Nkongho Akem
Location: Columbus, Ohio Email: ********@*****.*** Mobile: 614-***-****
PERSONAL PROFILE
Experience Scrum Master with years of professional experience combined both as a Scrum Master and a Project Manager. During the cause of my career, I have acquired fantastic comprehension of project management methods ranging from waterfall to Agile and its framework. I have developed high-level strategy capacity building and education sessions to facilitate team understanding and utilized my skills to aid an effective team environment, clearing impediments, encouraging team collaboration, and addressing team dynamics.
WORKING SKILLS
Business Cycles and Processes
Project Management and Processes
Influential Leadership – multidimensional
Effective communication
Collaborative and inclusive
Adaptive to change
Active Orientation
Problem-solving and mentoring
APPLICATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT TOOLS (ALM) SKILLS
Confluence JIRA MS Office Rally Agile Central Azure DevOps Miro EasyRetro
PROFESIONAL EXPERIENCE
Scrum Master November 2020 – till date Citigroup, Columbus OH
Coaching Product Owner, Business Leaders and ensuring Scrum Team adheres to Scrum principles and best practices
Facilitating daily standups, Sprint reviews and Sprint planning events to ensure full team engagement and making sure the team realizes the value from each event.
Providing information regarding team health: people, process, progress, and overall satisfaction to technology and Business Leaders.
Partnering with the Product Owner, IT delivery Lead and Business leadership to form an execution delivery plan and manage progress.
Anticipating and addressing/escalating potential or actual impediments to team delivery (cultural barriers, logistic challenges).
Collaborating with the Release Train Engineer and other scrum masters to remove impediments across collaborating teams.
Tracking and reporting on Agile team metrics (Burndown/up, velocity), escalating issues as needed.
Contributing best practices in Scrum Master Community of Practice.
Providing all support to the team using a servant leadership style whenever possible and leading by example.
Identifying and resolving gaps in skills, processes, and resources.
Assessing the Scrum Maturity of the team, organization and coaching the team to higher levels of maturity at a pace that is sustainable.
Building trust and safe environment for the Scrum team by encouraging the Scrum Team values.
Scrum Master July 2016 – October 2020 United Health, Columbus OH
Led up to two onshore and/or offshore scrum teams in moderate complexity workstreams.
Facilitated daily standups, Sprint reviews and Sprint planning events to ensure full team engagement and making sure the team realizes the value from each event.
Ensured the test environment is stable for proper User Acceptance Testing at Stakeholders review sessions.
Worked with the Product Owner to support short and long-term release planning, while maintaining a healthy team backlog ready for execution.
Shielded the teams from external influence to enable optimal functionality and productivity.
Anticipated and addressed/escalated potential or actual impediments to team delivery (cultural barriers, logistic challenges).
Collaborated with the Release Train Engineer and other scrum masters to remove impediments across collaborating teams.
Tracked and reported on Agile team metrics (Burndown/up, velocity), escalating issues as needed.
Coached teams through the exploration and adoption of agile engineering practice (e.g., test automation, CI/CD, BDD, TDD, Agile Architecture).
Contributed to best practices in Scrum Master Community of Practice.
Paid attention and adhering to audit/compliance requirements for execution.
Supported organization management to understand effective delivery of products using agile practices.
Used Rally to monitor and track project progress iteratively, assign stories to iteration, tag defects to stories and split stories to tasks.
People/Culture Director August 2011 – June 2016
Nationwide, Columbus OH
Created a template for the team members how to work on the project (working agreement).
Supported the organization in Agile transition/transformation from waterfall.
Performed comprehensive updates of the organization’s key control metrics to align with newly identified key industrial controls. Communicated client’s business requirements by constructing easy-to-understand data and process models.
Worked with team to develop standard audit processes to enhance the performance of audit fieldwork which helped minimize risk associated with issues detection.
Analysed client’s business requirements and processes through document analysis, interviews, workshops, and workflow analysis.
Participated in user acceptance to verify the client’s request are met.
Developed business architecture using requirements such as scope, processes, alternatives, and risks.
Identified new criteria for key controls and defined procedures for control reviews.
Liaised between business and technical personnel to ensure a mutual understanding of processes and applications.
Provided input into developing and modifying systems to meet client needs and develop business specifications to support these modifications.
Program Director/Project Manager September 2009 – August 2011
RCESD Cameroon, Buea Cameroon
Demonstrated sense of urgency and responsiveness to complete work and solve problems with a strong drive for perseverance when faced with ambiguity.
Performed comprehensive updates of the organization’s key control metrics to align with newly identified key industrial controls. Communicated client’s business requirements by constructing easy-to-understand data and process models.
Ensured that charitable funds are used for the purpose intended.
Analysed client’s requirements and processes through document analysis, interviews, workshops, and workflow analysis.
Participated in user acceptance to verify the project request are met.
Developed business architecture using requirements such as scope, processes, alternatives, and risks.
Identified new criteria for key controls and defined procedures for control reviews.
Participated in quarterly board meetings and provided unbiased insights and ideas from a third point-of-view, strategic plans, and internal policies.
Developed an understanding of the business, market, and industry trend.
EDUCATION/CERTIFICATION
Master of Science (Project Management)
Master of Art (Guidance & Counselling)
Bachelor of Science (Public Administration)
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Certified SAFe 5 Scrum Master (SSM)