Lalit Chaudhari
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
Toptal member since January 17, 2025
Lalit is an accomplished senior Scrum Master, Agile coach, and Agile transformation consultant with 17+ years in IT for various industries, including banking, finance and insurance, data analytics, cybersecurity, and logistics. He specializes in coaching and mentoring teams and individuals in Agile, Scrum, and Kanban. Lalit has collaborated with McKinsey & Company, Barclays, John Deere, NICE, and Inchcape, improving productivity, development efficiency, and customer centricity.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Leadership
- Agile Project Management
- Agile Transformation
- Azure DevOps
- Jira
- Process Optimization
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Scrum Master
Inchcape Shipping Services
- Launched and managed three major releases of two applications with high customer satisfaction.
- Managed the launch of the OneCape application in integration with the OPTIC app, obtaining no defects and high customer and business satisfaction.
- Optimized team execution workflows for better work transparency, backlog management, and story-writing practices, improving team efficiency by 30%.
Agile Coach, Trainer, and Consultant
Freelance Agile Coaching, Training & Consultation
- Assessed team's Agile maturity, prepared a plan of advancement to the next stage and onboarded Scrum masters for on-ground implementation of a plan of action.
- Coached Scrum and Kanban team members, scrum masters, product owners, stakeholders, and managers on user story writing, story splitting and INVEST, estimations, DOD, DOR, US mapping, backlog management and prioritization, and backlog refinement.
- Provided training on Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and role-based training for Scrum masters and product owners. Conducted and paired up for interviews for roles (Scrum masters, product owners, and Agile coaches).
Scrum Master and Project Manager
Mondia Digital Dubai
- Coached product owners, project managers, stakeholders, and 30+ team members on product backlog management practices, prioritization techniques, value stream mapping, and user story mapping for roadmap planning.
- Removed impediments by having an understanding of the control and release processes.
- Partnered with engineering and product leaders to meet their expectations and achieve desired outcomes, results, and deliverables.
- Worked with the Scrum team and product owners to negotiate the minimum viable products and services for delivery.
Agile Coach and Senior Scrum Master
McKinsey & Company
- Laid out an Agile transformation for the cybersecurity security operations center (SOC) group of more than 8 teams, defining the group transformation, vision, and mission.
- Engaged, set up, baselined, and operationalized an Agile maturity assessment model for all 10 cybersecurity SOC teams, focusing on major KPIs.
- Coached and mentored development teams, product owners, and Scrum Masters on story-writing practices, backlog management, estimation techniques, retrospective techniques, backlog prioritization techniques, and Jira workflow management.
- Built one of the SOC squads from an initial level of Agile maturity to an advanced self-organized level. Facilitated many team/group level workshops (technical and cultural) spanning from three days to two weeks with positive outcomes.
- Collaborated with group coach and other scrum masters to guide the teams towards improving the ways of working, such as communications, collaborations, and continuous improvements to support customers and end-users.
- Coached and guided PMs and team members, along with group coach and chapter members, on managing SAF OKRs using Jira roadmaps to create more alignment and transparency for the teams as well as across the group.
- Coached and guided teams and product/service managers to build and prioritize effective backlog for SOC squads, jointly achieved by creating road-maps and tracking the progress using OKRs in the SOC group. Increased work transparency by 40%.
Scrum Master | Engineering Manager
Barclaycard UK
- Facilitated Scrum ceremonies effectively. Assisted with internal and external communication and improved transparency. Tracked various agile metrics (burn-down chart, enhanced velocity charts, say-do ratio, cycle/lead time chart, defect trend, etc.).
- Coached and guided to negotiate the minimum viable product for delivery. Assisted the team in removing impediments by understanding the control and release processes, and I removed impediments by finding the right personnel to remove them.
- Performed code analysis and reviews as an engineering manager to make sure code quality and standards were maintained. Coached team members on XP practices such as TDD, ATDD, BDD, and pair programming.
Sr. Specialist Scrum Master | Agile Coach | Release Manager
NICE
- Coached and mentored developers, POs, and SMs on Agile practices and continuous improvement techniques, resulting in significantly improved performance through faster delivery, higher quality, better collaboration, and more flexibility.
- Assessed teams' Agile maturity and developed plans to adopt agile Agile-lean values, mindset, processes, principles, and practices. Cultivated, inspected, and adapted culture/mindset through frequent learning cycles, testing, and validating solutions.
- Improved stakeholder communication and cooperation and adaptation to changing data sources, business needs, and customer expectations.
- Provided Agile, Scrum, and Kanban training for 100+ R&D members, including managers and directors. Provided coaching and consultation for Scrum masters and employees to set up the right Agile mindset, culture, and practices.
- Adopted metrics and data-driven decisions increased customer satisfaction and competitive advantage while also reducing errors and improving accuracy, trust, alignment, innovation, and relevance.
- Mentored, trained, and built 5+ new Scrum masters on the production floor.
Scrum Master and Tech Lead
John Deere
- Coached 12+ development teams, product owners, and Scrum Masters on user story writing, story splitting, estimations, DOD, DOR, user story mapping, product backlog management, and prioritization.
- Provided Agile training for many teams in the organization since we were the first to successfully pilot Agile adoption.
- Acted as a release train engineer for six teams, contributing to a single product release train and facilitating pre-program increment planning.
- Scheduled, tracked, and communicated program increment iterations, objectives, and progress to create visibility across teams and the organization.
Project History
OneCape Application for Shipping Services
Launched and managed three major releases for OneCape with high customer satisfaction.
Cybersecurity SOC Group Agile Transformation
Laid out a successful Agile transformation of 8+ cybersecurity security operations center (SOC) teams to improve operational efficiency, productivity, transparency, and customer centricity using OKRs and the strategic alignment framework (SAF).
I enabled teams to remove impediments, enabling self-organization and a problem-solving attitude. I also coached and mentored development teams, product owners, and Scrum Masters on user story writing, story splitting, estimations, "definition of done" (DOD), "definition of ready" (DOR), user story mapping, product backlog management, prioritization, and backlog refinement.
In addition, I assessed new teams on Agile maturity and helped develop plans for them to adopt Agile and its values, processes, principles, and practices. I also conducted many team-level workshops, lasting three days to a week, with very positive outcomes.
As a result of my efforts, I was rewarded with appreciation and a certificate from a foundation chapter community for actively experimenting with Scrum Master craft building and its effectiveness.
mENT and ARENA News
Acted as a Scrum Master and Agile coach for two data analytics and DevOps teams and three mEnt product teams in the MENA, SA, and EU regions, improving efficiency and productivity by 15%.
Emphasizing collaborative problem-solving, I supported the team in developing solutions independently. I spearheaded efforts to clear roadblocks, align expectations, and achieve desired outcomes and deliverables, enhancing internal and external communication channels and fostering transparency within our processes.
By engaging with fellow Scrum Masters, I aimed to optimize the application of Agile methodologies and frameworks across the organization. Collaborating with the Scrum team and product owners, I facilitated negotiations to define the minimum viable products or services for delivery. Lastly, I meticulously tracked various Agile metrics, including burn-down charts, enhanced-velocity charts, say-do ratio, cycle/lead time charts, and defect trends.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering
Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering - Pune, India
Associate's Degree in Electrical Engineering
Government Polytechnic Jalgaon - Jalgaon, India
Certifications
Kanban Management Professional (KMP)
Kanban University
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Jira, Rally, Miro, Confluence, Trello, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, AWS IAM, Splunk, Azure DevOps Services, Azure Boards, Git, GIS
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile, Kanban, Lean, Agile Project Management, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Azure DevOps, Agile Leadership, Waterfall Development, Change Management, DevOps, Agile Software Development, Continuous Delivery (CD), Penetration Testing
Platforms
Azure, Monday.com, Amazon Web Services (AWS), SharePoint, Windows, Linux
Industry Expertise
Agriculture, Banking & Finance
Other
LeanKit, User Stories, Definition of Done (DoD), Retrospective Techniques, Workflow, Coaching, Jira Administration, Mentorship & Coaching, Sprints, Scrum Master, Agile Transformation, Sprint Planning, Backlog Prioritisation, JIRA Cloud Migration, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Agile Software Testing, Center of Excellence (CoE), JIRA Advanced Roadmaps, Backlog Grooming, Agile Sprints, Sprint Backlog, Engineering, Vulnerability Management, Product Roadmaps, Training, Agile Coaching, Kanban Flow Master, Process Optimization, User Workshops, Product Owner, Customer Journeys, QA Testing, Automation, Waterfall Methodology, Business & Digital Transformation, Business Agility, User Personas, Agile Release Training, .NET, Java, Python, Data Analytics, Security, Cybersecurity, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Data Migration, SOC 2, Threat Analytics, Incident Response, Agile DevOps, Agile Maturity, Customer Centricity, Digital Asset Management, Backlog Management, Metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Electrical Design, Wikis, Smartsheet, Matrix Management, Resource Allocation, Workshops, Business Process Optimization, Value Stream Mapping, Shopify Customizations, Telecom Equipment & Solutions, Sprint Retrospectives, Operations, Product Development, Stakeholder Management, Lean Coaching, Customer Satisfaction, Data Analysis, Data Quality Analysis, Rapid7, Data Quality, Data Science, Windows Embedded, API Development, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Scrum Coaching, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), PI Planning, Product Increment, Release Management, CI/CD Pipelines, Version Control, Data Modeling, Data Mapping, Continuous Monitoring, IT Infrastructure, Cloud Infrastructure, Risk Analysis, Exploits, Security Audits, Embedded Hardware, Machine Learning, Hardware Integration, Geographic Information Systems, Algorithms, EIC (Equipment Interface Component), Data Clustering & Classifications, Business Rules Engine, Electrical Engineering, Data, ServiceNow, User Research, Survey Data Analytics, Customer Experience Design, Interaction Analytics, Dashboards, Reporting, Continuous Improvement, AngularJS, Credit Cards, Appian, APIs, insurance claims, Insurance Claims, Agile Trainings, Backlog Management Techniques, Scrum Master Training, Leadership & Coaching, Agile Transformation Consulting, DOR (Definition Of Ready), Scrum Master Interviews, Product Owner Interviews, Interviews
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