Agile Coach * Scrum Master * Product Owner

7/2018 – 7/2019

- Leitung Integrationsteam als Product Owner.
- JIRA Administration, Schreiben von Backlog Stories, Entwerfen von Architekturdiagrammen.
- Anpassung der Prozesse nach Nexus, später in Richtung Feature-Teams.

Scrum, Software Architecture, Product Owner

6/2017 – 3/2018

• Agile Coach, Project Manager (7 Teams, 80% Fokus Hardwareentwicklung, 20% Softwareentwicklung)
• Business Analyst für PMO

Agile Methodologie, Prozesscoaching

5/2017 – 3/2018

(<20% seit Juli 2017)
• Java Architekt, Java Coach, Scrum Coach (ein Team, Teamgröße 6)

Java (allg.), Schulung / Coaching (allg.)

2/2017 – 5/2017

- Verfassen eines Buches mit agilen Methoden über agile Methoden, speziell im Zusammenhang mit JIRA: Die menschliche Komponente wird oft ignoriert wenn man Softwaretools einsetzt.

Summary:

This book challenges two illusions that can get in the way of your company’s road to being truly Agile: first, that your Scrum is “special,” and second, that you can hide behind project management software. JIRA is powerful---and this book will show you how to use it more effectively---but it makes it easy to forget that the first idea of Agile is: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

* * * * *

This book begins with the origin of Scrum: rugby. Unlike in football or soccer, in rugby, there is a strong team emphasis and few to no roles. This is what makes Scrum different from Waterfall, which is focused on hiring only specialists and then shifting work from one department to the next—a tiresome approach, especially in today’s knowledge-focused industries.

Building multidisciplinary teams is a key element to achieving an Agile company. Sharing knowledge by working together as a team, removing production phases, and focusing on quick delivery can be achieved. The key is to transform your departments into individual teams that can do everything related to their part of a feature or product.

This leads us to the tools. People tend to forget what Scrum is really about. Purposefully not using certain JIRA features to create new stories will help to remedy that situation. There is a great deal that JIRA does (and does not do), compared to the pen-and-paper approach. Two examples are the acceptance criteria and the definition of done. Here, there is often no clear decision made about how to integrate them into JIRA. They exist somewhere in the documentation, or implicitly in people’s heads. But with a plug-in and some workflow programming, we can automate the definition of done in an elegant way. All the information needed to complete a story in one place: great!

With the tools and numbers in order, the focus moves to the team. Often, it is the last (or middle) chain of production. The team is not trusted to deliver the whole product. Instead, management makes important decisions because the best people were moved out of the team into management roles. With Scrum, it is essential to have the team own the product. If this is not done, you will face a number of tricky issues.

One particular issue related to ownership is the sprint (its estimation, and the commitment to it). Not without reason, Scrum was changed a few years ago to replace “commitment” with “forecast.” Striking the right balance between the product owner and the team is crucial. If the team does not own the sprint in its totality, including deciding on its own how to complete it, the team will, consciously or unconsciously, blame the people who meddled with it. Leading the team to make smarter estimations is a good way to win over both sides and increase productivity.

All that said, and the work done, it is time for delivery, right? Too often, I see that people confuse Scrum sprints with development sprints. Scrum is the business side, to check on you, to communicate with the client, to plan in chunks, etc. But delivery? That can be done at any time. If you ever encounter a team that delivers at the end of the sprint, you will see a number of Waterfall elements in play.

As your projects grow, you will need to add more people and teams. Organizing them in JIRA can be tricky, but there are ways the software can help you to accomplish the task.

Finally, there are a number of ideas relating to your daily Scrum Master routine to help you to do your work better. From psychology to small productivity tips, big things are achieved in small steps.

Scrum, Jira, Autor / Schriftsteller

11/2016 – 12/2016

Evaluation und Dokumentation der Scrum Prozesse, Ist-Soll Vergleich.

Projektmanagement (IT), Scrum, Extreme Programming

8/2013 – 1/2017

- Creating a corporate identity and vision, developing marketing material, and networking.
- Researching, translating, and writing about subjects on philosophy for a four-book series.-

Key Accomplishments:
- Created concept for a four-part book series on philosophy, psychology, and leadership.
- Completed text and design in LaTeX of the first book in English and German. 

Latex, Webdesign, Autor / Schriftsteller

10/2011 – 10/2016

• Project Manager (March 2016 – October 2016)
Reporting to CEO and CFO, coordinating creation of new VitaDock Online node in China, analyzing stakeholders and documenting business processes, delegating IT and manager responsibilities, and evaluating feasibility of implementing a Project Management Office.

Key Accomplishments:
▷ VitaDock Online Project closure, handed management responsibilities to new team lead.
▷ Created detailed proposal for change in company culture and organization structure.
▷ Created basic software development infrastructure for developer team in Xiamen.
▷ Mentored new IT and team lead (architecture, management, third-party communication).

Changed contract to a consulting position because implementation of PM structures required a slower pace.


• Software Architect, IT Administrator, Scrum Master (October 2014 – February 2016)

Leading the VitaDock Online project, maintaining and upgrading VitaDock Online, and educating management on SCRUM in the company while implementing it to improve workflow.

Key Accomplishments:
▷ Spearheaded server upgrades and migration from self-managed IT system to Azure cloud and expanded scalability from 100,000 to 500,000 users.
▷ Significantly reduced costs and aligned market release efforts, consolidating support, development, app development and marketing into one project.
▷ Hired and trained two new staff for transition of IT and management responsibilities.
▷ Worked with freelancers to implement server monitoring and Facebook integration.
▷ Implemented project management practices and introduced SCRUM, resulting in higher levels of transparency, more effective communication, and lower ticket response times.
▷ Implemented advanced project management practices based on PMBOK.
▷ Cleaned up organization chart by applying SCRUM project roles.

Promotion to full-time project manager due to shift of focus of Medisana after change of ownership (Easepal).


• Software Architect, IT Administrator, Project Manager (October 2012 – September 2014)

Maintaining and upgrading VitaDock Online while preparing software department for cooperation with Deutsche Telekom to integrate VitaDock Online into their Consumer Health Cloud project (eHealth platform to connect different health care providers like medical doctors or hospitals).

Key Accomplishments:
▷ Hired and trained five new staff while creating a software department from the ground up.
▷ Leveraged technical expertise as liaison to Deutsche Telekom for the CHC project.
▷ Implemented data synchronization to third-party platforms (e.g., Fitbit).
▷ Integrated user support interface into Zendesk for help desk department.
▷ Integrated customer feedback from help dsk department into development process.
▷ Maintained and continuously improved server and IT system, scaling up to 100,000 users.

The CHC project was cancelled by German Telekom because of its change in health care company strategy.

• Full Stack Developer (October 2011 – September 2012)
Researching security requirements, designing OAuth-based software architecture for a secure, multi-layered application that served as a synchronization backend for the mobile app.

Key Accomplishments:
▷ Set up continuous integration system and six server production and staging environment.
▷ Passed security tests by Deutsche Telekom, fulfilling industry standard requirements.
▷ Created, documented, and successfully launched public API and secure open authentication system, allowing third-party developers to connect with company platform.
▷ Launched system with 10,000 customers from mobile application.

IT Sicherheit (allg.), Projektmanagement (IT), Scrum, Agile Methodologie, Software Architecture, Java (allg.), Spring Framework, Jira, IT-Support (allg.), Schulung / Training (IT)

3/2010 – 9/2011

The company is a provider of a wide range of business and IT consulting services with a focus on CRM.

- Software Developer: Provided leadership for creation and implementation of innovative software module, connecting databases and customer relationship management software to company’s main software. Supervised a team creating a new administration user interface, developing a GUI application layer and ensuring quality through rigorous testing and collaboration with the quality assurance team.

Key Accomplishments:
• Created templates and a modularized design of the graphical user interface, allowing seamless changes to user interface.
• Configured build server for automatic testing of all code, providing constant feedback and greatly increasing test coverage and control.

Mysql, Softwareentwicklung (allg.), J2EE, Java (allg.), WSDL (Web Services Description Language), XSLT (XSL Transformation)

8/2001 – 7/2006

Nature at your fingertips,” developer of nature-inspired software that optimizes schedules. “Evolution Forge” is an interactive desktop application to calculate optimal build orders for games like StarCraft.


• Founder, Software Developer (August 2001 – July 2006)
Developing an accurate simulation of real-time strategy games with a generalized ruleset.

Key Accomplishments:
▷ Created “Evolution Forge” program with over 10K downloads in first year after release.
▷ Test-driven development of dynamic SDL-based widget toolkit with XML configuration.
▷ Citation in scientific paper on genetic algorithms in game design (2003).

Project released for free after failed negotiations with third party publisher due to issue rights with Blizzard (2004). GUI source code released for free after code cleaning in 2011

C++, Visual C++