Agile Coach Continuous Improvement

JAMES GROSS

443-***-**** ***********@*****.*** Catonsville, MD 21228

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Strategic and results-driven Senior Agile Coach and Program Manager with a proven track record of driving enterprise Agile transformations and enhancing organizational agility. Certified SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC) with expertise in Agile Release Trains (ARTs), Lean Portfolio Management, DevOps, and continuous delivery best practices. Adept at coaching cross-functional teams, scaling Agile frameworks, and aligning Agile strategies with business objectives to accelerate delivery and maximize value. A passionate advocate for Agile culture, servant leadership, and organizational change management, fostering high-performing teams through tailored coaching and mentorship.

EXPERIENCE

Agile Coach, eSimplicity (Oct 2023 - Feb 2025)

Coached a 5-team Agile Release Train (ART) at CMS, streamlining Agile processes and increasing value delivered by 10-20%.

Led the Agile transformation of a new DevOps Agile Release Train, conducting hands-on coaching and facilitating their first Program Increment (PI) Planning.

Championed OKR- and KPI-driven Agile execution, ensuring teams delivered high-impact business value through data-driven Agile maturity assessments.

Spearheaded the establishment of an Agile Community of Practice (CoP) to foster Agile adoption, knowledge sharing, and enterprise-wide alignment.

Mentored Scrum Masters and RTEs on facilitation techniques, including pair programming, Work in Progress (WIP) limits, and Agile Release Train (ART) synchronization.

Navigated a complex high-priority team through unplanned work by applying Tuckman’s stages of group development, reducing bottlenecks and improving adaptability;

Sr. Agile Coach, Octo (Apr 2022 – Oct 2023)

Orchestrated a large-scale Agile transformation at Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), leading multi-team coordination in a Lean-Agile enterprise environment.

Conducted executive coaching sessions for senior leadership, product managers, and stakeholders, aligning Agile methodologies with enterprise goals and customer-centric outcomes.

Customized Agile methodologies (SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, XP) to fit organizational needs, accelerating product delivery by 30 days on average.

Designed and facilitated Agile workshops and training programs, equipping teams with Agile mindset principles, backlog refinement best practices, and DevOps integration strategies.

Championed Player-Coaching, engaging directly with teams to reinforce agile values and optimize delivery pipelines.

Release Train Engineer & Agile Coach, Research Innovations Inc (Mar 2021 – Apr 2022)

Established a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence, embedding best practices across three Agile Release Trains (ARTs).

Restructured ART value streams, improving flow efficiency and reducing lead time to delivery.

Led the adoption of Kanban and SAFe methodologies to scale Agile across CI/CD-integrated teams, driving faster, more predictable releases.

Standardized PI ceremonies (PI Planning, Review/Demo, and Retrospectives), increasing cross-team collaboration and transparency.

Designed an Agile CoP to improve Agile coaching effectiveness and encourage knowledge-sharing across leadership levels.

Transformed backlog refinement processes with formal planning poker in Jira, improving story point accuracy and delivery predictability;

Agile Coach, Makpar Corp (Jan 2019 - Mar 2021)

Spearheaded Agile transformation efforts for a large-scale government program, coordinating multiple teams in a Lean-Agile enterprise environment.

Designed and led an Agile Community of Practice (CoP), fostering cross-functional learning and Agile maturity growth across teams.

Conducted coaching workshops for Agile teams, senior leadership, and stakeholders, tailoring Agile methodologies to optimize program delivery.

Partnered with the IRS Agile Central team to extend Agile best practices across the agency, increasing adoption and alignment with federal Agile mandates.

Established Scrum of Scrums and cross-team collaboration mechanisms, ensuring efficient dependency management and risk mitigation.

Introduced iterative release cycles, reducing time to market and enhancing customer value delivery;

Quality and Operations Manager, Itnova LLC (Sep 2014 – Dec 2018)

Led quality management for the $84M New Voting System Replacement (NVSR) project, overseeing process optimization for statewide voting system replacement in Maryland.

Managed and mentored a 16-person QA test and support team, improving testing efficiency and accelerating deployment readiness.

Optimized QA testing for 8,500+ hardware units, completing testing ahead of schedule for the 2016 Primary and General Elections.

Achieved a 50% reduction in equipment failure rate through comprehensive test strategies and proactive risk mitigation.

Maintained ISO 9001:2015 compliance, ensuring process rigor and continuous improvement in quality standards;

QA Lead, Ameritox Ltd (Jan 2011 – Sept 2014)

Led QA efforts for web, iPad, and proprietary software applications, increasing software quality by 15% through enhanced test automation and manual testing.

Managed HL7 integration projects for EHR/EMR systems, ensuring seamless interoperability and compliance with healthcare data standards;

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Dec 1998)

McDaniel College, Westminster MD

SKILLS

Agile & Leadership

Agile Transformation & Change Management

Enterprise Agile Coaching & Agile Maturity Assessments

Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) & Value Stream Mapping

Agile Release Train (ART) Execution & Program Increment (PI) Planning

SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, XP, DevOps, TDD, BDD, & Continuous Delivery

Technical & Tools

Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, Version One, Rally, TFS

Agile Roadmap Planning & OKRs/KPIs

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Implementation

Data Analytics

Backlog Management, Refinement & Prioritization

Organizational & Team Development

Servant Leadership & Mentorship

Budget Management & Cost-benefit analysis

Stakeholder & PMO Engagement

Agile Community of Practice (CoP) Leadership

Executive Coaching & Agile Training Delivery

CERTIFICATIONS

SAFe 6 Practice Consultant (SPC)

SAFe 6 Release Train Engineer (RTE)

SAFe 6 Agilist (SA)

SAFe 6 Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)

SAFe 6 Government Practitioner (SGP)

SAFe 6 Advanced Scrum Master (ASM)

Professional Kanban (PK1)

Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Leadership (CAL-E, CAL-T, CAL-O)

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