Scrum Master

Ola Olaitan, CSM, SAFe POPM

T: 732-***-**** Email: ************@*****.***

Professional Summary

Experienced Agile Coach/Scrum Master with a passion for enabling teams in delivering the highest business value and customer satisfaction. With a proven track record of delivering high-quality software within Government agencies, private industries, healthcare, banking, and insurance projects, on time and within budget. I have developed a wide range of communication and interpersonal relationship skills throughout the years that has aided growth as a team player and a servant leader.

Core Skills and Competencies

AGILE Methodology

Kanban

JIRA, Version One, Visio

Software Development Life Cycle (SLDC)

Scrum Board

Scaled Agile Framework

Agile Project Management

Performing team

Data Warehousing

Agile games

Servant leadership

Removing impediments

Requirements Gathering

Scrum Ceremonies

Coaching and Mentoring

Facilitation

Team Accountability

Automated Testing

Collaborative attitude

Conflict Resolution

Problem solving

Decision Making

Value Based Prioritization

Business Analysis

Process improvement

Project Management

Iterative

Customer Focus

Openness

Honesty

Collaboration

Negotiation

Leadership

Result oriented

Data Governance

Design thinking

Backlog grooming

Sales force

Professional Experience

Cognizant Technology Solutions – Senior Consultant 05/2019 -05/2020

Prudential Insurance Co. of America – Scrum Master (Contract)

oTrained Scrum Teams and leadership on Agility and Scrum, Core Protocols, product ownership, and technical skills

oActed as Release Train Engineer during PI planning

oCoaching teams on the proper way of writing user stories using the INVEST model and ensuring stories meet the definition of “Ready” for the next sprint(s).

oManaged project using Scrum board to promote visibility and transparency within the team; thus, making the sprint backlog visible.

oManaged projects in JIRA and confluence and coached team members and resolved conflicts as at when needed

oFacilitated team level Agile processes and release train execution around requirements definition, scope, and delivery.

oAssist the release train engineer with PI planning and ART delivery

oLeveraged previous experiences and best practices with a collaborative attitude to help drive increased effectiveness in the value and quality of software.

oFacilitate training on RALLY agile management tool for new scum masters and development team

oCollaborating with Leads to assist with the program leadership team for major programs or initiatives impacting the train

oWorked with product owners on managing dependencies between the Scrum teams, third parties and release managers, or between the Scrum teams

oFacilitated the adoption of the scrum framework such as daily scrum, sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, sprint retrospective and other scrum meetings as needed.

oAssisted teams to identify, communicate and resolve or escalate impediments and issues; Run interference for non-critical unplanned work that may prevent the team from completing their planned sprint goal.

CHUBB Insurance – Scrum Master- Senior consultant (Contract).

oLed 2 scrum teams in developing and maintaining customer experience dashboards

oCoached individuals and facilitated interactions over processes and tools.

oActed as Release Train Engineer during PI planning

oRemoved barriers and impediments that are preventing the team from completing their work.

oSupport and educate the Product Owner, especially on grooming and maintaining the product backlog

oFacilitating release planning and sprint planning with the product owner and the development team.

oDrive continuous improvement through the facilitation of team and leadership retrospectives, ensuring teams effectively prioritize, plan, and execute in improvement ideas.

oExperience in Agile techniques such as User Stories, ATDD, TDD, BDD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing and Agile Games

oAbility to resolve conflicts by adhering to the scrum values such as openness, honesty, and respect.

oUtilized appropriate tools, metrics, and techniques to successfully guide the team’s progress against the sprint plan.

oHelped those outside the scrum teams understand which of their interactions with the scrum teams helpful and which ones are not.

oActed as Proxy product owner to get clarifications across to the development team within the shortest possible lead-time.

CTC Transportation Insurance Services

Scrum Master 07/2017-10/2018

On-boarded 7 new scrum teams in the software development department

Transformed teams and organizations from waterfall to Agile methodologies.

Organized and facilitated sprint planning, daily stand-up, demos, and retrospectives for new scrum teams until scrum masters were hired and onboarded

Utilized Agile Scrum practices to help the team increase their velocity by 63% within the first year of Agile adoption

Exemplifying the servant leadership role to shield the team from external distractions.

Assisted with making appropriate commitments to deliver business value through story selection, definition of tasks and estimation.

Assisted the Product Owner with documentation of User Stories using the INVEST model and making sure the acceptance criteria was clear and attainable.

Implement at least two lessons learned from each sprint retrospective into follow-up sprint to make continuous improvements in processes and with people

Removed team impediments daily to allow the team to deliver the sprint goals and deliverables.

Articulated stakeholder’s metrics to the scrum teams and accurately reported progress, risks, successes, and failures.

Amazon, Robbinsville

Scrum Master 09/2015-09/2016

Mentored and coached the teams on Agile methodology, scrum values and process

Worked closely with product owner in product backlog management and continuous delivery of features

Facilitated daily scrums and developed action plans for inventory maintenance as well as established the project timelines resulting in the increase of timely shipments by 12% (Q1).

Leveraged JIRA and Confluence to elicit and define business and technical requirements, track requirements, prioritize features, curate content, sequence deliverables into sprints, and report progress

Conducted technical training sessions regarding Agile development methods.

Assisted the Product Owner with documentation of User Stories; making them clear and stay within an acceptable criterion.

Responsible for maintenance and tracking of sprint backlog and prioritization

Provided leadership and coaching to teams to encourage adoption of good AGILE practices

Sat in scrum ceremonies to facilitate team maturation and helped to facilitate Daily Scrum, Sprint planning, sprint reviews and Sprint retrospectives

Globacom Nigeria Ltd, Nigeria

Scrum Master 08/2010-08/2015

Facilitated sprint planning, sprint reviews, daily scrums, retrospectives, stakeholder meetings, and software demonstrations.

Protected development team from outside distractions, impediments, or team conflicts, and maintain focus on sprint backlog and project timeline.

Changed the culture of software development department from waterfall to agile methodology.

Adhered to Agile initiatives through coaching and mentoring.

Acted as an agile coach throughout the state agency training and educating team members on the agile framework.

Worked closely with product owner in product backlog management and continuous delivery of features.

Direct and lead development team from project initiation through the delivery of the final product.

Provided leadership, direction, and coaching to the team to encourage adoption of good agile practices

Great Nigeria Ltd

Scrum Master 08/2009-07/2010

Worked with various IT teams responsible for the implementation and overall management of the local system physician practice EMR implementation and support systems.

Led a 12-man team of software developers, web developers, and QA testers in developing cutting-edge healthcare solutions for Health plus.

Organized and facilitate release planning, sprint planning, daily stand-up, demos, and retrospectives.

Fostered a continuous learning environment which helped teams to inspect & adapt

Managed all Scrum ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, daily Scrum Meetings, Sprint Reviews, and Sprint Retrospectives.

Ensured that teams actions were aligned with Epics, Features and Stories

Conducted technical training sessions regarding Agile development methods.

Partner with the Product Management team and business units on lightweight, living planning documents, like an Agile Product Roadmap.

Work with Product owner to groom product Backlog, story prioritization, release, and sprint planning.

Verify user stories with core team and ensure that all prioritized user stories have acceptance criteria.

Guaranty Trust Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria

IT Project Coordinator 02/2008-03/2009

Identified need for changes and revises within established guidelines/policies as appropriate.

Performed ongoing review of project status; identified project risks.

Developed, recommended, and implemented risk mitigation solutions as approved and as appropriate.

Interfaced with team members and stakeholders to anticipate and manage changes to projects such as but not limited to, technical requirements, business requirements and schedule.

Provided full cycle project controls service from initial planning through detailed scheduling and change management.

Implemented consistent planning, scheduling, and resource management processes to meet varying project sizes, scope, and needs.

Prepared task line and review it with the timeline specified on the project roadmap.

Prepared meeting agendas and took down meeting minutes.

Education and Certifications

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe POPM)

Philadelphia University

Master of Business Administration (MBA) 05/2016

University of Lagos, Nigeria

B.S. in Insurance and Risk Management 05/2008

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