Melissa Ward
Lead Agile Coach
Queen Creek,AZ
Summary
Passionate Trainer with extensive knowledge of Scaled Agile Framework and Agile Scrum training and proven success working with adult learners. Devoted to long-lasting and comprehensive results for every client. Pioneered remote training at Humana using remote training technologies and methodologies. Well-qualified Training Specialist adept at planning and implementing onsite and remote training programs. Authoritative and clear communicator with a charismatic style and insightful approach. Pursuing new professional opportunities with room for advancement. Enthusiastic Coach and Trainer eager to contribute to team success through hard work, attention to detail and excellent organizational skills. Motivated to continuously learn, grow and excel in all areas of Agile and Customer Centric methodologies.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
Work History
Lead Agile Coach
Humana, Agile Management Office
Louisville, KY
04.2021 - Current
- Scheduled and taught in class and online courses to increase learning opportunities.
- Quickly adapted training plans for client needs, keeping timelines, budgets and desires in mind.
- Employed job analysis in accordance with principles of instructional design to create effective training programs.
- Assessed student needs to develop effective training plans.
- Gathered and organized supplementary material to support structured lessons.
- Developed individualized plans to help customers reach goals within predetermined timelines.
- Performed continuous evaluations of content and plans in order to enhance delivery and improve effectiveness.
Lead Product Manager
Humana, Digital Channels & Contact Center
06.2020 - 04.2021
- Trained over 340 Humana associates in Scaled Agile from June to December 2020 (Leading SAFe and Product Owner/Product Manager).
- Collaborate with DCCC Agile Coach in implementing agile transformational changes in our area.
- Present workshops and Town Hall talks on Empowerment for Agility and Better Business Outcomes.
- Created and encouraged/supported several agile Communities of Practice, including a CoP for Scaled Agile Framework and Release Train Engineers to help support individuals learning to work in those roles.
- Created and moderated a Product Management Virtual Book Club where I led participants through The Influential Product Manager to encourage new ways of thinking about agile technology product development.
- Developed and manage a Training Product for CRM Associates Senior IT Business Performance/Process Improvement Professional, Retail/Medicare/Medicaid PMO.
- Established criteria for each milestone within product roadmap as means to measure developmental progress.
- Conceptualized and deployed enhanced product features and optimized implementation for use in marketing strategies.
- Liaised with clients to develop deep understanding of business needs and current market landscape.
- Collected customer requirements, directed testing and conducted continuous evaluations to make proactive adjustments to marketing approaches.
- Coordinated project planning and execution with team members and team leads.
- Developed product documentation to communicate and align key components of upcoming features and products to internal teams.
Strategic Advisor
Humana, Project Management Competency Center
Louisville, KY
04.2019 - 06.2020
- Completed Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) SPC (Certified SAFe Program Consultant) certification in March 2020, which will allowed me to begin training the Leading SAFe course to leaders, managers and other stakeholders wishing to adopt SAFe in our area.
- Established the Agile Project Management Community of Practice using the SAFe model for CoPs.
- Frequent presenter to the PMO Town Hall on various product, SAFe and agile related topics (audiences of over 300 associates and contractors).
- Coached lean-agile tenets and product centered organization to select pilot teams as one of two Product Coaches in Product over Project initiative.
- Established the Agile Project Manager Working Group to assist Project Managers working with Agile teams in developing new ways of working, encouraging them to share new best practices and collaborate.
- Created and moderated the PMCC Virtual Book Club where I led participants through Team of Teams to encourage new ways of thinking.
- Collaborated with HPSE to develop a metrics dashboard out of Power BI to help inform agile conversations between project managers and teams.
- Leveraged on-site observation and personal interviews to identify team and individual strengths.
- Gathered, documented and modeled data to assess business trends.
- Reviewed internal systems and organized training plans to address areas in need of improvement.
- Produced detailed and relevant reports for use in making business decisions.
- Conducted research and investigations into the future of Project Management in an Agile environment.
- Evaluated current processes to develop improvement plans.
- Compiled research data and gave professional presentations highlighting finds and recommended optimizations.
Senior IT Project Manager
Humana, Enterprise Engineering Enablement
Louisville, KY
04.2018 - 04.2019
- Researched industry standard DevOps KPIs, then coordinated the Humana’s DevOps team and the metrics reporting team in determining and defining the first five KPIs to measure for Humana’s DevOps journey in the enterprise DevOps Adoption Metrics report.
- Formalized DevOps strategic road map with DevOps team.
- Coordinated the development of the Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) road map for leadership review.
- Spearheaded the industry research and subsequent development of the Cloud Foundry Certified Developer (CFCD) badge for Solutions Engineering (go/ITSEBadging or go/LADDER).
- Coordinated with internal Humana groups such as ITI, EIP, PSM, capacity planning and more as we developed and deployed the new DevOps delivery platform, Pioneer.
- Guided and influenced new policies and procedures within ITI for PCF intake and pricing models.
- Forged the new Platform Acceleration Lab workshops for .NET developers to acquire hands-on platform training on site, free of cost to their departments and promoted to .NET developers, their managers, directors and VPs, , Enterprise Security Engineering.
- Developed project plans and managed project scope using methodologies to guide projects from conceptualization to implementation and maintenance.
- Directed changes to project scope and cost and implemented appropriate change management processes to keep project on track.
- Communicated project plans and progress to key stakeholders, including project contributors, business, operational and technical resources.
- Outlined work plans, determined resources, wrote timelines and generated initial budgets as part of project scope determination.
- Gathered project requirements through interactions, meetings and walkthroughs with potential application users and to develop business requirements documents (BRD), functional requirements documents (FRD) and user mockups.
- Closely collaborated with project members to identify and quickly address problems.
- Adjusted project plans to account for dynamic targets, staffing changes and operational specifications.
- Oversaw large portfolio of projects to support teams, report progress and influence positive outcomes for key stakeholders.
- Maintained tactical control of project budgets and timelines to keep teams on task and achieve schedule targets.
- Collaborated with business users, technical teams, database administrators and testing teams during kickoff meetings, joint application designing and planning sessions to validate requirements.
Senior Scrum Master
Humana, Enterprise Security Engineering
Louisville, KY
01.2016 - 04.2018
- Transitioned SL teams from waterfall development methodology to agile and coached them on scrum principles.
- Converted RFA team from VersionOne scrum tracking software to TFS and coached team in its use.
- Authored training materials to ensure most effective use of TFS by both Business Analysts and Developers.
- Developed a management-level dashboard in TFS of relevant metrics, including: number of releases by month, number of stories per project, number of stories per release, and story status.
- Redesigned and streamlined incoming work estimation process for SL teams.
- Leveraged the varying skills and abilities of the different team members to assign work appropriately so that quality work is delivered within budget and on time.
- Applied agile methodology to shorten cycle time and achieve target margins.
- Assessed each scrum team member's responsibilities and delegated tasks to balance each employee's workload.
- Researched emerging technologies and current trends to stay knowledgeable in methods that could benefit Scrum team.
- Coached teams in Agile practices and provided necessary training to create positive mindset to Agile methodologies.
- Drove Scrum team progress to overcome obstacles and realize success throughout life of each sprint.
- Provided extensive guidance on Agile scrum processes and methodologies to highly effective teams with goals of improving quality and productivity.
- Managed product backlog and supported Scrum framework for bi-weekly sprint releases.
- Collaborated with product owners, team members, technologists and other scrum masters to define solutions and drive progress.
- Worked effectively with multiple Scrum teams both internally and off-shore.
- Shielded scrum team from external interference for optimal productivity and success of Agile process.
- Planned Agile best practices and encouraged team cohesion, overcoming impediments and hurdles to productivity.
- Proactively identified and found ways to resolve issues to prevent distractions and keep projects on track.
- Facilitated Scrum framework – sprint planning, backlog grooming, daily scrums, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives.
Technology Project Manager
Humana, Enterprise BI Tools Team
Louisville, KY
11.2013 - 01.2016
- First as Brooksource contractor then converted to Associate 4/2014).
- Guided and aligned multiple business and technology stakeholders to identify the correct BI tool to achieve their goals.
- Spearheaded the implementation of the new QlikView physical server environments.
- Executed the User Advocacy Program (UAP) to simplify the user engagement with the team and showcased this new process in a session during IT Learning Week in 2015.
- Coordination and implementation of new Application Performance Program (APP) to ensure greater transparency of the infrastructure environment to developers and leadership, bringing greater understanding of the cost of ownership of each BI tool and the subsequent value each tool brought to the enterprise.
- Worked closely with management teams to plan, develop, coordinate and execute technical strategies aligned to client's vision, mission and purpose.
- Liaised effectively with others to promote on-going network design, reevaluation and optimization that scaled with company growth.
- Guided implementation of company-wide enterprise security strategy for network and hardware, disaster recovery, data protection and endpoint protection.
- Communicated regularly with customers concerning data exchange and technology integration.
- Coordinated with management teams to plan, develop, align and execute strategies that would meet client's vision, mission and purpose.
- Facilitated best user experience through continuous support, training classes, webinars, improvements and communication of system changes.
Project Manager
UNIFIED TECHNOLOGIES
Louisville, KY
04.2013 - 11.2013
- Collaborated with customer, ISP vendor, IT vendor and other 3rd party vendors in the design, implementation, training and successful deployment of new VoIP hardware, servers and software.
- Redesigned the initial customer discovery process to ensure more complete and accurate collection of customer requirements, significantly reducing the amount of correction time spent at project close.
- Devised new project close process whereby customer is formally handed off from Project Manager to Support, allowing for quicker response time for customer issues.
- Overhauled existing project close procedures to add “lessons learned” to a new internal Knowledge Base for other PMs to access for future projects.
- Defined processes and tools best suited to each project while anticipating and managing change and mitigating risk factors effectively for multiple clients in various stages of the process.
- Fostered relationships with vendors to foster positive working relationships.
- Developed and initiated projects, managed costs, and monitored performance.
Business Systems Administrator
DRE Medical
Louisville, KY
10.2012 - 04.2013
- Analyzed and documented work flow processes and offered technical solutions to improve them.
- Provided administration and customization of MAS 200, Saleslogix and Shoretel platforms while ensuring maximum up-time of all business systems.
- Designed training material and presented training sessions about how to best use the software and VOIP systems.
- Leveraged outside vendors such as Unified Technologies, Windstream, Oasis and Mirazon to minimize costs while maximizing software performance and features.
- Planned, developed and implemented networking solution to bring new warehouse facility on line in one month.
- Provided employees with fast and comprehensive technical support for software-related concerns, building employee confidence in help desk team and solutions.
- Monitored overall system health using existing tools, responding to deficiencies and helping build, test and maintain new systems as needed.
- Interacted with IT help desk and other teams to assist in network troubleshooting, identifying root causes and providing escalated technical support when needed.
- Maintained internal infrastructure, including servers, routers, switches, firewalls, security software and intranet systems.
- Performed system audits and presented findings in clear, concise and thorough technical reports.
- Designed and evaluated WAN and LAN connectivity technologies.
Vice President of Operations
eMed Consulting Group, LLC
Louisville, KY
06.2011 - 10.2012
- Authored and implemented processes and procedures to ensure a quicker, more streamlined EHR software adaptation in over 70 physicians’ offices concurrently.
- Conducted weekly stakeholder meetings with Baptist Healthcare System and Allscripts C- level executives and presented solutions as project risks were discussed.
- Implemented a process to reduce the total time to EHR adaptation by 45%, enabling the company to realize revenue faster.
- Strategically coordinated operations according to objectives and capabilities, effectively allocating resources to meet demands
- Established and administered annual budget with controls to prevent overages, minimize burn rate and support sustainability objectives.
- Evaluated product development strategies and prepared alternative approaches to exceed goals.
Education
MSMIT, Master of Science - Managing Information Technology
Sullivan University
MBA, Master of Business Administration - IT
Sullivan University
BA, Bachelor of Arts - Political Science & Criminal Justice
Indiana University
Certified SAFe 5 Program Consultant (SPC) Certified SAFe 5 Release Train Engineer (RTE) Certified SAFe 5 DevOps Practitioner (SDP) Certified SAFe 5 Agilist (SA) -
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Skills
Student rapport
Course planning
Proficient in Microsoft Office, Project, Visio, etc
Adult Education
Remote Learning
Lesson plan development
Online instruction
Training program development
Online training experience
Project implementation
Public speaking
Classroom expertise
Employee training
Training material development
Workshop coordination
Team leadership and coaching
Coaching leadership
Staff mentoring & leadership
Group and individual coaching
Agile development environments
Executive team leadership
Staff leadership
Mentorship and coaching
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Accomplishments
Received the Humana Apex Award in 2020 for developing a comprehensive Scaled Agile training program in support of Humana's journey to customer centricity and the delivery of human care.
Quote
"The best way to predict the future is to create it."
Peter Drucker