Muhammad Ahmad Raza
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Toptal member since February 3, 2022
Raza is an experienced scrum master and agile project manager with over 11 years of experience in the software development industry. He delivered four working products to different sectors, including leasing, education, and healthcare. He led the Agile transformation from the traditional Waterfall methodology in a big enterprise. Raza loves to work on new product ideas and help people deliver their products to the market.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Project Management
- Client Relationship Management
- Distributed Team Management
- IT Product Management
- ITSM
- Scrum Master
- Web Development
- Web Project Management
Work Experience
Agile Project Manager
Netsol
- Guided the clients in converting their idea into a working product by working closely with the client product owner and their management. Scrum methodology was used to deliver work in two-week sprints.
- Managed the overall client relationship and gained one more reference client from this successful relationship.
- Created an Azure Pipelines setup to help the team automate their builds and deployments.
- Started and completed project in agile Scrum. Implemented Kanban for beta and live environment.
Agile Project Manager
NorthBay Solutions
- Joined as an associate project manager and moved to an agile project manager role within three months. I delivered the first working project related to DevOps (Apache Airflow) on AWS services within three months.
- Contributed to one of complex products initiatives related to the data lake. Managed a team of 22 people in multiple remote locations effectively.
- Worked in-depth with the product owner and company CEO to deliver major product features in proper sprints and releases.
Agile Project Manager
Netsol
- Joined the development team in the crisis phase of the project. There was a huge expectation gap on when the product will be ready versus actual development. I managed client communication effectively and eventually went live on production.
- Increased client collections by 30% in the first three months of product implementation. Manual work was reduced by 70% related to collections.
- Received appreciation from the client CTO and country manager on successful completion of first product implementation.
Scrum Master
Netsol
- Joined the team that was struggling with their developed work, overall approach for software development, and lacks in product vision. I trained the team on Agile and Scrum methodologies and converted it into a productive scrum team.
- Delivered a product within the expected timeline to internal management. I managed to demonstrate the product to multiple potential clients, including internal stakeholders.
- Implemented a product in a live environment for one of the biggest corporations in China.
Agile Project Manager
Netsol
- Joined as a junior project manager and got promoted to an agile project manager.
- Led the Agile transformation in a big team of 50 people from traditional methodology.
- Managed the complete implementation of Jira and Jira service desk for internal teams of 400 people and ten clients. Received a performance excellence award for successful implementation.
Senior Client Services Officer
Netsol
- Acted as a client services officer and promoted to senior client services officer to manage a team of two people. Worked with more than 20 clients in different regions and time zones to address all their issues.
- Idealized and led in-house SLA tracking tool development and implementation.
- Managed the production issues of big companies and provided round-the-clock support to different regions ranging from Mexico to Australia.
Project History
Leasing Application for Banks
Managed a complete lifecycle of leasing product from initiation of an idea to delivery of the product in live environment.
I served as an agile project manager to produce a three-tier application for a leasing company. Led this initiative from the start till live deployment. This project spanned over two years. Managed a team of eight members during this project.
Literacy Product Development
https://www.dil.org/Formed a team from scratch and managed to deliver the first version of the product in less than six months.
Started this idea as a first team member and onboarded five team members to complete and deliver a product for underprivileged students and teachers to improve literacy in remote areas of Pakistan. Trained resources on Agile and Scrum, ranging from development team members to product owners.
Atlassian Jira Implementation
http://netsolpk.atlassian.netLed an initiative in a large team of 400 people to implement Jira as task management, primary reporting, and sales pipeline tool.
Managed the Atlassian Jira implementation activity in a team of 400 people. Handled all challenges related to change management and people’s reluctance to accept the new product. Successfully formed and trained the administration team to continue the operations. This team has managed 200,000 tickets to date, and the project now has 1,600 active users.
Collection Management Mobile App
Joined the project in very bad shape where the client was not happy about the progress. Managed client communication and internal team efficiently to deliver the project in three months.
Managed a collection management app, one of the Indonesian market’s newest ideas, which was about to fail due to miscommunications and other challenges. Efficiently managed all communication and internal team challenges to successfully deliver the product in three months.
Data Lake Product
Managed a complex data lake product development as an agile project manager for 12 sprints.
Managed multi-scrum teams to deliver the first phase of a complex data lake product on AWS. Due to the complexity of the project, multiple stakeholders had very tricky relationships, including the relationship of the CEO with staff. Directly worked with CEO and other stakeholders to successfully deliver phase one and managed 22 people for 12 sprints.
VR Showroom for European Car Maker
Collaborated with the product owner to develop a working prototype of a VR showroom for the European car maker and presented it to the car manufacturer as an additional product to the company's core business.
Procured hardware required to build the VR showroom and managed a team of designers and developers to create the MVP of the product. I led the whole project from the inception to the delivery phase and worked directly with the product owner to understand the requirements and help bridge the gap between the team and the product owner while managing the cost.
Health Care Analytics Platform
Worked as a pioneer member of the team, helping the client establish a working team. Collaborated with the team to implement Azure DevOps Server. Promoted to a PM after eight months and delivered an MVP product within the expected schedule.
Worked as an Agile project manager on this product and formed a team from scratch. Took responsibility for the overall success and failure of the project, getting promoted to the role of product manager. Performed requirement gathering and backlog grooming sessions. Wrote epics and stories, prioritizing backlog for sprints. Created the product roadmap. Worked closely with the client stakeholders to create an MVP document. Delivered a working MVP within the expected timeline. Provided progress reporting to all stakeholders in a timely manner.
Started this project in Agile methodology and, after one year, converted this project to Kanban. It helped the team to reduce waste and improve cycle time.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Bahauddin Zakariya University - Multan, Pakistan
Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology
Bahauddin Zakariya University - Multan, Pakistan
Certifications
Scrum@Scale Practitioner
Scrum Inc.
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum.org
ITIL Foundation Certification
Axelos
Skills
Tools
Jira, Google Slides, Excel 2016, SQL, Slack, Zoom, NGINX, Apache Airflow, Confluence
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Planning Poker, Requirements Analysis, Kanban, Agile, Azure DevOps, Scrum, Penetration Testing, DevOps, Agile Product Management
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure
Other
Scrum Master, Distributed Team Management, Team Management, IT Project Management, Web Project Management, Remote Work, Remote Team Leadership, Project Planning, Agile Sprints, Sprint Ceremonies, Sprint Planning, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Jira Administration, Client Relationship Management, IT Product Management, Mobile Apps, Product Vision, Project Timelines, Web Development, Web Design, Process Improvement, Team Mentoring, Estimation & Planning, Project Discovery, Mobile App Development, Google Drive, Discovery Workshops, Mobile Applications, Staffing, Sprint Retrospectives, Web Applications, Project Management, APIs, Team Building, Agile Product Delivery, Jira Administrator, Project Delivery, Business Requirements, QA Testing, Data Lakes, Senior Executive Management, Release Management, IT Support, Email Support, ISTM Service Desk, Scrum@Scale, ITIL V3 Foundation Certified, ITSM, Agile Coaching, Software Implementation, New Products, Client Management, Costing, Reporting, AWS Cloud Computing Services, AWS Lambda, User Stories, Product Owner, Client Delivery Management, Virtual Reality (VR), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Demos, Product Management, Stakeholder Management, Product Roadmaps, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Progress Reporting, Web UX, Performance, Business Analysis
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