Scrum Master Risk Management

Sterling Kroll

Email: *************@*****.***

Mobile: 210-***-****

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sterling-kroll-79bb0223/ Professional Summary

I am a seasoned Scrum Master with a proven track record across many industries. I enjoy enhancing team productivity, refining team processes, making data-driven decisions, managing risk and dependencies, and stakeholder satisfaction through SAFe, Agile, and Scrum methodologies. I excel in servant leadership and Agile training, significantly boosting organizational agility and project delivery efficiency. I am skilled in Agile risk management, data-driven decisions, monitoring teams' performance, project delivery, and fostering collaborative environments. Methodologies, Processes, and Compliance

● Strategic planning, Strong leadership, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum, Kanban, Timeline & financial drive, Team building, goal-oriented, Documentation, Training, Facilitating, and Communication across teams, managers, directors, and executives.

Tools

● SAFe Scrum, SAFe RTE, Agile Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, Waterfall, Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), Test-Driven Development, sprint planning, backlog refinement/grooming, daily stand-up, sprint review, sprint demo, retrospective, inspect & adapt, scrum of scrums, user stories, dependency management, risk management, communication, status progress towards goals and KPIs, velocity planning, capacity planning, sprint burndown and burnup tracking, Jira, Jira Dashboard, Jira system admin, Jira query language (JQL), Confluence, Power BI Dashboard, MIRO, Microsoft Office (MS word, excel, PPT, project, outlook, publisher, Teams), Slack, Zoom, WebEx, Google Meet, Google Docs, Smartsheets, user testing, data-driven decision-making, software development life cycle (SDLC), product development life cycle (PDLC), stalwart, curious, adaptable Skills and Languages

SAFe Agile Framework Methodologies and Best Practices Servant Leadership

Scrum Master

Agile metrics, risk, and dependency management

Adaptability

Negotiator

Team leadership

Time Management

Strategic Planning

Stalwart

Positive attitude

Team player

Dependability

Problem-solving

English - fluent

Polish - Intermediate

HTML and CSS - Intermediate

Strong Facilitation and Communication

Work History

Avalara - Scrum Master, Agile Coach

Seattle, WA - Remote 08/2021 - 09/2024

● I coordinated all Scrum ceremonies for my four teams, ensuring the implementation of SAFe Agile best practices. I identified team improvement areas, tracked and reported metrics, and managed risks and dependencies.

● I encouraged my teams to follow a release-when-ready mindset and to release at least every two weeks.

● I trained product owners, engineering managers, dev teams, and management on scrum execution best practices, giving them the team’s requirements and expectations.

● I assisted product owners and dev teams in using Miro to build wireframes and product flow charts.

● Collaborated with top management to craft a dynamic agile strategy, enhancing our organizational agility and driving impactful growth to drive team productivity by 10-20%.

● I assisted the BevAlc teams in capturing requirements, tracking the work, and delivering ahead of time the state's regulatory data retention requirements.

● I planned with the team during our innovation sprints to look for innovative solutions that we could implement to make our process, progress, and execution simpler. We built new tools to enable clients to resolve some of their issues, reduced tech debt by 60%, and implemented dozens of data-driven scrum practice improvement areas.

● I actively participated and sometimes facilitated the SAFe practice of Scrum of Scrums to discuss dependencies and risks between closely related teams.

● Negotiated with product and business teams on their priorities to deliver the largest ROI work first.

● Boosted stakeholder engagement by delivering dynamic bi-weekly status updates and actively integrating their feedback into every project iteration.

● Facilitated conflict resolution within teams to maintain momentum toward project goals.

● Oversaw projects and tracked metrics in Jira to centralize data, reflect progress, and enable data-driven decision-making.

Capital Group - Scrum Master, Lean-Agile Practitioner San Antonio, TX 11/2019 - 08/2021

● Promoted a positive work environment by encouraging open communication among staff and enhancing teamwork through team-building events focused on process improvement.

● I coordinated all Scrum ceremonies for my four teams, ensuring the implementation of SAFe Agile best practices. I identified team improvement areas, tracked and reported metrics, and managed risks and dependencies.

● Improved efficiency within the practice by proactively identifying bottlenecks in workflow processes and implementing targeted improvements using Agile best practices.

● Facilitated dynamic Scrum of Scrums meetings to tackle roadblocks head-on and share exciting progress updates, ensuring seamless coordination and collaboration across teams.

● Tracked portfolio progress using metrics and used outputs for making data-driven decisions in Jira.

● When COVID happened, I organized my teams to work fully remotely. I ensured that all tools and applications were available for the team to fulfill their responsibilities successfully. By eliminating the necessity of traveling to meetings, we increased team performance by 10%. Wells Fargo - IT Project Manager

San Antonio, TX 02/2018 - 07/2019

● Streamlined project delivery by 10% by implementing Agile methodologies and improving collaboration among team members.

● Fostered dynamic collaboration among team members to tackle complex technical challenges with efficiency and creativity to track, implement, and recover assets of Wells Fargo.

● Managed cross-functional teams to ensure efficient allocation of resources and project completion.

● Used Trello to track progress with each geographic location to handle the complexities of locations and upgrades. I ensured that my team members could visualize the progress of each location. USAA - Scrum Master, IT Project Manager, and Mainframe Systems Engineer San Antonio, TX 01/2007 - 01/2018

● Developed detailed project plans, outlining clear objectives, timelines, and deliverables for IT projects.

● Successfully navigated and oversaw project budgets to ensure alignment with our goals and timely delivery of key results, negotiated contracts with vendors that led to cost savings, and maintained a high level of service.

● Mentored and trained staff in Agile and Scrum best practices, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

● Coordinated system integration efforts by collaborating with vendors and internal teams for seamless transitions. By doing so, I reduced the portfolio expenditures by $5M year over year for the next 4 years.

● Improved system performance by identifying and resolving technical issues promptly, reducing outages.

● Analyzed system requirements and developed tailored solutions that met or exceeded client expectations.

● Coordinated with stakeholders throughout all stages of the project lifecycle.

● Successfully navigated the complexities of compliance and efficiency by renegotiating contracts and implementing innovative replacements, resulting in an impressive $25M savings on upgrades!

● Tech-led efforts to automate manual processes, saving time and errors while improving system availability. Volunteer work

● Collaborated with other nonprofit organizations to develop joint initiatives like hurricane relief that benefited the broader community.

● Supported efficient operations at a homeless shelter, preparing meals and organizing supplies. Education and Certifications

● University of Phoenix, MBA in Business Administration - 2012

● Brigham Young University Idaho, Bachelor of Science in Information Technology - 2006

● Project Management Institute - Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) - 2015

● Certified Scrum Master (CSM) - 2013

● ITIL 3 Certified (PMLG) - 2012

● Eagle Scout - 1999

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