P. Kurt Smith Sr. IT Management

Professional

SAFe SA, CSM

** ************ **.

Fairfield Glade, TN 38558

614-***-****

ady60m@r.postjobfree.com

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

Agile Coach / Sr. Scrum Master The Mosaic Company

08/2021 – Present

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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