Scrum Master Continuous Improvement

Sonal Patel

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

Contact Number: 551-***-**** US Citizen

Professional Summary:

Skilled Senior Scrum master with 10 plus years of IT experience in building high performing teams while enabling organizational level Agility and delivering customer centric value

Profound understanding of SDLC and Agile methodology, and various Agile frameworks

Able to assist organizations on adapting to Agile mindset and frameworks- Scrum, Scaled Agile (SAFe), Kanban, LeSS

Successfully lead and mentor numerous cross-functional teams, facilitating their adoption of Agile methodologies and promoting a culture of continuous improvement

Facilitate the delivery of multiple high-visibility projects on time and within budget, exceeding stakeholder expectations and achieving high customer satisfaction ratings

Implement and refined Scrum and Agile best practices within the organization, resulting in increased team productivity, faster time-to-market, and improved product quality

Develop and deliver comprehensive training programs on Agile principles, Scrum framework, User story writing, backlog management and related tools to educate and empower teams across the organization

Collaborate closely with product owners, stakeholders, and development teams to prioritize and manage product backlogs, ensuring alignment with business objectives and maximizing customer value

Enable best engineering practices within the teams- Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavioral Driven Development (BDD) and Pair programming

Expert in bringing teams together by establishing Definition of Done (DoD), Definition of Ready (DoR) and Working Agreements

Implement DevOps practices, reducing software development cycle time by 30% and increasing deployment frequency by 40%

Introduce and champion Agile metrics and reporting mechanisms to track team performance, project progress, and overall process improvements, enabling data-driven decision-making

Contribute to the growth and maturation of Agile practices within the organization by actively participating in community of practice forums, presenting at industry conferences, and sharing knowledge and insights with peers

Certifications:

Certified Scrum master (CSM)

Certified SAFe Scrum Master (SSM)

Certified SAFe Product Owner/ Product Manager (POPM)

Tools:

JIRA Align

Azure DevOps (ADO)

JIRA (JQL)

Confluence

Rally

VersionOne

Access (SQL)

Education:

Stevens Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Engineering- Chemical Engineer (Dean’s List) (GPA: 3.7)

Professional Experience:

Prudential Financial, Inc October 2023- Current

Sr. Scrum Master

Lead two Scrum and two Kanban teams in delivering high-value quality products using Agile methodology and mindset

Collaborate with the Agile Release Train (ART) stakeholders, including Product Owners, Scrum Teams, System Architects, and Tech Leads, to understand the objectives, priorities, and dependencies for the upcoming PI

Facilitate PI Panning readiness by preparing the teams for the PI events.

Organize and facilitate Scrum Ceremonies during every sprint- Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Backlog Refinements, Sprint Reviews, Sprint Demos, Sprint Retrospectives

Facilitate effective communication and collaboration between teams, departments, and stakeholders, promoting transparency and ensuring alignment of project goals and expectations

Continuously assist team members to identify proper Subject Matter Experts to help resolve impediments and ambiguities.

Support and promote an effective feedback culture based on the Scrum values, Train, Coach, and Mentor team members

Expertly utilize Jira to manage and prioritize product backlogs; Create and Configure Jira boards per team’s requirement; and Customize Jira Dashboards to Summarize and Visualize team’s performance and project’s progress.

Optimize Scrum teams’ velocity to identify improvement opportunities and achieve higher levels of team performance

Maintain team’s artifacts in Confluence to ensure visibility and knowledge transfer for the ART

ExxonMobil November 2021- September 2023

Sr. Scrum Master

Lead two Scrum teams in delivering high-value quality products using Agile methodology and mindset

Coordinate inter-team collaboration and help teams operate well on team and program level

Work closely with other Scrum Masters (Meta Scrum/Scrum of scrums) on ART level, and actively facilitate Agile Community of Practice (ACP)

Ensure that the necessary logistics, tools, and resources are available for the PI planning event. Communicate the agenda, goals, and expectations to the participants in advance

Work with Product owners and teams to align on product vision by building roadmaps, meeting PI objectives, and sprint goals

Ensure Product Owners' effectiveness by helping maintain the Product Backlog and ensuring User Stories are detailed enough and meeting the Definition of Ready (DoR)

Deliver capabilities using agile practices while also following the Software Development Lifecycle, business process mapping, and various release processes as appropriate to ensure all risk, security, and development requirements are met

Promote and advocate a culture of continuous improvement, set goals and milestones, and be accountable for them

Create and configure Jira boards, workflows, and custom fields to tailor the tool to the specific needs of the agile teams, optimizing their workflow and efficiency

Collaborate with product owners and stakeholders to define user stories, acceptance criteria, and epics within Jira, enabling effective backlog management and refined prioritization

Fidelity Bank August 2016 – November 2021

Sr. Scrum Master

Facilitate and participate in all relevant team and program level events across for two product squads

Partners with Product Owner(s) to ensure continuous refinement of backlog, which may include stories from multiple projects. Assist the Product Owner with the Product Backlog

Used empirical data to help the teams assess their Scrum Maturity, optimize scrum team velocity to organizational KPIs, and identify improvement opportunities to achieve higher levels of team performance

Proactively addressed systemic impediments to team agility and guided the team(s) to escalate when needed to prevent challenges from becoming blockers.

Helped the team develop processes to run and deliver application program increments. Solved other administrational impediments, planning, and reporting on team progress and agile metrics

Worked with the Product Owner/Business team in effective Pre-Planning

Prepared Internal Team Milestones with dates (Ex: Coding complete and code checked in, User Guide/Release notes inputs complete, demo with PO/Business team etc.) and ensures they are in line with the Breakthrough dates

Facilitated the team’s progress toward team goals - Plan and track the teams progress regularly to ensure PI commitments are met

Merck June 2013- August 2016

Scrum Master

Worked with project teams to Analyze current systems and processes and design a strategy for the adoption of agile best practices

Guided teams to stay on track with agile techniques, fine-tuning approaches as needed to ensure the overall strategy is being met

Partnered with discipline managers about governance policies and adherence to corporate standards

Supported the Product Owners, especially with the objective to refine and manage the respective product backlog

Facilitated learning and development through individual and team coaching

ExxonMobil February 2012- June 2013

Project Manager

Coordinate and support the planning, execution, and monitoring of various projects, ensuring adherence to project timelines, budget, and quality standards

Assist project managers in developing project plans, including defining project scope, objectives, deliverables, and resource requirements

Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by analyzing project data, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing process enhancements

Liaise with clients, vendors, and stakeholders to address project-related queries, resolve issues, and maintain strong relationships with all

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