
Mohammad Umar Farooque
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Toptal member since June 24, 2022
Mohammad is a Scaled-certified scrum master and Agilist with seven years of experience applying the methodologies. He has an enterprise-level background working in the US for five years and at a US-based firm in India for the last two years. Mohammad has trained associates on Agile methodology, helped transition waterfall teams to Agile, and conducted communities of practice (CoPs).
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Jira
- Kanban
- Pharmacy
- Rally
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Scrum Coaching
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Agile Coach | Scrum Master
Toptal Client | A Large Company in the Crop-Nutrition Industry
- Joined the team as Scrum Master and successfully onboarded two new Scrum teams to the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
- Facilitated Scrum ceremonies for web and mobile platform teams.
- Participated in monthly system demos for three value streams with the dependent team and stakeholders.
- Assisted the product management team in prioritizing and refining the backlog for the PI planning event.
- Assisted RTE with the PI planning for multiple value streams.
- Trained and coached teams into using Kanban boards to manage idle time.
- Led scrum teams under one product backlog to improve team velocity and the delivery of backlog items.
Agile Coach | Scrum Master
Broadridge Financial Solutions
- Joined the team as an Agile coach and delivered Agile training for 750+ associates.
- Created training materials, documented best practices, and led CoPs.
- Mentored and coached the Agile team facilitators in perceiving Agile correctly.
- Introduced and shared the Agile best practices across different teams.
- Resolved team impediments with other scrum masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization.
- Functioned as the scrum master for Jira Support for enhancements and acquisitions.
- Ensured that the team understood Scrum and adhered to Scrum theory, practice, and guidelines.
Scrum Master | Agile Coach
Optum
- Facilitated the development process and acted as a scrum master. The development process was facilitated by organizing and leading Agile ceremonies such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning sessions, and retrospectives.
- Ensured that the team clearly understood the project goals, priorities, and expectations and that everyone was aligned toward the same objectives.
- Identified and removed obstacles that were preventing the team from achieving its goals.
- Spotted risks, issues, and dependencies that could impact the development process and worked with the team to address these challenges.
- Ensured collaboration and communication between the development team, product owner, and other stakeholders.
Agile Project Manager | Scrum Master
Optum
- Joined the team as a scrum master and assisted product managers, release train engineers, project managers, and product owners in running enterprise-level Agile ceremonies.
- Led scrum ceremonies such as product backlog groomings, sprint plannings, daily stand-ups, sprint demos, and sprint retrospectives.
- Set up a monthly cadence showcase on product development for business teams and stakeholders to demonstrate the business value achieved.
- Developed and generated executive reports for the Agile team's performance, including capability assessments.
- Constructed action plans with Agile coaches to improve performance.
- Created scrum master duties for three delivery teams.
- Prepared and delivered training materials for business training.
Project History
Aha! and Jira Integration
Achieved effective release and program increment planning, improved transparency and collaboration between the business and technical teams, and increased stakeholders' participation.
The first step to integrating the two tools was standardizing the Jira schemas. I worked with a focus group to define a list of Jira issue types, fields, and screens based on industry best practices.
Next, I worked with Jira Support to standardize the Jira schemas, and with Aha! Support to set the map and integrate fields for the smooth flow of information between the two tools.
The third step was to start with pilot teams to validate that the integration was working.
Lastly, I documented and standardized the best practices for new teams to adopt the integration. I also communicated the integration at an organizational level via a CoP and newsletters.
Advocate4me Portal Management
Created and managed the portal for healthcare advisors to answer customer queries.
I also led scrum of scrums for cross-team dependencies and scheduled biweekly demos for stakeholders in coordination with the release team. I enabled the program management council to gather and prioritize requirements for epics and features and facilitated hackathons and brainstorming sessions for developers to share technical best practices.
MVP Launch for a Healthcare Integrated Solution
Launched the integration solution's minimum viable product (MVP) for a healthcare project two months before the planned date.
I led strategic release planning and tactical iteration planning sessions. I also led Scrum ceremonies such as product backlog grooming, sprint plannings, daily stand-ups, sprint demos, and sprint retrospectives.
My other responsibilities included providing hands-on guidance and coaching to developers, testers, and business analysts through all phases of Agile development and proactively identifying issues and adjusting priorities and resource assignments. I also presented reports to management on progress, issues, risks, and budget.
Implement Agile for Security team
Streamlined the ticketing process and improved the lead time by 70%.
Conducted training sessions for the team on how to use Jira for ticketing purposes, creating a Kanban board, creating a workflow, WIP Limits, and metrics to measure throughput, Lead time, and Cycle time.
Healthcare Platform for Veterans
Launched MVP of healthcare platform for veterans and incrementally added MMF to the existing platform.
Mentored a cross-functional team of 10 people to deliver a quality product.
Track and remove internal and external impediments for the scrum team.
Facilitate and plan for go-live activities.
Prescription Home Delivery Services
Enhanced the experience for prescription home delivery services.
One of the primary challenges I faced was balancing the demands of the business with the realities of the development process. Prescription home delivery services have unique requirements, including regulatory compliance and patient privacy concerns, that must be carefully considered in the development process. To address this challenge, I worked closely with the product owner and stakeholders to ensure their priorities aligned with the team's capacity to deliver. I also facilitated the development of a prioritization process that helped the team focus on the most important and high-value features.
Agile Fundamental Training for a Fintech Organization
Delivered an Agile Fundamental training to 750+ associates in a fintech organization.
Education
Master's Degree in Industrial Management
The University of Texas at Tyler - Tyler, Texas
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering
Visvesvaraya Technological University - Belgaum, India
Certifications
Certified SAFe 4 Agilist
Scaled Agile
Certified SAFe Scrum Master
Scaled Agile
Skills
Tools
Jira, Rally, Confluence
Paradigms
Agile, Lean, Scrum, Agile Project Management, Kanban, Agile Product Management, Key Performance Metrics, Agile Leadership, Digital Marketing Best Practices, Six Sigma, Release Trains
Platforms
SharePoint
Industry Expertise
Insurance Technology (Insurtech), Healthcare
Other
Scrum Master, IT Projects, Transparency, Training, Scrum Coaching, Community of Practice, Sprint Planning, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Frameworks, Sprint Ceremonies, Backlog Grooming, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Project Management, Agile Scaling Frameworks, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Feature Prioritization, Agile Coaching, Technical Project Management, Workshops, Finance, SAFe 4 Advanced Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Professional, Pharmacy, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Aha!, Engineering, Communication, Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean IT, Client Coordination, Scrumban, Release Management, CSP
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