Bohdan Rak

As a technical program manager for a leading provider of smart doorbells and home security solutions, I led complex software implementation programs from concept through deployment. My role involved overseeing the entire lifecycle, including technical design, development, rigorous testing, and final production rollout. I successfully aligned and coordinated the efforts of over 25 distributed development teams located across six countries, ensuring seamless cross-functional collaboration between firmware platforms, back-end services, mobile application teams, and web development groups. A key focus was driving innovation in video streaming technology while ensuring the achievement of critical customer-focused KPIs. I managed dependencies, mitigated risks, and facilitated communication to deliver integrated, high-quality software solutions in a large-scale, multi-platform environment.

As program manager, I directed the end-to-end software development lifecycle for an embedded navigation system, delivered to a leading mapping vendor for integration into premium British automaker vehicles. My core responsibility spanned requirements elicitation to final binary delivery for the car’s infotainment system.

The primary goal was creating a comprehensive navigation solution using the customer’s proprietary SDK, featuring routing, guidance, POI search, map updates, and cloud sync for driver data. A key part of the scope was designing a unified Human-Machine Interface (HMI) for a consistent experience across the head unit, head-up display, rear-seat displays, and mobile devices.

We also adapted the solution for electric vehicles with a specialized routing algorithm incorporating charging stations and battery levels. Upon taking ownership of this 85-engineer program across multiple locations, I restructured processes and communications, applying SAFe principles to establish predictable performance and ensure consistent, on-time quarterly deliveries.

Our client was a government-owned company in Saudi Arabia. I was temporarily assigned to coordinate portfolio transformation, which was initiated in response to a decrease in the customer satisfaction level.

I coordinated 20+ sub-initiatives to improve the service’s quality through improvements in IT project management methodology, operational aspects, team management, etc. The challenge was to assure the efficiency of changes across seven projects, each developing a unique separate solution.

I created a tailored IT PM methodology that was further customized to meet each project’s needs. The methodology covered scope management, schedule management, budget management, quality management, risk management, and so on.

Based on architectural, QA, and Spotify-inspired “health check” assessments, I elaborated detailed improvement plans and coordinated them.

In addition, we delivered a custom training program to the portfolio team.

We used Confluence to track the initiative’s scope and open action items for scrum masters and keep written status updates. A separate project dashboard (listing each initiative) provided recent status updates for the stakeholders’ convenience.

ROLE: Project Management Expert

As a part-time project management expert, I contributed to various activities of a project management office.

Project Management Office Goals:
• Assist the company’s transformation from team extension services towards high-value offerings, such as custom software development.
• Increase the effectiveness of the project managers’ work.
• Support the company’s ISO 9001 certification.

My Contributions:
• Created a “runbook” on project estimation, which covered the effort, schedule, and budget estimation of IT projects.
• Composed a “runbook” on risk management.
• Tailored a PMBOK-based project management methodology that described mandatory processes grouped in process groups. It was supported with an extensive template library for project artifacts covering the whole IT project management cycle from project charter to change log, risk log, and so on.
• Built a template library that also included a description of 20+ suggested metrics along with Excel-based charts.
• Authored training on quality management for Agile software development projects.

ROLE: Pre-sales Expert

As project and delivery manager, I coordinated technical teams on the elaboration of commercial proposals aimed at various IT services, including:
• developing custom web-based applications
• migrating from on-premise to public clouds
• provisioning on-site dedicated development teams

ROLE: Agile Project Manager | Requirements Manager
TEAM SIZE: 10 Engineers

The client was a UK-based startup aiming to launch a SaaS platform for corporate planning and performance management. The key objective was to develop a reliable management instrument to help small- and mid-size companies collect corporate data, track performance, monitor projects, manage and control people, time, and funds in the most intelligent way.

A special focus was placed on developing a feature-rich user interface and advanced user experience. This included developing the API, front end, database, mobile website, and web app.

The initial preparation (feature list, low-fidelity wireframes) was done by the customer, and I launched the Scrum team and linked the team to customer reps located in the UK and Australia. We were also in charge of UX/UI development, coding, testing, deployment, and infrastructure support.

At the initial stage, I also trained the development team and customer representatives on working with Scrum and successfully launched Scrum-based development with all the prescribed roles and events. Later, I contributed to polishing requirements (the customer’s responsibility) and elaborating and prioritizing user stories.

ROLE: Project Director

Being a member of the Ukrainian Scout Organization “Plast” since 1993, in 2011-2012, I served as a project director for a 1-week outdoor gathering (i.e., a jamboree), hosting 2,500 participants for the celebration of the organization’s 100th anniversary.

Having joined the project at the very early stages, I organized a steering committee comprising 15 volunteers, each managing a separate service such as camping, entertainment, transportation, catering, etc. Being quite restricted in time, in nine months, we successfully mapped it out, which involved alignment on success criteria with project stakeholders, the definition of goals, and detailed planning for each of the 15 teams, along with preparing for and eventually handling the event.

During the 1-week event, about 500 volunteers were involved; this is the organization’s size that I managed.

ROLE
Web-developer, IT administrator

For more than a decade, I’ve done pro-bono development and hosting administration of my scout organization’s web portal. Starting as a website for the local unit, eventually, the project was recognized as a country-level organization’s official internet representation.

For many years, the portal served as the primary communication hub for the members of my organization. It provided a wide range of services, including:
• News feed
• Knowledge base and articles repository
• Forum (phpBB-based)
• Photo gallery (Coppermine-based)
• Online shop
• Mailing lists

Although the obtained skills and knowledge were never commercialized directly, they make me feel fluent when addressing challenges in the information technology realm.