Chris Sykes

I was tasked with taking over integration projects that allowed third-party clients to integrate web APIs to send and receive specific data for their applications and customers using our IoT devices. The program needed to serve clients around the globe, and remote engagements were necessary for all projects to run through the program.

I was the agile project manager in charge of establishing a standard practice for all projects, as well as negotiating the schedule and scope for the project after the product management team completed the initial discovery. I then worked with a small team to build and deliver the scope alongside our third-party partner.

Much of the integrations involved RESTful APIs and testing them out on devices to ensure we met the quality standards of our clients. I led both my team as well as the client’s personnel to build their part of the integration effort.

I led an effort to rewrite an enterprise software program that was utilized by engineers to test and deliver developed software updates to IoT devices around the world that customers had bought. I worked directly with key stakeholders and the development team to gather the project requirements, establish a timeline for the project, and build a project backlog to work through until the product was fully released.
I led discovery exercises, such as story mapping and goal development for the project. I also worked with the team to estimate the user stories and epics that came out of requirements gathering to form an MVP for the product. As the team built out functionality in the MVP, we demonstrated it to our internal customers to gain their feedback to incorporate into the product.
The final result was a lightweight, web-based application that managed the deployment of software updates across the various environments that the engineers built them in. Cycle times for updates were reduced and quality of updates increased as a result of the more simple, streamlined experience the application’s UI offered as well as its more robust performance utilizing RESTful API architecture.