Ashraf Badar
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Pickering, ON, Canada
Toptal member since April 22, 2022
Ashraf is an experienced scrum master and project manager. He's led projects from small enterprises to large Insurance companies, running multiple teams onshore and offshore in Scrum and Kanban. He has managed SAFe trains with over 40 teams, and his specialty is building long-running, self-organizing teams to produce valuable work delighting the customer. Ashraf has a deep understanding of Lean-Agile principles and is passionate about reducing waste in software development projects.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Delivery
- C++
- IT Project Management
- Kanban
- Lean IT
- Rally
- Scrum
- Software Design
Work Experience
Senior Scrum Master
Travelers
- Overcame challenges in setting up a Scrum team and managing product quality validation before release. The project, which had been running for three years, had zero defects at release, a testament to the team's high quality.
- Led a Java development team to Innovation Jam success as a scrum master. The team won first prize for creating a utility that slashed testing time from 15 minutes per test set to under 2 minutes.
- Coached a team new to Agile, working in legacy software, Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), on Kanban and Scrumban.
- Pulled ad hoc work on the team to enable another legacy team to focus on new features and finish those in 75% of the planned duration, exceeding expectations.
- Coached a team operating in Scrumban to deliver a critical regulatory PCI compliance feature before the time that no team in the organization was willing to pick up.
- Prepared a business case to remove two underperforming test environments and coordinated with multiple teams, like app development, DevOps, and business, to get it implemented, saving the org $300,000+ in annual license and maintenance fees.
- Acted as scrum master of the system team operating at the SAFe solution level, supporting over 40 teams with an annual budget of over $50 million in two initiatives. Successful in retrofitting 20+ complex environments with monthly production code.
- Published several highly appreciated Lean-Agile blogs focused on improving workflows by managing WIP limits, breaking down work, and removing waste from software development.
- Coached team in concepts of value stream mapping, enabling them to achieve a 300% improvement in flow efficiency.
- Served as a solution train engineer and ran a PI planning event for over 40 teams, helping resolve risks and dependencies among them.
Agile Project Manager and Scrum Master
Persistent
- Helped teams ideate and implement eight apps like Where’s the Bug, currently on App Store; Easy Archiver, a winning entry corporate-wide; and Emergency App spawned many initiatives across the company like women’s and workplace safety.
- Worked with other senior managers as head of the COO Club Initiative to define a process for practical requirements management in Agile Scrum that was implemented corporate-wide.
- Led a six-person team as project manager and scrum master to deliver two response connectors allowing students to take tests quickly using electronic clickers and reducing paperwork for teachers. Client satisfaction was a high 4.9 on a 5-point scale.
- Acted as offshore scrum master and project manager for SMART Alberta-based company. Managed a team of up to 25 members with over five million dollars in revenue in the four years.
Project History
Solution Level System Team
Built a high-performing, self-organizing system team operating in Scrumban, supporting over 40 application development teams that truly function as a Lean-Agile team.
Built a high-performing, self-organizing team operating at a SAFe solution level that supports over 40 app development teams, acting as a bridge to DevOps.
The team successfully facilitated monthly production code retrofits across a complex 20+ development and test environment ecosystem. It also runs a bi-weekly technical scrum of scrums, publishes weekly organization-wide KPIs, manages workspaces and users for Rally, and facilitates program increment planning every 10 weeks across the 40+ teams.
It delivers technical currency projects, including server upgrades, addresses security vulnerabilities, and business functional features as required. Built the team to operate in Scrumban with a focus on improving workflow.
Coached on the advantages of limiting WIP, breaking down work into smaller batch sizes, reducing waste, and also advanced concepts like the theory of constraints and value stream mapping. Under my coaching, the team became skilled in Kaizen, introducing one or two incremental improvements every sprint that they had uncovered via open and honest retrospectives.
This team was used as an example by Agile coaches in the company to showcase what can be achieved when a team operates under Agile values and principles.
Lifomation
Created the Lifomation product. A personal information management solution at a startup company.
Managed a team of seven, including one architect, three developers, one UX, and one QA, to create this product for managing personal information in the Cloud.
As a partner, I provided seed capital and managed funding to ensure the product was delivered at a 25% lower cost than forecast. Also played a role as scrum master and project manager on the project. Running the project in Agile slashed delivery time by 20%.
Mobility Practice and Innovation Initiative
Helped a team ideate and implement eight apps, both Android and iOS.
Trained over 25 people on mobility platforms in Android and iOS.
Helped the team ideate and implement eight apps.
- Where’s the Bug. Currently on Apple’s App Store.
- Easy Archiver. A winning entry corporate-wide, allowing users to easily archive their files on the cloud.
- Emergency App. Spawned several initiatives across the organization like women’s and workplace and travel safety.
Education
Master's Degree in Electronic Engineering
Nagpur University - Nagpur, India
Certifications
SAFe 4 Agilist
Scaled Agile
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Rally, TargetProcess, Jira, Zoom
Paradigms
Scrum, Kanban, Agile Delivery, Agile Project Management, Agile
Platforms
Linux, iOS, Android
Other
Software Design, IT Project Management, Scrum Master, Sprint Planning, Sprint Ceremonies, Sprint Retrospectives, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Technical Project Management, C++, Lean IT, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Project Management, Digital Transformation, Teams, Scrumban, Lean Startups, Startup Funding, Web Project Management, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), SAFe 4 Advanced Scrum Master
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