Emmanuel is available for hire
Hire EmmanuelEmmanuel Obaze
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Dallas, United States
Toptal member since October 26, 2022
Bio
Emmanuel is a project manager with over six years of leadership experience guiding enterprises and teams through shifts towards the Agile approach, cultivating dynamic and empowered environments, and leading teams to a high-quality delivery. Emmanuel is adept at engaging all organizational levels, facilitating enterprise-wide communication, and leveraging pivotal insights to align diverse views and deliver solutions and innovation to complex software development lifecycle (SDLC) initiatives.
Project Highlights
Attain by Aetna
Managed the successful product launch of the Attain by Aetna app for Aetna and the product partner Apple.
Bank of America Global Card Access
Oversaw and supported multiple scrum teams in launching various releases of Global Card Access for Bank of America.
BofA Point of Sale - Mobile App
Supervised subsequent releases of the BofA Point of Sale - Mobile app.
Expertise
Work Experience
Agile Coach
2019 - PRESENT
Bank of America
- Coached scrum masters and teams in enhancing planning and development processes, balancing workload, and managing dependencies.
- Achieved a 20% reduction in delivery time and a 9% decrease in defects across eight teams.
- Performed value stream identification to align teams in a common approach to work.
- Developed the Agile vision and strategy to enable, grow, and sustain a culture of continuous improvement.
- Bridged the gap between business objectives and scrum teams by establishing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Led adopting the agile tools, artifacts, and ceremonies to promote better investment in team productivity, communication, and autonomy.
Senior Scrum Master
2017 - 2019
Aetna
- Trained the product owner in creating cohesive product roadmaps that draw in the needs of stakeholders.
- Collaborated with the release train engineers (RTEs) to launch SAFe Agile Release Trains, defining the construction of teams, value stream mapping, and refining program and team backlogs.
- Facilitated and coached mobile and web application development teams in the outcomes of backlog refinement, daily standups, sprint planning, sprint review, and sprint retrospective.
- Coached scrum teams in the adoption of test-driven development (TDD) to better code quality and program design and creation of the definition of ready (DOR), the definition of done (DOD), and team charters.
- Influenced, educated, and coached team members, leaders, and business stakeholders on Agile values, principles, and practices related to processes, technology, and products.
Scrum Master
2015 - 2017
Braze
- Directed multiple onshore and offshore scrum teams in Lean and Agile principles to achieve regular high-value delivery.
- Facilitated and coordinated user story interdependency meetings across multiple scrum teams to review and align the team's work to meet the delivery schedule.
- Tracked key metrics through burndown, burnup, team velocity, and radiating progress for the teams and stakeholders.
- Forecasted and removed team impediments, escalating as necessary to the management.
- Built a trusting environment conducive to collaboration, transparency, sustainable work, and high-quality value delivery.
Project Manager
2014 - 2015
Martin Gold
- Developed and refined project plans to specify goals, strategy, staffing, scheduling, identification of risks, contingency plans, and allocation of available resources.
- Maintained inventory of all data and analytics finance, compliance, research, and innovation and maintained an integrated roadmap.
- Managed changes to the project scope, schedule, and costs using appropriate verification techniques in order to keep the project plan accurate, updated, and reflective of authorized project changes.
- Identified user expectations, processes, and inputs/outputs necessary to develop a specific functionality/outcome.
- Mitigated issues and risks proactively with the project team, business partners, and leadership.
Project History
Attain by Aetna
https://www.attainbyaetna.comManaged the successful product launch of the Attain by Aetna app for Aetna and the product partner Apple.
On this project, I led over 30 developers, QA engineers, UX designers, and analysts across three teams to launch the Attain by Aetna app in collaboration with Apple. Through this product, Aetna could leverage the unique health history of medical members and offer personalized goals with wearable devices to help members create healthier habits.
My role in delivering this product was supporting RTEs to launch SAFe Agile Release Trains, defining the construction of teams, value stream mapping, and refining program and team backlogs. I coached scrum teams in creating the DOD and DOR and adopting TDD to improve product quality.
Furthermore, I collaborated with product owners in building effective roadmaps, identifying stakeholder requirements, prioritizing backlogs, and leveraging key metrics to provide visibility to stakeholders on team and product progress, thus facilitating sustainable incremental delivery.
My role in delivering this product was supporting RTEs to launch SAFe Agile Release Trains, defining the construction of teams, value stream mapping, and refining program and team backlogs. I coached scrum teams in creating the DOD and DOR and adopting TDD to improve product quality.
Furthermore, I collaborated with product owners in building effective roadmaps, identifying stakeholder requirements, prioritizing backlogs, and leveraging key metrics to provide visibility to stakeholders on team and product progress, thus facilitating sustainable incremental delivery.
Bank of America Global Card Access
https://business.bofa.com/en-us/content/global-card-access-portal-features.htmlOversaw and supported multiple scrum teams in launching various releases of Global Card Access for Bank of America.
I managed mobile application scrum teams of developers and testers in the successful launch and subsequent releases of Global Card Access for Bank of America. Through this app, Bank of America could provide real-time travel solutions for executive travelers, provide options to manage balances and contactless payments, adjust insurance policies, and activate cards.
My role involved supporting product owners in backlog prioritization and maintenance and facilitating the translation of requirements to the development team. I coached scrum teams in identifying dependencies and improved transparency through leveraging agile ceremonies and proactive communication.
The project transformed underperforming scrum teams within 90 days, improved the committed forecast rate by 24%, and reduced the defect ratio by 35%.
My role involved supporting product owners in backlog prioritization and maintenance and facilitating the translation of requirements to the development team. I coached scrum teams in identifying dependencies and improved transparency through leveraging agile ceremonies and proactive communication.
The project transformed underperforming scrum teams within 90 days, improved the committed forecast rate by 24%, and reduced the defect ratio by 35%.
BofA Point of Sale - Mobile App
Supervised subsequent releases of the BofA Point of Sale - Mobile app.
I directed two mobile development scrum teams in post-launch releases of the BofA Point of Sale - Mobile app, designed to support merchants in the seamless processing of customer payments.
The releases I led involved expanding contactless payment options and improving the user interface for real-time sales reporting, Bluetooth connectivity, transaction history, and more. Guiding both scrum teams to a stabilized velocity, I met release targets, facilitated organizational alignment on release cycles, and spearheaded the establishment of sustainable performance improvement.
The releases I led involved expanding contactless payment options and improving the user interface for real-time sales reporting, Bluetooth connectivity, transaction history, and more. Guiding both scrum teams to a stabilized velocity, I met release targets, facilitated organizational alignment on release cycles, and spearheaded the establishment of sustainable performance improvement.
Education
2013 - 2017
Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Certifications
DECEMBER 2022 - PRESENT
Certified SAFe Practitioner
Scaled Agile
MAY 2022 - PRESENT
Agile Team Facilitation Certification (ICP-ATF)
ICAgile
APRIL 2022 - PRESENT
Agile Coaching Certification (ICP-ACC)
ICAgile
FEBRUARY 2022 - PRESENT
Certified SAFe 5 Scrum Master
Scaled Agile
OCTOBER 2021 - PRESENT
Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)
Scrum.org
Skills
Tools
Jira, Slack, Zoom, Trello, Google Sheets, Microsoft Project, Google Workspace, Miro, MURAL, Tableau, SQL
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile, Servant Leadership, Kanban, Azure DevOps, DevOps, Waterfall Development
Platforms
Productboard
Other
Microsoft Teams, Scrum Master, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Agile Coaching, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Sizing, Outlook, Stakeholder Management, Backlog Management, Facilitation, Webex, Jira Align, Human Resources (HR), Octopus Deploy, Project Management
Collaboration That Works
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