Ahmed Siddiqui S
Phone: 718-***-****
**********@*****.***
http://linkedin.com/in/ahmed-shawez-certified-scrum-master-professional-886aa4201
SUMMARY
Over 10 years of professional experience as a Scrum Master, Business Analyst and Project Manager with exposure to various domains such as Healthcare, Finance, Transportation and Insurance.
Led as the driving force for enhancements to services, processes, and organizational effectiveness with experience in a highly regulated environment to create platforms that meet strict compliance objectives.
Strong written and verbal communication skills. Experience in facilitating and leading multidisciplinary teams while maintaining healthy working relationships with business partners.
Demonstrated strong analytical, presentation and problem-solving skills.
Mapping and linking business objectives to existing business process flows and designing future-proof processes using best practices and domain expertise.
Comfortable serving as a liaison between client area and technical organization by planning, conducting, and directing the analysis of complex business processes.
Experience in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodologies like Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, RAD, and RUP
Proficiency in conducting GAP, Cost-Benefit, Risk and Impact Analysis.
EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS
Bachelor of Science in Business Computers Information Systems (St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, 2003)
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITILV3) 2013
Certified Scrum Master (CSM) 2015
Safe Scrum Master (SSM) 2020
Project Management Professional (PMP) 2010
TECHNICAL SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Project Management & Business Analysis
Test Planning and User Acceptance Testing,
Agile / SCRUM/(SAFe), Waterfall methodologies
MS Office Tools including Visio for developing process maps.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
OneAmerica
Senior Scrum Master/Project Manager 2023Apr- Present
Provided coaching and mentoring team members on Scaled Agile principles and provided guidance on the methodology.
Ensure the agile team members practice and engage in the Scaled Agile processes.
Improved team velocity by incorporating capacity planning into iteration planning sessions.
Established and improved the team's velocity by invoking methods like pull in work from the team backlog.
Work closely with the Product Owner in defining iteration goals and ensuring team is on track for planned work.
Provide energizer games and collaborative retrospectives to enhance team output.
Assist team in making appropriate commitments through user story selection and task definition.
Provide iteration status reports and burndown charts to management.
Remove internal and external impediments.
Facilitate discussion and conflict resolution to improve team productivity.
Track and communicate team velocity and iteration progress to all affected teams and management.
Created a dashboard in Kanban to track iteration history, iteration goals, WIP, and impediments.
Participate in Iteration Planning, facilitated Daily Stand-Up meetings, provided one-on-one coaching, and removing of impediments around the adoption of SalesForce application.
Bank Of America 2022 June – 2023 March
Scrum Master/Project Manager
Responsibilities
Work closely with product owners for backlog grooming and priority setting and coached them on the principals of SCRUM.
Conducted Agile ceremonies such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, story sizing, sprint retrospective and PI planning sprint closure and SCRUM of SCRUM (SOS).
Manage JIRA to track and monitor project backlog and team deliverables.
Track and communicate Agile metrics which include team velocity and sprint program Increment (PI) progress within Scale Agile Framework.
Planned and managed Integration, System, Regression, Performance, and UAT for Production Release and integration.
Coordinated as the Scrum master to ensure timely delivered of the components of application for QA and Testing.
Created and maintained Requirement Traceability Matrix (TRM) to track, and manage application development.
Coach scrum team(s) to deliver capabilities using agile practices while also following Software
Development Life cycle, business process mapping, and various release processes as appropriate to
ensure all risk, security, and development requirements are met.
Partner with Product Owner(s) to ensure continuous refinement of backlog, which may include User
stories from multiple projects.
Identifies skills and competencies of scrum team members and adjusts accordingly to promote
development and highly effective team.
Report timely progress of Sprint via burn down/burn up charts and other reporting methods to
Product Owners and stakeholders involved.
Walgreens, New York, NY 2021Mar – 2022May
Scrum Master/Project Manager
Responsibilities
Gathering and updating project materials, project documentation, business flows for the RFT team
Scheduling and allocating work, providing advice and guidance, and resolving problems to meet technical performance for My Inventory application.
Coordinate all Scrum Ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint retrospectives, Sprint Demos, Story Grooming, and Release Planning
Work closely with Product Owners within the SAFe framework to ensure that stories aligned and were prioritized based on Value Drop objectives at the Program level.
Protect development team from outside distractions, impediments, or team conflicts, and maintain focus on product backlog project timeline.
Work closely with project business in backlog management and continuous delivery of features.
Educate and reinforce scrum methodology and agile framework to team members and stakeholders for RFT team.
Managed project scope to ensure delivery was compliant with scope commitment.
Tracked and managed product backlog, burndown metrics, velocity, and task breakdown.
Addressed problems through risk management and contingency planning.
Manage JIRA to track and monitor project backlog, Epic, user stories, sprint, and team deliverables.
Plan and manage Integration, System, Regression, Performance, and UAT for Production Release and integration.
United Healthcare Group, New York, NY 2017Jan -2020Apr
Scrum Master
Responsibilities
Manage and facilitate Release Planning with Product Owner for MMIS and Vision Claim management systems to scope and map sprints in the release.
Provide servant leadership to improve team dynamics, promote team collaboration and remove roadblocks.
Facilitate SCRUM ceremonies including daily standup meetings to discuss progress, accomplishments, and roadblocks.
Facilitate and host the sprint review and show-tell events. Ensure all product owners and other stakeholders are included in the process for feedback and discussions.
Facilitate sprint planning meetings. Conduct story grooming sessions for backlog refinement, sizing and prioritization.
Participate in the Scrum of scrums updates and ensure blockers are properly reported to the product team.
Provide coaching and mentoring Business Analysts, and Product team to write proper user stories using INVEST model
Provide necessary coaching and help team members to ensure maximum productivity is resulted out of the sprint
Do liaise with internal, external teams or vendors to resolve impediments
Participate and contribute to the Community of Practice and Community of Excellence that keep a check on agile standards and practices across organization.
Provide necessary coaching and help team members to ensure maximum productivity is resulted out of the sprint.
Use agile tool (JIRA) to track the daily work (user stories). Create filters and dashboards for the product team or the project management team to get the updates/statuses/progress directly from the tool
NYC/Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NY
Scrum Master 2015May-20217 Jan
Responsibilities
Serve as a Scrum Master for implementation of the new ticket system to ensure team matures into a Scrum Framework.
Coach and mentor development team, product owners and stakeholders on the Agile mindset
Facilitate Sprint Planning, Backlog Refinement, Stand-Ups, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives
Shield team from distractions and scope creeps; Coordinate with parallel/dependent teams
Configure project in JIRA including custom workflow, boards, filters and reports
Manage Product Owners’ expectations by clearly defining Sprint Goals.
Work closely with PO and BAs to select work items for the upcoming sprint
Ensure that all user stories and defects are documented according to an uniform template
Involve Development team into Sprint Planning and estimation ceremonies
Keep development team on-track by focusing everyone’s work on the Sprint Goals
Ensure all User Stories are linked to the detailed requirements in Confluence and FRDs
Identify, triage and manage resolution of impediments and QA issues
Identify opportunities for team’s performance improvement through sprint retrospectives
Develop and analyze KPI reports like “Team’s Velocity” and “Sprint Burn-down”
Foster agility in the team through conversations, coaching, and role-playing exercises see less
Merck Pharmaceutical, NJ 2008Jan-2015 Mar
Project Manager/Scrum Master
Responsibilities
Trained and transitioned into SCRUM Master role to adapt to the new agile framework introduced by Merck.
Facilitate and ensure sprint ceremonies occur and are productive, valuable and efficient.
Guide distributed Agile teams and the organization on how to use Agile/Scrum practices.
Identify and remove daily impediments.
Support and educate the Product Owner and Analysts, especially on grooming and maintaining the product backlog.
Provide support to the team using a servant leadership style whenever possible and leading by example.
Lead the Scrum Master Guild, which meets monthly to exchange ideas & new approaches.
Responsible for the detailed vision, roadmap and rollout of the new Spend Radar / Data Manager module.
Gather requirements from customers through one-on-one conversations, focus groups, and user group meetings.
Collaborate with a cross-company team to prioritize product features and scenarios.
Remove any impediments blocking the team’s goals and provided status transparency to the Executive team.
Standard Chartered Bank, New York, NY 2005Feb-2008Jan
Business Analyst
Responsibilities
Identified, evaluated, and documented business needs, objectives, operational processes and requirements.
Recommended operational, process improvements based on efficiencies and available technologies.
Produced documentation, including project plans, analytical reports, decision backup, information research reports, budget analysis, training plans, business justifications, and graphics.
Modeled Use Case Diagram, Sequence Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, and Class Diagrams by using UML/MS Visio.
Coordinated data modeling reviews, development, functional testing, user acceptance, and system deployment.
Assisted project manager in Project Charter, Project Plans, and Milestone Tracking using MS Project
Gathered Business Requirements by effective interactions with the clients/users
Diageo/IBM (Contractor)
Norwalk, CT 2003April-2005 Jan
Junior Business Analyst
Responsibilities
Identified process requirements, monitored process implementation, evaluated process related issues, and identified needed corrective and preventive actions
Prepared necessary reports, interacted and coordinated with all levels of staff including senior management
Enforced document control procedures for maintaining control within the Quality Management System
Collected and analyzed data to detect deficient processes, or non-compliance regulations, and management policies
Ensured compliance with established internal control procedures by examining records, reports, operating practice. Prepared detailed reports on audit findings that can be reported
Successfully completed other writing, extensive research and analytical assignments required independent learning.