John Brent Kroll
Poth,Texas
Summary
A high performing results-oriented leader with a proven track record for delivering strategic solutions. With exceptional relationship skills, I can work with diverse individuals and teams around the globe to deliver results. Experienced Senior Project/Program Manager in both Software Development and Infrastructure, Product/Division Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the technology industry. Strong MIS professional skilled in both Agile (CM, RTE, PO) and Waterfall menologies, customer engagement, IT Strategy, Change Management, Application Integrations and Migrations, Data Centers build outs and consolidations.
Skills sets are SDLC, Agile (Scrum Master, Business Owner and Product Owner) and Waterfall methodologies; vendor management; RFPs and engagements for large scale and high valued projects; training, mentoring and augmenting diverse teams located globally; and customer support and interaction.
Overview
28
28
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Software Development
Region 20 @ Texas Computer Cooperative
San Antonio, TX, TX
10.2020 - Current
- Managed more than 20 software engineers, system administrators, NOC operators, QA engineers and project managers.
- Streamlined established processes by implementing client and employee feedback.
- Oversaw internal and external enterprise projects, including requirements analysis, milestone management and stakeholder relations.
- Achieved client vision and objectives through effective strategy development and execution in coordination with management teams.
- Delivered consistent and quality mentoring, training and onboarding for teams of contractors and staff members.
Technical Program/Project Manager/Agile Product Owner
Pearson North America
San Antonio, TX
01.2018 - 01.2020
- Devised in-house training program allowing employees to maintain and improve skills in various types of software packages.
- Established policies and procedures for the NADCC and DCEO (North America and Data Center Consolidation efforts) program.
- Utilized such online conferencing tools such as WebEx, Teams, Zoom, Skype, etc. Meetings to conduct trainings and learning sessions to employees in locations both in the US and abroad.
- Analyzed project processes and workflows to reduce risk.
- Oversaw budgets for project, tracked expenses and timelines and communicated with key stakeholders on milestones.
- Led the planning and scheduling of client technical projects both software and hardware requirements
- Liaised with clientele to ascertain project requirements and communicated with appropriate personnel to handle project planning and scheduling.
- Effectively interacted with cross-functional teams in such areas as analysis, architecture, build and deployment.
- Made changes to project scope and cost and implemented most effective change management processes to keep project up to date.
- Met project benchmarks while reducing costs through introduction of enhanced implementation strategies.
- Maintained close connection with project personnel to quickly identify and resolve problems.
- Produced status reports for customers and senior management.
- Tools used ranged from; Rally CA bug and issue tracker, Salesforce API(s), ServiceNow, MS Projects, G-Suite, Visio, Jira, Confluence, MS Office and other artifact generation software.
- Conducted Agile meetings across all projects using Jira, Rally and Kanban boards. Leveraged burn up/down charts to covey progress. Project initiation, Scrum of Scrums, DSM, Sprint Retrospectives, Product backlog grooming, backlog prioritization, Iteration planning using team velocity/capacity metrics.
- Developed new analytics tool to allow senior management to understand impact of each project.
- Established key issues in need of resolution and project performance metrics to set planning objectives.
- Kept project teams on-task with proactive control of budgets, schedules and scopes.
- Completed thorough risk assessments and deployed management and response strategies to prevent roadblocks.
- Brought in additional project personnel and resources to meet demands.
- Applied extensive expertise in System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies and Agile project management techniques to manage multiple project teams.
- Focused on product value to decrease waste and boost customer satisfaction.
- Reviewed contractor scope, material estimates and pricing take-offs to optimize competitive bidding processes.
- Leveraged trends in customer industries to shape solutions and approaches.
- Collaborated with design team to come up with product look.
- Managed pre-production and production product deployments.
- Gathered detailed use cases and requirements through regular on-site visits, virtual meetings and customer advisory board sessions.
- Analyzed and interpreted information to identify needs and make recommendations for product and process improvements.
- Automated data management processes to increase efficiency and reduce errors; used data marts and various star schemas to transform business data and migrate data into the cloud infrastructure
- Answered dozens calls per week to answer customer questions.
- Improved customer satisfaction by finding creative solutions to problems.
- Managed and groomed product backlogs in order to achieve desired release and product outcomes.
- Partnered with software development team to design custom applications and trackers to meet client needs.
- Coordinated with third-party development team on engineering and professional service activities and tasks.
Sr. IT Project Manager
Pearson Education NA
San Antonio, TX
12.2006 - 12.2018
- Established key issues in need of resolution and project performance metrics to set planning objectives.
- Trained and coached key team members on production techniques to establish expectations and ensure compliance with quality guidelines.
- Devised implementation plans, including cost-benefit and ROI analyses.
- Delivered high value and large-scale applications and data centers integration/migration/consolidation.
- Worked with various business and technology resources across the globe for streamline operations and reduce costs.
- Kept project teams on-task with proactive control of budgets, schedules and scopes.
- Updated project plans based on changing objectives, specifications and staff availability.
- Provided updates and managed inquiries for delivery of quality products and services.
- Oversaw budgets for project, tracked expenses and timelines and communicated with key stakeholders on milestones.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to complete projects on time.
- Brought in additional project personnel and resources to meet demands.
- Maintained open and effective communications with project teams through stand-up meetings to increase productivity.
- Managed eCommerce, ERP integrations and reporting teams (Cognos and Hyperion) in addition to Project Management duties.
Sr. Software Developer
Injury Sciences LLC
San Antonio, TX
07.1997 - 12.2006
- Conducted full life-cycle software development in multiple software environments.
- Collected and defined customer requirements to produce product scopes.
- Developed product and technology roadmap and strategy from concept to launch.
- Communicated with customers about progress updates, gathered feedback and worked to resolve specific concerns.
- Modified existing software systems to enhance performance and add new features such as 3rd party integrations and client reporting.
- Mentored junior development professionals to improve coding standards.
- Coordinated system installations, testing and code corrections.
- Coordinated with QA testers for end-to-end unit testing and post-production testing.
- Created proof-of-concept prototype applications for demonstration and evaluation purposes.
- Instrumented and modified unit and integration tests to improve software quality and reliability.
- Detailed all aspects of software development in technical manuals and documentation for use in later projects.
- .NET Visual Studio and MSSql application development.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Management Information Systems
The UTSA
San Antonio, TXSkills
- Project and Program management (waterfall and Agile), Product Management
- Jira and Rally, MS Projects, G-Suite, Risk and Issue logs/trackers
- Data center build outs, integration and closures, data integration and migration
- New software and re-platforming of software for cloud deployments
- Data warehousing projects and star schemas
- Cost controls, Risk Management
- Training and development, Team lead/Management
- Requirements analysis and design phases
- Agile development methodologies, SCRUM and Kanban
- Software Development Lifecycle, ITIL
- Cost reduction and containment
- Application development and enhancements
- Application and database migrations, Testing and bugging, Rally/CA
- System administration, Operational support
- Customer-oriented, Strong collaborative skills
- Purchasing and procurement, Budgeting and forecasting
- Project development and lifecycle, Project scope
- Presentations, Risk management, Change management gating, Root cause analysis
- Detail-oriented, Process improvement, Superb time management skills, Goal setting
- Staff training and mentoring
- Microsoft Office Suite expert
- Technical direction and product strategies, Technical reports
Timeline
Director of Software Development
Region 20 @ Texas Computer Cooperative
10.2020 - Current
Technical Program/Project Manager/Agile Product Owner
Pearson North America
01.2018 - 01.2020
Sr. IT Project Manager
Pearson Education NA
12.2006 - 12.2018
Sr. Software Developer
Injury Sciences LLC
07.1997 - 12.2006
Bachelor of Science - Management Information Systems
The UTSA