Project Management Release Manager

John R. Garcia

Preference: ***% Remote Work Only

Location: Little River, SC. 29566

Mobile: 720-***-****

E-mail: ***********@*************.***

Linked In: www.LinkedIn.com/in/JohnRGarcia654

Senior Agile Project and Release Manager

A highly diversified professional, holding certifications in Scaled Agile Framework for the Enterprise (SAFe 6.0), Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP), and Project Management Professional (PMP). Possesses exceptional expertise in Agile, Release, and Project Management coupled with extensive business operations experience in technical, engineering, analytics, and process domains. Demonstrates enthusiasm and passion while exhibiting strong interpersonal skills crucial for fostering collaboration across the Product landscape.

Showcasing adept collaboration with clients, I can evaluate architectural solutions in alignment with Agile business requirements, epics, and user stories spanning systems, hardware, and software across the project lifecycle and product roadmap. Encompassing on premise to cloud-based migrations by leveraging Lean UX principles throughout the Software Development Lifecycle. Demonstrating agility, I can swiftly pinpoint and devise solutions grounded in Six Sigma principles by employing business analysis to gain valuable insights into both small and large-scale corporate initiatives and projects.

Effectively engages stakeholders and executive leadership through thorough documentation, progress tracking, status reporting, and execution of deliverables to ensure the achievement of desired business goals. Takes on a consultative approach to facilitate the implementation and execution of solutions that elevate and propel the business from its current state to a desired future state.

Skills

Management:

Project Management Professional

Agile Certified Practitioner (Kan Ban, Scrum Board, Sprint planning, Backlog Refinement, Story pointing, Capacity Planning, Retrospective, Epic, User story writing, lean UX, Release Train Engineer, Release Management)

Business Management: (Planning, Development, P&L, Enterprise Change & Release, Agile & Scrum, Project, Program, Strategic Supplier Relationship, Strategic Planning and Forecasting, Mergers and Acquisitions)

Automation - Infrastructure as code and DevOps Internal tools and monitoring group

Technical:

Windows: Microsoft: SQL, Excel, Word, Visio, Project, Power Point, and Outlook

Coding: Atlassian: Jira JQL and Confluence, Configuration of IT and DOCSIS equipment

Testing: Jira, Confluence, Environments, Zephyr, ALM, Test Rail, Jira, Podio, Tableau, Google Analytics, Vantage, Sales Force, ICOMS / CSG / ACSR – billing systems

Applications: SaaS, PaaS, Salesforce CRM, Smartsheet, CSG, ASCR, GitLab, GitHub, Jenkins, Bitbucket, JIRA, Confluence, ALM, SAP CRM, on premise to Cloud based applications like Oracle to the Cloud, OTTC, AWS Amazon Connect, Service Now, Enterprise Remedy, Red Hat, Ansible

Professional Experience

ECCO Select, United States Department of Agriculture - Agile Project and Change Manager in The Digital Infrastructure Service Center, 01/2024 – Present: Provides Agile project management to diverse technical teams for multiple complex projects across multiple business lines simultaneously using Atlassian tools (Confluence and Jira) with automation for both Infrastructure as code and DevOps & Internal tools and monitoring group.

As an Agile Project Manager, briefs senior leaders on the technical roadmap, project priorities, timelines, progress, risks, and resource availability as well as communicating changes in expectations

As a Scrum Master, manages assigned developers and team members (including vendors) accountable for services, performance, and deliverables including administratively, capturing labor hours, approving time off, and removing conflicts or issues through Agile ceremonies and meeting delivery timelines

Leads assigned projects to completion by removing impediments within scope, priority, and projected timeline

Communicates risks, issues, and status updates across a broad range of leadership including O-CIO, Branch Chiefs, Deputy Directors, to Product Management stakeholders and personnel

As a Change and Release Manager, implements IT change tickets for scrum and project teams through formal Change Management meetings, reporting on project metrics and schedule conflicts

Pyramid Consulting, Centene Corporation - Senior Change, Release, and Deployment Manager in Contact Center Technology, 6/2023 – 12/2023: Through collaboration, we proposed, solutioned, and built a Release Management framework for Centene to standardize their activity of delivering high quality and measurable products throughout the SDLC; from initiation to the production environment. This included improved efficiencies, productivity, and risk mitigation techniques to sustain organizational agility, adeptly managing people, processes, and technology.

Transformed several work streams from Agile to a SAFe framework with new processes and Agile coaching

Collaborated and built an E2E Product and Release process to enhance coordination of deployment events, the code merging process, and managed the final release into Production environment

Ensured seamless alignment between SDLC processes and standardized release team procedures by developing and spearheading Cloud integrations and marketing strategies for Moderna and Pfizer by utilizing AWS Dev Ops and AWS Connect services with release pipelines

Configured and built release flow diagrams, audited TDD, FDR, and BRD final release deliverables

Demonstrated proficiency in the Atlassian suite: Jira, Jira Align, Advanced Jira Roadmaps, and Confluence for Product through roadmap planning and managing multiple value driven development teams into the Agile Release Train

Demonstrated expertise in automating release processes for both large-scale on-premises and cloud-based technology projects providing exceptional value to Centene customers and stakeholders

Expertly coordinated development releases and maintained the release schedule while effectively communicating with stakeholders to ensure organizational readiness for all release deployments

Demonstrated Release Communication content and scope through Salesforce CMS to reach scalable and targeted audiences of the organization

Utilized Service Now for Change Management to facilitate formal meetings to discuss, collaborate, and socialize changes for the upcoming week and release notes

S3 Strategic Staffing, Ameren - Senior Release Manager and Scrum Master in The Digital Field Experience, 06/2022 – 06/2023: Facilitated the efficient planning and execution of major releases and hot fixes through Release Management scope by ensuring defect fixes and enhancements were prioritized for upcoming releases. Monitored the progress of WIP items and aligned development resources to address cross-functional dependencies in the organization.

Participated in the role of a Senior Scrum Master dedicating significant capacity to support the release process by removing impediments, managing risks, and providing progress updates to stakeholders

Directed maintenance release preparation activities by collaborating with technical resources, IT managers, and project teams to manage implementation timelines from the technical Product roadmap

Collaborated with Quality Assurance to prepare and publish comprehensive release notes capturing the value of each release and reporting on the expected vs. delivered items

Lead retrospective meetings to gather valuable insights and lessons learned to enhance the SDLC process for future iterations

Lead Release Management support in collaboration with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Developers, and Test Leads to evaluate complexity, estimation, and capacity

Actively collaborated with developers, implementing strategies for efficient resource utilization to ensure timely delivery of release milestones

AmerisourceBergen - The Lash Group - Senior Release Manager and Scrum Master in Product Governance, 06/2020 – 06/2022: As a primary owner of the Product Governance Release Management team, my responsibilities included Agile coaching, Dev Ops auditing, Release planning, scheduling, coordinating of minor and major releases within the enterprise for the Fusion ecosystem.

Assisted Product Management with planning and prioritizing business demand from idea initiation through development, testing, and validation to ensure on-time delivery and Product Governance of Agile

Created and supported delivery of a digital transformation from waterfall to SAFe Agile framework

Organized, facilitated, and managed 7 on offshore teams through consulting of Agile coaching and performance monitoring with each change release with a goal to ensure the organization delivered quality enhancements, reduction in cycle time

Created a Product E2E release process flow from Initiation through final delivery into Production and provided a key input towards an official Enterprise level Product Governance playbook

Executed high quality integrated cross-functional plans for product releases by applying best practices through the initiation, planning, development, testing, execution, and project closure phase

Managed multiple value steams and external vendors on release deployments to meet business objectives through Product Governance KPIs

Collaborated with Product and Marketing for Release Communication publishing official AmerisourceBergen Releases through Salesforce CMS for scalability reaching targeted audiences with measurability

Directed agile teams in continuous improvement with the CI / CD pipeline to ensure release integrity aligned with Product Governance criteria to meet the definition of “Done” and ensure stakeholders were equipped with a shared understanding of all release deployments so they were conversant of any changes or impacts

Empowered Benefits or Aflac - Release Manager in Application Development, 6/2019 – 06/2020: Responsible for measuring and monitoring progress scope to ensure application releases were delivered on time and within budget. Through the Product roadmap, maintained the release schedule for all core services across service partners to lead and coordinate the Go-Live activities including the execution of the deployment plans from Product capabilities, service request backlog, and legacy applications.

Managed a Product Release roadmap encompassing scope and risk to our DevOps and Infrastructure delivery team

Maintained the release calendar to track all release deployments for CI/CD pipelines in Dev Ops and removed impediments towards the schedule focusing on a healthy release

Through planning, negotiation, and management of all pre-release activities communicated upcoming release notes to stakeholders

Implemented and conducted release readiness milestones, scope, environment gates, business go / no-go, and retrospective reviews to nurture seamless collaboration among diverse teams and locations

With collaboration, I analyzed the current code and branch merging process by fostering a culture of continuous improvement in the release process enhancing business performance and adherence to software engineering practices within our SDLC

Participated in Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings for approvals of each change

Lead and managed a virtual control room during each release deployment

Charter Communications - Agile Product Manager, Owner, and Scrum Master in Learning and Development, 9/2018 – 7/2019: Supported high-volume delivery of programs, projects, and initiatives by analyzing business and functional design requirements through the client experience. Consulted as an expert to extract the highest priorities from client initiatives to determine overall delivery for specialized training.

Demonstrated leadership in managing exceptionally intricate and cross-functional programs and projects by effectively influencing stakeholders to align L&D deliverables and estimations while consistently driving positive outcomes

Achieved success by maintaining a delicate balance between multiple L&D project plans, resources, and deliverables aligned within production processes for facilitated and non-facilitated learning through Agile framework

Executed value statements towards effective communication, knowledge management, and curriculum outputs fulfilled the behavioral change, matching the customer experience commitments by conducting post-delivery monitoring support

Implemented best practices in Change Management by establishing integration points with cross-functional teams to ensure a seamless transition of training curriculum and positioning the business for success

Through a collaborative effort, we designed a template for the procedural framework to forecast L&D deliverables ensuring training aligned to an accurate resource model on CAPEX funding for new hire training initiatives, thus creating a more sustainable Product roadmap

Charter Communications - IT Manager in Supply Chain Technology, 4/2015 – 9/2018: As the Engineering Solution Architect and Program Management lead, I helped orchestrate the business development of New Product Introduction (NPI) to the Corporate Supply Chain, encompassing both product and technical warehouse process engineering requirements following the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for delivery of an innovative TV guide and Worldbox Set-Top Box through cloud-based architecture.

Successfully deployed more than 65 iterations of software code across various products including channel guides on set top boxes across the national Spectrum footprint

Implemented Enterprise Change Management in collaboration with Software and Engineering Operations resulting in enhanced code and firmware delivery to the Supply Chain through NPI processes

Led the development strategy for Supply Chain Operations during Mergers and Acquisitions by facilitating the integration of three legacy companies to form the new company, Spectrum.

Authored comprehensive process and architectural design documents to drive operational improvement and facilitate learning and training to all Supply Chain and service partner personnel

K-Force, Charter Communications - Project and Deployment Manager in Video Product, 9/2014 – 4/2015: Implemented Operational Readiness by driving Project and Deployment Management for software releases with status updates and progress reports for the Enterprise. This collaborative effort resulted in significant cross-functional advancements towards the successful deployment of new video products. Notably, we achieved eight seamless video guide deployments, reaching 50,000 households and 80,000 set-top boxes within Charter's key market area which led to the new Spectrum live tile TV guide and new Worldbox Set-Top Box.

Delivered daily agile enterprise project status updates, ensuring executive stakeholders were well-informed of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) process

Executed the Video Product lifecycle through cross-functional roadmap planning

Engineered a testing framework and reporting strategy by constructing templates utilized by the Product Acceptance Testing team contributing to the scalability and enhancement of product delivery leading to new support teams, Systems Integrated Testing, Quality Assurance, and Market Readiness Testing, thus solidifying a comprehensive product lifecycle test suite

Through consistent cross-functional collaboration, authored a comprehensive Video Product Playbook serving as the operational readiness manual for release deployment to end-users

Contributed as a member of the Product and User Acceptance testing team by actively engaging in smoke and regression testing processes for Product milestones

Enhanced customer deployments by 75% developing and implementing a program analytical framework for market penetration; significantly improving process flow and design. This framework effectively drove customer deployments and ensured successful market penetration

Comcast Corporation - Senior Business Analyst III, Fiber Project Manager, and Telephony Engineer in Technical Operations, Delivered executive-level reporting for Engineering and Technical Operations, encompassing Products: Cable, High-Speed Internet, Fiber, and Telephony. Produced KPI dashboards for KPI and Profit and Loss analysis.

Provided comprehensive analysis and support for business cases across various programs and processes, leveraging strong business acumen to drive informed decision-making in Technical Operations and Engineering

To support effective decision-making, adeptly retrieved and aggregated data from multiple sources, enabling a holistic view of the organization's performance

Conducted in-depth investigations to identify the root causes behind metric variances observed over a given period, offering valuable insights to drive performance improvement

Collaborated closely with Senior Leadership, peers, and internal stakeholders to propose and implement business metrics for quality, aligning organizational objectives and ensuring consistent measurement of success

Education

Metropolitan State University of Denver – Denver, CO. - 2010

Bachelor of Arts - Sports Industry Operations / Business Management Minor

Grey Campus – PMI Training - 2018

PMI - Agile Certified Professional ACP - Certified

PMI – Project Management Professional PMP – Certified

American Technology, ATC – Leading SAFe 5.1 - 2023

Leading SAFe 5.1 SAFe 5 Agilist – Certified

Leading SAFe 6.0 SAFe 6 Agilist – Certified

FinOps Foundation

Implementing FinOps

Over 25 years of IT Engineering Experience!

oPMI – ACP, Agile Certified Practitioner

oPMI – PMP, Project Management Professional

oLeading SAFe 6.0

oCloud FinOps

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