Agile Trainer and Consultant

• Jul 2023 - Present

Training delivery of IC Agile training offerings, including Agile Fundamentals, Product Ownership, Product Management, Agile Project Management and Agile Team Facilitation. Training delivery of IC Agile training offerings, including Agile Fundamentals, Product Ownership, Product Management, Agile Project Management and Agile Team Facilitation.

Agile Coach and Trainer

• Mar 2023 - Present

Involved with delivering part-time coaching engagements to help build and strengthen organizations capabilities in Scrum, Kanban, Product Ownership, and other Agile practices. Available to partner with individuals and teams to share my numerous experiences in the agile transformation and business agility adoption space. When not providing agile coaching and consulting, I partner with multiple organizations to deliver SAFe training as a certified SAFe SPC. I am enabled to deliver Leading SAFe, SAFe for POPM, SAFe for Scrum Master and SAFe for Teams. Reach out to learn more about how ThinkLouder can be your partner in empowering teams to deliver value, be more effective, reduce complexity, or scale Agility across teams. In addition to our "ready to go" training, we are happy to connect you with our precision coaching, tailored training, and other custom coaching solutions. Show less

President

• Mar 2023 - Present

Freelance Agile training and consulting. Freelance Agile training and consulting.

Manager II at PwC - Consulting Solutions - Service Transformations

• Nov 2021 - Mar 2023

As a manager in PwC's Consulting Solutions practice. My role was leading our engagement teams in helping our clients, large financial and/or insurance services firms, better serve their customers by transforming their operations and operating models. In particular, I had a focus in helping clients design, adopt and scale agile methods, frameworks and ways of working. Engaged in the capacity of an agile coach with multiple clients spanning the insurance, finance and banking industries. Partnered with client resources to stand up numerous scrum and Kanban teams within a "team of teams" organizational structure managed by an epic level program backlog. Delivered structured bootcamp training deliveries for teams and took the lead on the implementation of all team of teams level events (PO Sync, scrum of scrums, etc...). Delivered multiple SAFe (Leading SAFe, POPM SAFe and SAFe for Scrum Masters) and non-SAFe training/certification courses, both internally to PwC staff and to external clients. Show less

Agile Coach II

• Oct 2018 - Nov 2021

• Provide guidance to multiple Scrum Masters and teams on how to transition to and operate in scaled (or non-scaled) delivery environments and how to resolve complex problems, growing capability across the organization. • Include direct support of work mobilization activities (e.g., road map development, functional decomposition). • Provide coaching plans and strategies to teams and individuals. • Help teams anticipate internal and external delivery challenges and find solutions through process, product or service improvements. • Leverage significant in-depth expertise in Agile to help Scrum Masters resolve complex problems, taking a broad perspective to identify unique and innovative solutions, interpret internal and external obstacles and recommend best practices. • Drive continuous improvement of Agile practices and processes with an influence on industry best practices • Establish goals and objectives and contribute to the team's overall direction; • Provide mentoring, coaching, listening, providing feedback and performance management • Coach individuals and teams on Jira and Confluence. • Demonstrate adaptability, flexibility and creativity in my approach to stakeholder engagement and work to support the Agile transformation agenda. • Support business and technology ownership to ensure their ability / agile competencies to complete key activities required for agile delivery, including road map and story map development. Show less

Scrum Master

• May 2018 - Oct 2018

Worked within Lincoln Financial Group as a Scrum Master, where I enabled improvement in team delivery commitments and capacity planning for sprints by identifying and tracking hidden tasks that facilitate sprint planning, scrum ceremonies, backlog refinement, sprint execution, retrospectives, stakeholder meetings, and software demonstrations. I educated and reinforced the scrum methodology as agile framework to all team members and key stakeholders. I tracked and managed product backlog burn down metrics, and charts while reporting team capacities and velocities through reporting. The following are highlights of the value I provided to Lincoln Financial Group: ☛ I supported continued agile transformation of the organization by acting as a change leader and removing obstacles for the team by escalating an issue to leadership resulting in early delivery of customer issue. ☛ I lead a Scrum Agile development team, monitored the performance of each individual, and ensured the best practices of documentation, utilizing JIRA application. ☛ I protected the development team from outside distractions, impediments, and team conflicts, and maintain focus on the project timeline. Show less

Scrum Master

• Mar 2017 - May 2018

Worked as a Scrum Master, where I enabled improvement in team delivery commitments and capacity planning for sprints by identifying and tracking hidden tasks that facilitate sprint planning, scrum ceremonies, backlog refinement, sprint execution, retrospectives, stakeholder meetings, and software demonstrations. I educated and reinforced the scrum methodology as agile framework to all team members and key stakeholders. I tracked and managed product backlog burn down metrics, and charts while reporting team capacities and velocities through reporting.The following are highlights of the value I brought to Liberty Mutual Insurance:☛ I supported and continued agile transformation of the organization by acting as a change leader and removing obstacles for the team by escalating an issue to leadership resulting in early delivery of customer issue.☛ I lead two Scrum Agile development teams, monitored the performance of each individual, and ensured the best practices of documentation, utilizing JIRA application.☛ I protected the development team from outside distractions, impediments, and team conflicts, and maintain focus on the project timeline. Show less

Agile Quality Coach/Principal Test Engineer

• Jul 2011 - Apr 2017

Throughout my career as Principal Quality Assurance Analyst / Agile Quality Coach in Liberty Mutual Insurance, I organized and conducted tests for new and modified applications / systems and revised automated testing systems to ensure proper workability. It is worth noting that I facilitated key management and technician in developing test scripts, formulating test plans and ensured standard test environments. I developed and maintained consistent test methodology by coordinating with clients and IT management staff.The following are highlights of the value I brought to Liberty Mutual Insurance:☛ I developed and implemented quality improvement initiatives across the organizations through consultation with Scrum and Agile teams and supported the design and creation of Agile Quality Plans for engaged teams.☛ I collaborated with consultants and IT staff members in performing and scrutinizing new Quality Assurance testing software by resolving questions, troubleshooting problems, and overseeing technicalities.☛ I deployed rest of the testing team with QA testers and development and design teams to extend the organizational efforts and sustain productivity. Show less

Professional Mentor at the UNE Academy of Digital Sciences (Part-Time)

• Apr 2017 - Jan 2018

NOTE: This program's sunset was January 31, 2018. I provided support for learners in a timely and effective manner, so that their learning can be applied to relevant projects reflecting current professional practices. The program accentuated the Agile project model, collaboration, communication and leveraged the educational growth model. I provided support for learners in Digital Essentials and Project Management programs and provided guidance, meaningful feedback, and relevant learning while the learners worked on business projects to enhance their education within the University of New England Digital Sciences Academy. Show less

Enterprise Release Manager

• Feb 2005 - Jul 2011

Throughout my career as Release Management Senior Advisor (Enterprise) in WellPoint, Inc. (Anthem), I managed the planning, scheduling, and controlling of a software by testing and deploying software releases. I liaised closely with quality assurance leas, test lead, and configuration manager to ascertain the best time to move code to various test environments. It is worth noting that I delivered technical solutions to business problems within scope, budget, schedule and quality constraints while providing leadership to the team. The following are highlights of the value I brought to WellPoint, Inc. (Anthem): ☛ I documented release calendar, monitored release timeline, and ensured release lockdown and code freeze dates were met for all assigned enterprise applications and programs. ☛ I established the implementation and back-out plan, secured and allocated resources to aid production department, and ensured the successful execution of release implementation plan. ☛ I supervised the progress of release activities, including change ticket, release scope, testing status, action items, monitoring and run book updates, and communication plans. Show less

Senior Systems Business Analyst

• Aug 2004 - Feb 2005

IT Project Manager

• May 2002 - Jun 2004

Release Manager and Project Leader

• Dec 1998 - Apr 2002