Michael S. McCalla
President & Founder at Lean Agile Intelligence Inc.- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Dustin Clark
I had the opportunity to work with Mike during a period of significant change within our organization as we looked to adopt agile practices in the way we work. Mike was our lead agile coach and provided support related to agile coaching, and critical agile transformation components, including scaling, assessments, and training. While working with Mike, I quickly grew to understand his expertise and passion in this space. Mike was a trusted advisor and engaged with senior leaders as we considered design and scaling options and looked to make decisions in support of our change. Overall, Mike has great ideas, based on real experience, and I sincerely appreciate his positivity and willingness to think through how to solve real business problems in the context of our organization.
Jonathan Grotell
Michael was brought in to help our development team adopt a more Agile approach to our development solutions. During his time here, he not only worked with members of our IT team, but also worked the PMO team of our key business stakeholders to help identify what Agile is and what it is not. His knowledge and enthusiasm regarding Agile methodologies and how it can be successfully used in any organization made him a well respected member of our group. His pragmatic approach to how to introduce this new mindset into our existing culture was carefully planned and considered, taking into account all parties involved, existing priorities, relationship management, etc. In addition to helping the team, he also filled in for roles on one of the projects specifically targeted for this Agile transformation. He played the role of Product Owner, and quickly was able to understand the business, the players as well as the objectives so he could not only continue coaching the team but also make decisions to enable the successful implementation of this project. I would highly recommend Michael for any company that is either looking to transition away from the typical project methodologies that often hinder adaptability or trying to identify ways to improve their current implementation of Agile!
Dustin Clark
I had the opportunity to work with Mike during a period of significant change within our organization as we looked to adopt agile practices in the way we work. Mike was our lead agile coach and provided support related to agile coaching, and critical agile transformation components, including scaling, assessments, and training. While working with Mike, I quickly grew to understand his expertise and passion in this space. Mike was a trusted advisor and engaged with senior leaders as we considered design and scaling options and looked to make decisions in support of our change. Overall, Mike has great ideas, based on real experience, and I sincerely appreciate his positivity and willingness to think through how to solve real business problems in the context of our organization.
Jonathan Grotell
Michael was brought in to help our development team adopt a more Agile approach to our development solutions. During his time here, he not only worked with members of our IT team, but also worked the PMO team of our key business stakeholders to help identify what Agile is and what it is not. His knowledge and enthusiasm regarding Agile methodologies and how it can be successfully used in any organization made him a well respected member of our group. His pragmatic approach to how to introduce this new mindset into our existing culture was carefully planned and considered, taking into account all parties involved, existing priorities, relationship management, etc. In addition to helping the team, he also filled in for roles on one of the projects specifically targeted for this Agile transformation. He played the role of Product Owner, and quickly was able to understand the business, the players as well as the objectives so he could not only continue coaching the team but also make decisions to enable the successful implementation of this project. I would highly recommend Michael for any company that is either looking to transition away from the typical project methodologies that often hinder adaptability or trying to identify ways to improve their current implementation of Agile!
Dustin Clark
I had the opportunity to work with Mike during a period of significant change within our organization as we looked to adopt agile practices in the way we work. Mike was our lead agile coach and provided support related to agile coaching, and critical agile transformation components, including scaling, assessments, and training. While working with Mike, I quickly grew to understand his expertise and passion in this space. Mike was a trusted advisor and engaged with senior leaders as we considered design and scaling options and looked to make decisions in support of our change. Overall, Mike has great ideas, based on real experience, and I sincerely appreciate his positivity and willingness to think through how to solve real business problems in the context of our organization.
Jonathan Grotell
Michael was brought in to help our development team adopt a more Agile approach to our development solutions. During his time here, he not only worked with members of our IT team, but also worked the PMO team of our key business stakeholders to help identify what Agile is and what it is not. His knowledge and enthusiasm regarding Agile methodologies and how it can be successfully used in any organization made him a well respected member of our group. His pragmatic approach to how to introduce this new mindset into our existing culture was carefully planned and considered, taking into account all parties involved, existing priorities, relationship management, etc. In addition to helping the team, he also filled in for roles on one of the projects specifically targeted for this Agile transformation. He played the role of Product Owner, and quickly was able to understand the business, the players as well as the objectives so he could not only continue coaching the team but also make decisions to enable the successful implementation of this project. I would highly recommend Michael for any company that is either looking to transition away from the typical project methodologies that often hinder adaptability or trying to identify ways to improve their current implementation of Agile!
Dustin Clark
I had the opportunity to work with Mike during a period of significant change within our organization as we looked to adopt agile practices in the way we work. Mike was our lead agile coach and provided support related to agile coaching, and critical agile transformation components, including scaling, assessments, and training. While working with Mike, I quickly grew to understand his expertise and passion in this space. Mike was a trusted advisor and engaged with senior leaders as we considered design and scaling options and looked to make decisions in support of our change. Overall, Mike has great ideas, based on real experience, and I sincerely appreciate his positivity and willingness to think through how to solve real business problems in the context of our organization.
Jonathan Grotell
Michael was brought in to help our development team adopt a more Agile approach to our development solutions. During his time here, he not only worked with members of our IT team, but also worked the PMO team of our key business stakeholders to help identify what Agile is and what it is not. His knowledge and enthusiasm regarding Agile methodologies and how it can be successfully used in any organization made him a well respected member of our group. His pragmatic approach to how to introduce this new mindset into our existing culture was carefully planned and considered, taking into account all parties involved, existing priorities, relationship management, etc. In addition to helping the team, he also filled in for roles on one of the projects specifically targeted for this Agile transformation. He played the role of Product Owner, and quickly was able to understand the business, the players as well as the objectives so he could not only continue coaching the team but also make decisions to enable the successful implementation of this project. I would highly recommend Michael for any company that is either looking to transition away from the typical project methodologies that often hinder adaptability or trying to identify ways to improve their current implementation of Agile!
Credentials
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Professional Scrum Master I
Scrum.orgNov, 2016- Nov, 2024 -
Professional Scrum Master II
Scrum.orgNov, 2016- Nov, 2024 -
SAFe Agilist
Scaled Agile AcademySep, 2014- Nov, 2024 -
Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP)
Scrum AllianceJul, 2014- Nov, 2024 -
Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management InstituteNov, 2012- Nov, 2024 -
Project Management Professional Certification (PMP)
Project Management InstituteSep, 2012- Nov, 2024 -
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Scrum AllianceFeb, 2011- Nov, 2024 -
Certified SAFe® 4 Program Consultant
Scaled Agile, Inc.
Experience
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Lean Agile Intelligence Inc.
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United States
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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President & Founder
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Jun 2016 - Present
Lean Agile Intelligence enables transformation leaders to measure and visualize transformation and ultimately accelerate the desired outcomes. Our capabilities and comprehensive measurement model create clarity on current state, next steps, and tracking towards achieving the desired outcomes of the transformation. Lean Agile Intelligence helps scale coaching capabilities, make data-driven improvement decisions, and accelerate feedback loops. Lean Agile Intelligence enables transformation leaders to measure and visualize transformation and ultimately accelerate the desired outcomes. Our capabilities and comprehensive measurement model create clarity on current state, next steps, and tracking towards achieving the desired outcomes of the transformation. Lean Agile Intelligence helps scale coaching capabilities, make data-driven improvement decisions, and accelerate feedback loops.
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Merck
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United States
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Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
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700 & Above Employee
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Lead Enterprise Agile Coach
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Nov 2018 - May 2019
Coaching executive leadership across multiple business units to stand up a new digital marketing organization, and formulate the agile transformation strategy including transformation governance, portfolio management, organizational structure, change management, and metrics. Defined an outcome driven meta-framework for the new digital marketing organization, utilizing scaling concepts from multiple sources, to create a resilient system of autonomous knowledge workers focused on the customer, flow of value, and changing market demands. Led agile adoption team, a scrum team consisting of coaches and leaders, tasked with aligning the ecosystem with agile principles so teams can optimize flow and operationalizing the process of team standup, multi team collaboration, impediment management, and measurement. Initial wave of teams led to a 30% cost decrease, 200% increase in cycle time, and an increase in customer NPS. Collaborated with Learning and Development to build out an agile practitioner curriculum to prepare people for new roles and maintain a steady stream of continuous learning Show less
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NBME
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United States
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Education Administration Programs
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100 - 200 Employee
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Enterprise Agile Coach
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Aug 2016 - Mar 2018
Assisting with Organization's Agile Transformation Assisting with Organization's Agile Transformation
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Agile Uprising
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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Board Member
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May 2016 - Sep 2017
Agile Uprising is a purpose-built network that focuses on the advancement of the agile mindset and global professional networking between leading agilists. We will remain agnostic of certifying bodies and focus purely on the advancement of the agile craft. Our network will evolve over time, and at the core our online community will remain free to join - forever. We will leverage both traditional and emerging communication and collaboration channels to explore various topics of interest with a direct focus on removing external influences from sponsors, partners and other organizations. Show less
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Macquarie Group
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Australia
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Financial Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Agile Coach
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Nov 2015 - Jul 2016
Assisted with organization Agile transformation, including implementation of enterprise bi-modal IT model with a focus on the Agility stream and business stakeholder engagement. Provided hands on coaching to multiple product scrum teams complimented by delivery of playbooks, and training workshops emphasizing lean startup principles, extreme programming practices, and the application of agile values. Assisted legacy organization with value stream mapping and lean management adoption highlighting the importance of throughput, single piece flow, WIP limits, transparency, and lean metrics. Acted as interim Product Owner for new data warehouse/business intelligence platform. Utilized agile requirement gathering techniques such as lean canvas, story mapping, and backlog grooming to propel product from ideation to execution. Leveraged role to coach and train business stakeholders and executives so they understand their roles in an agile environment. Configured Jira Agile Plugin for enterprise including standard team template, portfolio kanban board, and metric reports. Show less
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Achieving Agility
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United States
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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Owner & President
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Jul 2012 - Jun 2016
Achieving Agility is a consultancy firm that specializes in agile training, coaching, and transformations. We are seasoned agile practitioners that have helped clients optimize the flow of value to the customer and respond to change. We believe in a hands-on, pragmatic, and adaptable coaching approach that uses a blend of agile practices to find the right fit for our clients. We have introduced agility in environments ranging from small start-ups to large scale enterprise environments. At our core, we believe in creating value driven environment that fosters collaboration, continuous improvement, and trust. Show less
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Katabat
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United States
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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Agile Coach
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Jul 2015 - Nov 2015
Leading the organization’s agile transformation efforts and assisting leadership in adopting agile practices including portfolio kanban, scrum team assembly and execution, agile estimating and planning, agile metrics, and product ownership. Assisted with implementation of an agile governance model using a tiered portfolio kanban process to assist in managing the flow of work from sales leads to post-delivery support Conducted agile training program for all members of the organization. Provided hands on coaching to four newly assembled scrum teams; coaching duties included being embedded with the team for the first two sprints in order to assist with facilitation of scrum ceremonies, Jira Agile plugin setup, and backlog management and story writing. Helped Facilitate a requirements elicitation and writing workshop, and provided hands on story and acceptance criteria (Gherkin) writing assistance to product owners and business analysts. Show less
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Barclays
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United Kingdom
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Financial Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Agile Coach
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Aug 2014 - Jul 2015
Member of Agile Transformation team; coach responsible for assisting the PMO on implementing lean and agile practices including SAFe, program kanban, and agile execution governance. Assisted in re engineering flow of epics from initiation to execution by introducing lean concepts such as small batches, WIP limits, definition of ready/done, relative estimating, and agile metrics Delivered training to all levels of the organization on agile values and principals, team composition, strategic alignment, prioritization, and empiricism. Led proof of concept effort to evaluate ALM tools such as Rally, VersionOne, and Jira. After Rally was selected, responsible for tool setup, training, and roll out. Acted as Release Train Engineer for $5M program; role included release planning facilitation, dependency and risk management, impediment removal, and coordinating scrum of scrums. Assisted with adoption of “Communities of Practice” across different layers of the organization including agile project managers, scrum masters, product owners, and technology leads. Show less
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ION
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United Kingdom
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Software Development
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Scrum Master/Product Owner (Consultant)
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Jan 2013 - Jul 2014
Facilitated development of Dodd-Frank/EMIR Reporting module for reporting of FX derivatives. Role involved coaching project resources, coordinating schedule, and assisting with client on-boarding. Consulted Senior Management on implementing agile practices. Assisted in Product Owner responsibilities including monitoring industry mandates, building product road map, leading knowledge sharing sessions, demonstrating feature functionality, and overseeing client implementations. Led an Implementation Analysis process for “Central Clearing” of OTC derivatives that included industry research, client discussion sessions, and middleware (MarkitServ) product discovery. Deliverable was a published white paper distributed to ION’s client base. Mentored team of analysts during project discovery phase; gathered and analyzed regulatory reporting requirements including analysis of trade repository (DTCC & UnaVista) message specifications, reporting workflow, and message delivery mechanisms. Created Dodd-Frank/EMIR end to end automated acceptance test utilizing existing API. Show less
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Sungard Systems
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Greater Philadelphia Area
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Lead Business Analyst / Scrum Master
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Mar 2006 - Jul 2012
Managed a team of five business systems analysts responsible for client support and system enhancements for a STP Trading Solution. Management duties included performing evaluations, conducting training courses, and leading the recruitment process for new team members. Incorporated the Agile project methodology into development projects and support management so that resource velocity and project risk were more transparent. Product Owner of Agile Transformation process, gradually implementing the values and principles of scrum into everyday tasks. Created a culture which focused on continuous process improvement that resulted in a 15% increase in support issue resolution time. Served as lead Scrum Master (Scrum of Scrums), responsible for overseeing the planning, monitoring, and agile execution of multiple projects during the development cycle. Role included owning the agile transformation backlog, removing organization impediments, coaching team members and managers on agile practices, and furthering agile education. Product Owner of Acceptance Test Driven testing tool, which now serves as the foundation for test driven development and enabled 70% test coverage of system functionality. Subject matter expert for back office trade life cycle events such as confirmations, settlements, and general ledger entries generated by the STP Trading Solution. Served as Swift Solution Product Manager which included overseeing customer requests, change management, system integration, and problem resolution. Worked with stakeholders (clients, professional services, pre-sales, etc.) of STP Trading Solution to incorporate new business requirements and recommended solutions. Collaborated with product management on the design and implementation of enhancements. Executed enhancement implementation including requirement analysis, business specification documentation, test plan development and execution, and regression test integration. Show less
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Treasury System Support Manager - Assistant Vice President
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Mar 2005 - Mar 2006
Managed team within Investment/Funding Department responsible for identifying and resolving trading system issues in a multi-platform environment, and directed resolution procedures. Coordinated object implementations and testing strategies for new projects between different technical support groups and business users. Facilitated communication between MBNA and third party vendors about the status of outstanding system issues and projects. Managed team within Investment/Funding Department responsible for identifying and resolving trading system issues in a multi-platform environment, and directed resolution procedures. Coordinated object implementations and testing strategies for new projects between different technical support groups and business users. Facilitated communication between MBNA and third party vendors about the status of outstanding system issues and projects.
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FNX Limited
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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Sr Application Analyst/Account Executive
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Jul 2001 - Mar 2005
Managed the accounts of derivative trading straight through processing clients; JP Morgan/Chase, Cargill Investor Services, and Fidelity Investments. Improved client relations and proposed new business solutions, which led to revenue increase of $100,000 annually. Worked directly with client’s personnel on planning system upgrades, implementing new functionality, identifying product defects, training programs, and developing system wide quality assurance tests. Internally managed client issues and enhancements by analyzing reported problem, developing use cases, providing optimal business requirement knowledge to development, testing, and tracking resolution. Show less
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Education
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2005 - 2009
Saint Joseph's University
Master of Business Administration, Finance -
1997 - 2001
University of Scranton
Bachelors of Science, Finance
Community
