 250k to 500k plus a department budget of 450k and team size(s) of 6-15
Develop project approach, work plan, staffing plan, and budget in concert with the key resources, resource managers, and sponsors
Resource management and team building.
Departmental budgeting
Work with HR recruiting / Consultant staffing for new hires.
Annual performance reviews / promotion and salary increase recommendations.
Recommend resource development opportunities.
Provide team member incentives and team building exercises.
Drive excellence in the distribution engineering team through various phases of development of the new Enterprise Suites ERP software package / provide project(s) reporting.
Lead Consultant - Compuware Inc.
6/1998 - 8/2000
Technologies: DEC/VAX FORTRAN
Owner / Operator - Smith Solutions
5/1994 - 6/1998
Technologies: MicroFocus COBOL
Sr. Programmer / Analyst - Nationwide Insurance
2/1988 - 5/1994
Technologies: C, WANG COBOL, IBM MainFrame COBOL
Programmer - Sterling Software, Inc.
1/1987 - 2/1988
Technologies: WANG COBOL
Programmer - Contronics Corporation
6/1985 - 1/1987
Technologies: DOS, Basic, Quickbasic, and MicroFocus COBOL
Education
Certified SAFe Agilist (SA) 2018 through Scaled Agile, Inc.
Certified Scrum Master since 2012 through The ScrumAlliance
2014 Keller School of Business Management
Some work on MBA
2012 Devry
BSBA – Business Technical Management
1986 Marion College
Associate Degree – Applied Data Processing
References available upon request
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