Mohammad Umar Farooque, Project Manager in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Mohammad Umar Farooque

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Bio

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

Advocate4me Portal Management
Created and managed the portal for healthcare advisors to answer customer queries.
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.
Prescription Home Delivery Services
Enhanced the experience for prescription home delivery services.

Expertise

  • Agile
  • Jira
  • Kanban
  • Pharmacy
  • Rally
  • Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
  • Scrum Coaching
  • Scrum Master

Work Experience

Agile Coach | Scrum Master

2022 - 2023
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

2020 - 2022
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

2018 - 2020
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

2015 - 2018
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 project's goal was to improve the transparency and collaboration between the business and technical teams. The business teams used Aha! to define initiatives and roadmaps, while the technical teams used Jira to implement roadmaps.

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 managed the Agile release train comprising 25 developers, four scrum masters, four product owners, two product managers, and a product management team.

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 facilitated the backlog refinement session for the product management team to prioritize backlogs using the weighted shortest job first (WSJF) method and the MoSCoW method, which stands for must-have, should-have, could-have, and won't have initiatives.

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%.

I trained associates on agile values and principles and the differences between traditional methodology vs. Agile. Ideal scenarios to implement Scrum, Kanban, and ScrumBan

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.

Utilized Agile Scrum practices to help the team to increase their velocity within the first year of adoption by 50%.

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.

As a scrum master for prescription home delivery services, I led and facilitated the organization's Agile development process. I had the opportunity to work with a highly skilled and motivated team of developers and stakeholders.

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.

Created and delivered an Agile Fundamental training deck from scratch and tailored it to the organization's needs. Aligned the training with the Jira hierarchy structure to explain the WBS in Agile project management. Crafted separate training material for the Scrum team and Kanban team.

Education

2014 - 2015

Master's Degree in Industrial Management

The University of Texas at Tyler - Tyler, Texas

2009 - 2013

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering

Visvesvaraya Technological University - Belgaum, India

Certifications

DECEMBER 2017 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe 4 Agilist

Scaled Agile

OCTOBER 2017 - PRESENT

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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