Mohammad Umar Farooque

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.