ANNE HESS
Rock Hill,SC
Summary
An IT professional with over 20 years of experience in technology with a passion for teaching/mentoring/coaching portfolios/programs/teams
- 8+ years as an Enterprise Agile Coach and Team Coach teaching & leading teams to continually improve, build great products, and build high performing sustainable teams
- 8+ years coaching Portfolios/Programs/Teams on scaling up with SAFe, Lean, or other methods
- 6 years practitioner on Agile Scrum teams in various roles (3 -SM, 3 - BA)
- 10+ years of leadership experience through coaching and leading teams to be self-organizing and self-sustainable
- Skilled Training Specialist highly effective a conducting personal and group training sessions anything agile
- Enthusiastic personality with a hands-on, creative style.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
7
7
Certifications
Work History
Program Agile Coach
TD Bank
06.2022 - Current
- Transform program through implementation of SAFe resulting in improved overall collaboration, delivery and positive business outcomes
- Coach agile leaders to understand basic agile principles and their role in building teams that strategize around product
- Streamlined communication between departments by creating centralized platform for project updates and progress tracking through various metrics
- Established culture of continuous improvement through retrospective meetings and process refinement.
- Create training materials & conduct workshops: Agile/Scrum 101, Kanban, Story Writing, Role Expectations, PI Planning
- Program level agile coach supporting 27 Scrum/Kanban teams including 13 SM and 15 PO
- Determine portfolio health/maturity by observing & evaluating teams on basic agile principles and best practices
- Work with SMs to implement coaching plans for continuous improvements
- Use of metrics to drive behaviors and outcomes - Velocity, Burndowns, Throughput, Cycle Time, Work in Progress (WIP), Lead Time, Defect Rates (Quality)
- Implement Quarterly PI Planning to ensure alignment with Organizational Strategy/OKR’s/Vision
- Create CoP’s for SM’s & PO’s to continuously learn, improve, and teach best practices
- Create an environment that allows teams to continually experiment and ‘fail fast/forward’
- Partner with RTE’s and help train them in their role.
Director Agile Engagement /Enterprise Agile Coach
Freedom Mortgage
05.2021 - 06.2022
- Interview/Hire/Direct/Lead a team of Agile Coaches & Scrum Masters
- Strategize Agile transformation and build roadmap for continual improvements
- Train 55+ new and existing teams to bring organization to healthy transformation/maturity by building foundation in Agile/Scrum/Kanban
- Coach portfolios/programs and leaders to strategize around Products vs. Projects
- Coach 25+ teams (within 4 different portfolios) to help mature teams to be self-organizing and predictable with emphasis on building quality products
- Successfully implemented Quarterly PI Planning with 9 teams to ensure alignment with Organizational Strategy/OKR’s/Vision
- Create CoP’s for SM’s & PO’s to continuously learn, improve, and teach best practices.
Agile Coach
Truist Bank
11.2020 - 04.2021
- Evangelize Agile Mindset by encouraging experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement to fully realize benefits of agile
- Observe and mentor Release Trains/Teams practicing SAFe 5.0
- Evaluate Program and Teams on SAFe and Agile/Scrum practices
- Train & mentor new and existing teams on the Agile Values/Principles, Scrum framework, and learning to be Self-Organizing teams
- Create coaching plans for improvement. Work with RTE/SM’s to implement plans so teams are more effective, quality minded, and innovative
- Create training materials and teach SM’s, PO's, Team on role responsibilities and expectations. Team DoD, DoR, Working Agreements etc
- Train Teams/PO’s to understand Business Value Outcomes (vs Outputs) through story writing at Epic, Feature, and User Story levels
- Help team understand WIP and how limiting it helps get things ‘done’
- Help identify organizational impediments to successful agile transformation and work with leaders to create effective strategies to overcome them
- Facilitate sessions with Leaders to understand how to create well-formed sustainable Scrum Teams. Helping to decentralize decision making in alignment with risk levels
- Agile Champion for department helping create RTE/SM CoP’s and Agile Coaching CoE
Agile Coach/Scrum Master
Wells Fargo
08.2019 - 11.2020
- Create training material for Agile/Scrum 101 class, PO Training, User Story Training
- Evangelize agile mindset to teams/leaders to encourage experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement to fully realize benefits of agile
- Help identify organizational impediments to successful agile transformation and work with leaders to create effective strategies to overcome them
- Facilitate Scrum ceremonies including: Sprint Review (Demo), Sprint Retrospective, Sprint Planning, Daily Stand Ups, Backlog Grooming, Release Planning.
- Help PO create Release/Version reports, in Jira, indicating estimated release dates and functionality in each. Remove impediments.
- Agile Champion for department
Enterprise Agile Coach/Team Coach
Principal Financial Group Inc
01.2015 - 07.2019
- 1 of 3 agile coaches responsible for Enterprise-wide agile transformation (7 portfolios) using various lean agile practices (DevOps, SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, TDD, Lean Systems Thinking, Testing Automation, Paired Programming)
- Train & mentor new and existing teams on the Agile Values/Principles, Scrum Framework, and Self-Organizing teams. Train SM’s and Product Owners on role responsibilities and expectations
- Coached multiple portfolios (leaders, program, teams) on SAFe and scaling agile
- Evaluate/Assess programs/teams through observations and metrics that allows us to work with teams to better understand opportunities for improvement
- Partner and collaborate with other Enterprise coaches for self-education, knowledge sharing, and implementation of agile principles/practices
- When applicable, organizes workshops that help promote agile maturity across organization
- Continually growing by learning new tools, techniques, and coaching concepts
Scrum Master
Principal Financial Group Inc
09.2013 - 12.2014
- Improved team efficiency by implementing Agile and Scrum methodologies
- Coached cross-functional teams on Agile principles, leading to increase in successful project deliveries
- Conducted daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning sessions, and sprint reviews, ensuring effective communication among team members
Scrum Master
DuPont Pioneer International Hybrid
10.2012 - 08.2013
- Conducted daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning sessions, and sprint reviews, ensuring effective communication among team members
- Resolved conflicts and facilitated open communication among team members, promoting healthy work environment
Education
Bachelor of Science Degree - Business Administration
University of WI – Stevens Point (UWSP)
Stevens Point, WI1993
Skills
- Coach/Mentor/Trainer
- Agile/Lean Processes
- Facilitation of workshops
- Able to influence leaders
- Servant Leader
- Agile Craft/Jira/Rally
- Lucid Sparks/Miro/Trello
- Confluence/Sharepoint
Certification
- ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP-ACC) – Agile Coaching Certificate
- SAFe 6.0 RTE – Scaled Agile, Inc SAFe 6.0, 5.1, 5.0 POPM – Scaled Agile, Inc
- SAFe 6.0 Agilest (SA) – Scaled Agile, Inc
- Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) – Scrum Alliance
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – Scrum Alliance
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) – Scrum Alliance
- Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) - International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)
Affiliations
- Scaled Agile Framework
- Scrum Alliance
- Agile Alliance
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Timeline
Program Agile Coach
TD Bank
06.2022 - Current
Director Agile Engagement /Enterprise Agile Coach
Freedom Mortgage
05.2021 - 06.2022
Agile Coach
Truist Bank
11.2020 - 04.2021
Agile Coach/Scrum Master
Wells Fargo
08.2019 - 11.2020
Enterprise Agile Coach/Team Coach
Principal Financial Group Inc
01.2015 - 07.2019
Scrum Master
Principal Financial Group Inc
09.2013 - 12.2014
Scrum Master
DuPont Pioneer International Hybrid
10.2012 - 08.2013
Bachelor of Science Degree - Business Administration
University of WI – Stevens Point (UWSP)