Ante Parlov
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Zagreb, Croatia
Toptal member since November 18, 2021
Ante is passionate about managing various types of transformations. He has an engineering background, and the start of his career was marked by multiple IT transformation projects in a traditional project management role. Later, Ante moved into application development and product development lead roles, utilizing SAFe methodology as the best approach for major transformations using Agile. He is open, collaborative, and self-driven; he enjoys new challenges and loves to meet new people.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Project Management
- Jira
- Microsoft Project
- Project Delivery
- Project Management
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Scrum
Work Experience
iOT Production Process Consultant
Toyota Material Handling, Inc - H1T Support and QA
- Joined the team as a quality assurance project manager and established reporting processes on various data issues that were present.
- Established a workflow to ensure a reduction in production due to data quality issues and reduced issues from around five per day to around two per week.
- Established multiple quality gates with external vendors to ensure products delivered to the Toyota production line satisfy Toyota quality requirements.
Project Manager
Toyota Material Handling, Inc - Main
- Joined the team as a project manager for the hardware team, where I successfully implemented scope and timeline management processes.
- Took over after a few months and worked with other teams like the platform and firmware development team, where we managed to deliver critical scope items on time and quality.
- Worked as an integral part of a successful new product launch.
- Worked with the PMO in project tracking, reporting, and improvement activities.
Projects and Operations Strategy and Delivery Manager
Reward Gateway, Limited
- Worked as a strategic consultant in the merger of Reward Gateway and Xexec development, focusing mainly on Xexec development.
- Managed to integrate myself into a DevOps role to bridge the gap between the Xexec sales/account team and the development team and between the Xexec and Reward Gateway team.
- Set up new Agile delivery processes and ceremonies to increase the visibility of work in progress and to enable key priorities to be continually addressed.
- Integrated Jira and Confluence into our daily workflow, enabling successful progress reporting to senior management.
- Worked with the CIO of RG to ensure a successful business merge of Xexec Work into RG.
Release Train Engineer (RTE)
Nets A/S
- Ran SAFe, agile transformation as a transformation agent and an RTE, for one of the Agile Release Trains (ART).
- Created the team structure, delivery model, reporting, and tooling processes for my ART in cooperation with two other RTEs (the company had three initial ARTs).
- Achieved more than 80% predictability after six PIs per Program Increment (PI) on feature delivery, with a committed story point delivery always over 95%.
- Increased overall delivery efficiency and reporting clarity of change requests to customers.
- Implemented end-to-end tracking and reporting within ART on Team Foundation Server (TFS).
- Defined and implemented a strategic model of operation for his team and followed up on KPIs to improve processes.
Program Delivery Manager
Nets A/S
- Joined the team as a project manager for one delivery stream and was then asked to take over the entire delivery program, consisting of three product development streams.
- Achieved the target go-live date for the program products within the target scope.
- Managed a complete motivation turnaround of the team from conflicts to an entire working program team that delivers with success.
- Received excellent customer feedback on the open communication of issues and took ownership of issues that were part of my delivery chain.
Senior Project Manager
Kone
- Led various IT transformation projects (infrastructure and development) as the infrastructure and network senior project manager.
- Delivered a major data center transformation project where we consolidated three global distribution centers into three new locations. The project was delivered on time and with no penalties for the customer.
- Delivered the WAN transformation project for the EMEA region (covering mainly Eastern and Central European banks, which are part of the group). We consolidated over 200 locations to a new WAN provider and created significant OPEX savings.
- Delivered the EMEA LAN transformation project where we migrated over 200 locations to new LAN equipment and created major operational improvements.
- Received the "Most Valuable Resource" award from the customer.
Senior Project Manager
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Implemented and set up a major school transformation project in which Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) was one of the vendors.
- Set up the request for proposal (RFP) response team for HPE to the end customer, and set up processes for project delivery upon RFP completion.
- Won the RFP established project delivery and reporting processes and handed over the project to the internal project manager.
Senior Project Manager
Erste Group
- Orchestrated the new product development project for Erste Group banks.
- Set up the delivery process for a major market part of the overall program.
- Tracked and reported progress to the local and group C-level management.
- Managed executive stakeholders and conflicting interests within the group to enable the successful delivery of the project.
Senior Project Manager
Kone
- Joined the team as a contracting project manager to work on IT outsourcing transformation projects.
- Participated in different types of transformation projects like the migration from HP EVA storage to NetApp and the workstation migration to Win7.
- Managed risks, project financials including business impact, financial forecasts, stakeholder relationships, and the project team.
CIsco Instructor
NetAkademija
- Joined the team as a CCNA, CCDA, and CCENT instructor.
- Provided Cisco-certified courses to students and executed Cisco certification exams.
- Achieved an average student satisfaction grade of 4.8 out of 5 during my education tenure in the academy.
Project Manager & ITSM Process Architect
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Joined the team as a junior solution architect for IT service management and, after successfully completing a few ITIL transformations, moved to a role of a PM/SA for ITSM projects and subsequently for all types of IT transformation projects.
- Managed multiple transformation projects, from local transformations to global IT outsourcing projects.
- Held the country lead role temporarily, responsible for leading the business acquisition within an overall solutions area.
Project History
Scaled Agile Transformation Project
Successfuly implemented SAFe portfolio level within an organization and led nine full product increments to achieve process stabilization.
Common Card Processing Project
Led the development of a new common card processing platform for a key bank customer.
The project was carried out in the EMEA region to implement a standard processing system and consolidate processing.
Implementation of Multipurpose Center for Air Traffic Control in Zadar | Phase 1A
Planned and managed an initiation and planning phase of a program that consisted of 13 projects for Croatian air traffic control in Zadar. The program was planned and approved by the funding authority, which was considered a major national success.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Work with the CEO of Croatia Air Traffic Control, government authorities (Ministry of Traffic), and local authorities to obtain all necessary support and licenses for successful future implementation on a few air traffic control centers in Zadar
• Prepare and plan all related program activities (program charter, program objectives, program milestone map) to ensure proper program planning
• Execute program planning and support in planning all related project activities that are part of the program portfolio
The program was planned and approved by the funding authority, which was considered a major national success.
New Payment Processing System Development
https://www.concardis.com/produkte/smartpayLaunched a new payment processing system for the front and back office of a new untapped market.
Education
Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
COTRUGLI Business School - Zagreb, Croatia
Master's Degree in Computer Science
University of Zagreb - Zagreb, Croatia
Certifications
Program Management Professional (PgMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Certified SAFe Release Train Engineer
Scaled Agile Inc.
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Tools
Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Jira, TFS, Microsoft Project, Excel 2016, Confluence, Slack, Visual Studio .NET, Cisco Packet Tracer, Salesforce, Microsoft PowerPoint, Asana
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Agile, Scrum, Agile Workflow, Agile Leadership, PMBOK, Implementation Project Management, Requirements Analysis, Agile Product Management, Agile Delivery, Iterative Development, Change Management, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Testing, Behavior-driven Development (BDD)
Platforms
Azure, Windows 7, Windows XP, WordPress
Industry Expertise
Event Ticketing, Call Centers
Other
Project Management, Release Train Engineer (RTE), Excel 2013, Projects, IT Project Management, Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Delivery, Stakeholder Management, IT Projects, Project Timelines, Project Planning, Planning, Sprint Planning, Consulting, Strategic Planning & Execution, Communication, Process Optimization, Project Coordination, Project Scheduling, Project Management Office (PMO), Mentorship, Scrum Master, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Team Leadership, Software Project Management, Agile Program Management, Organizational Leadership, Waterfall Methodology, Agile Transformation, Stakeholder Engagement, Project Reporting, Certified Project Manager, Business Transformation, Reporting, Best Practices, Process Improvement, Documentation, Project Management & Delivery, Business Communication, Global Project Management, Business Process Optimization, Delivery Management, Executive Reporting, PMO, Software Development, Software Development Management, Excel VBA, Teams, Business, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Program Management, Digital Project Management, Agile Coaching, Risk Management, Cost Control, Earned Value Management (EVM), Budgeting, IT Outsourcing, Outsourcing, Process Transformation, Facilitation, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Technical Project Management, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Fintech, Detail-oriented, Coaching, Hybrid Project Management, Discovery, IT Governance, Business Analysis, Discovery Workshops, Backlog Management, Management Consulting, Stakeholder Interviews, Mentorship & Coaching, Process Documentation, Workflow, Ticketing, Business to Business (B2B), Deployment, New Product Rollout, Strategic Planning, System Implementation, DB, Computer Science, Finance, Human Resources (HR), PRINCE2 Project Management, Budget Controls, Education, Networks, IP Networks, Cisco Routers, Cisco Switches, ITIL, Digital Transformation, Financing, Credit Cards, Back-end, Front-end, Front-end Development, Microsoft Teams, Card Payments, IT Infrastructure, Cloud Infrastructure, Product Delivery, Vendor Management, IPv4, Active Directory Federation, Data Center Migration, Meetings, PI Planning, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Backlog Grooming, Organization, Sprints, Reports, Project Tracking, Mobile Apps, Status Updates, Software as a Service (SaaS), Embedded Hardware, Mind Mapping, PMO Development, Enterprise Project Management, Enterprise SaaS, Process Improvement Project Management, eCommerce, Web Platforms, COE, Product Management, Hardware Development, Hardware, Security, Risk & Compliance, Quality Management, Quality Control (QC), Quality Auditing, Quality Improvement, BI Reports, Data Analysis, Financials, Scope Management, Operations, Data Migration, Manufacturing
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