Scrum Master Continuous Improvement

Seasoned Agile consultant with over ** years of experience championing Agile principles across government, healthcare, and global enterprise environments. Recognized for driving continuous improvement, maximizing value delivery, and removing impediments to enhance team performance. Skilled at facilitating Scrum events, coaching Agile teams, and fostering cross-functional collaboration to achieve measurable outcomes. Proven track record of leveraging Lean Six Sigma and SAFe frameworks to streamline processes, reduce waste, and elevate delivery efficiency.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA) Scrum Master 01/2023 – Present

●Held Public Trust Security Clearance for Role Functions and Deliverables.

●Facilitate Scrum Events for two development teams (Scrum-based), ensuring consistent Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives to maintain a continuous improvement culture.

●Coached Teams & Stakeholders on Agile principles and best practices, increasing team velocity by 20% through transparent communication and shared ownership of goals.

●Removed Impediments & Bottlenecks by collaborating with engineering, QA, and operations teams, reducing average support ticket resolution time by 25%.

●Enhanced Flow & Quality by tracking sprint metrics (burn-down charts, velocity) in Jira and driving actionable insights during Retrospectives, leading to a 30% reduction in defects.

●Fostered Collaboration & Alignment with the Product Owner and key stakeholders, encouraging open communication and timely feedback loops that improved sprint predictability by 15%.

●Championed Continuous Learning, organizing Agile workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions to reinforce Scrum values and support cross-functional skill development.

Cigna Scrum Master 06/2017 – 01/2023

●Led Daily Scrum Ceremonies for two cross-functional teams building provider-focused healthcare solutions, maintaining a high degree of transparency and alignment on sprint objectives.

●Optimized Sprint Planning & Reviews, ensuring accurate estimation, effective backlog refinement, and timely identification of dependencies, cutting last-minute scope changes by 40%.

●Coached Team Members in self-organization and agile mindset, facilitating training on effective user story writing and acceptance criteria to drive clarity and reduce rework.

●Streamlined Workflow by introducing Kanban practices for support tasks, integrating them with Scrum sprints, and reducing context-switching for developers.

●Monitored Agile Maturity, using metrics (velocity, defect rates, cycle time) to identify process improvement opportunities, ultimately increasing team productivity by 20%.

●Facilitated Stakeholder Engagement via regular demos and open forums, increasing provider network adoption of new features by 15% and building strong collaborative relationships.

Exxon Mobil Product Owner 10/2012 – 06/2017

●Prioritized complex backlog in Jira to deliver high-value features for geoscientists and engineers, aligning with upstream oil/gas needs.

●Collaborated with SMEs to define user stories, documenting requirements in Confluence to achieve a 90% sprint completion rate.

●Improved operational efficiency by 25% by implementing automation-focused features to replace manual processes.

●Led sprint reviews and iteration planning, tracking progress in Jira to ensure stakeholder visibility into timelines.

●Influenced cross-functional teams to adopt Agile practices, training them on Jira to enhance delivery speed.

Ticketmaster Project Manager 09/2000 – 10/2012

●Steered Multiple Software Projects focused on ticket inventory management and seating optimizations, transitioning teams to Agile practices.

●Introduced Scrum Ceremonies across product lines, cutting project overruns by 20% and boosting on-time delivery by 30%.

●Managed a Cross-Functional Team of 15, coordinating developers, QA, and operations to speed up feature rollout and reduce bottlenecks.

●Increased Ticket Inventory Turnover by 15% by implementing advanced seating algorithms and refining release cycles.

●Mentored 5+ Junior PMs, imparting Agile best practices and stakeholder management strategies, resulting in a more capable and autonomous project team.

Key Skills

●Agile & SAFe: SAFe 6.0, Scrum, Kanban, PI Planning, Lean Portfolio Management

●Product Ownership: Backlog Prioritization, User Story Writing, Acceptance Criteria, Stakeholder Demos

●Digital Transformation & AI: ChatGPT/OpenAI API, AI-Driven Process Automation, Data Analytics

●Enterprise Agile Tools: Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow

●Leadership & Strategy: Executive Coaching, Stakeholder Engagement, Portfolio Governance

●Process Optimization: Lean Six Sigma, Agile Governance, Risk Mitigation

Education

●Bachelor of Computer Science – State University of New York @ Brockport (1997- 2000)

Certifications

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB)

Council for Six Sigma Certification

SAFe 6 Practice Consultant (SPC)

Scaled Agile

SAFe 6 Lean Portfolio Manager (LPM)

Scaled Agile

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Project Management Institute

Agile Coaching Certified (ICP-ACC)

IC Agile

Agile Product Manager

Scaled Agile

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