Sharad Shah
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Brampton, ON, Canada
Toptal member since September 30, 2022
Sharad is an accomplished scrum master with a decade of experience in the IT industry. He holds Agile certifications from PMI (PMI-ACC) and Scrum Alliance (CSP-SM), attesting to his expertise in the field. Sharad has managed multiple teams and successfully led them through the transition from Waterfall to Agile methodologies by applying Agile principles. Sharad's expertise and guidance make him an excellent choice for organizations looking to adopt or improve their Agile practices.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Agile Project Management
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
- IT Product Management
- IT Project Management
- PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Senior Kanban Lead
Insight Global
- Served as an agile Kanban lead within data management insights in corporate investment banking and wealth and investment management.
- Set up the Kanban system across multiple teams and portfolio dashboards.
- Drove two Kanban teams to higher maturity, empowered cross-function, and secured a ranking in the top 15% of Wells Fargo teams.
- Led all Agile and Kanban cadences, daily calls, retrospectives, and quarterly assessments. Also, conducted backlog grooming sessions and represented the product teams at weekly senior stakeholder meetings.
Product Manager
Celestica - Celestica International GP Inc.
- Spearheaded the management of three key products, resulting in over 50% increase in overall product efficiency.
- Transitioned the product development process from manual to automated workflows using ServiceNow, reducing the manual work by over 50%.
- Implemented PowerBI for product reporting, providing the team with real-time insights and data-driven decision-making capabilities.
- Experienced project manager in mechanical engineering and materials, leading global manufacturing projects. Skilled in risk, vendor, and stakeholder management, optimizing workflows, and driving automation for efficiency.
Scrum Master
Avenue One
- Spearheaded Scrum practices and values within two PODs, each comprising 7-9 members. Fostered Scrum maturity and continuous improvement, ensuring the effective implementation of Scrum principles.
- Successfully managed two PODs, each with 7-9 members, overseeing their day-to-day activities and ensuring alignment with project goals. This involved frequent coordination and communication.
- Led initiatives to enhance Scrum maturity within both PODs, guiding the teams in embracing the values and practices of Scrum. Utilized tools like Jira, Confluence, and Lucidchart to create transparent workflows and documentation.
- Worked closely with a team responsible for managing APIs, services, and integrating with various products, in one of the PODs.
- Collaborated with a team working on the development of a debt platform for property deals, including deal management and portfolio creation, in the other POD.
- Achieved notable Scrum maturity improvements in two PODs, enhancing efficiency, collaboration, and product quality using Unqork, Sprockets, JIRA, Monday, Figma, LucidChart, and Confluence.
Senior Scrum Master
Cognizant
- Served as a scrum master, led a team of 22 people, and adopted the Wells Fargo hybrid framework that combines Agile and Waterfall.
- Oversaw three Scrum teams on three different microservices and worked with product owners and the tech lead on planning at least two sprint backlogs.
- Empowered the Scrum team to be more organized and identify and remove distractions to meet the sprint goal.
- Coached product owners in creating user stories that meet the definition of ready requirements.
Senior Scrum Master
Infosys
- Worked as a SAFe scrum master for Intel's NPI (New Product Introduction) project and played a key role in helping the team deliver high-quality product increments and continuously improve their processes and practices.
- Applied servant leadership and oversaw a team of 55 engineers, five scrum teams, 14 products, and multiple software projects.
- Facilitated the scrum of scrums and ensured the teams worked together effectively.
- Collaborated with the teams to manage the ART Backlog, a prioritized list of features and capabilities that must be developed to achieve program objectives.
- Worked on SAFe PI planning, where I collaborated with the product owner to create team objectives and map user stories for those objectives.
Senior Business Analyst
Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Collaborated closely with stakeholders, subject matter experts, and end users to gather and document business requirements for a project or product. Ensure the requirements were well-defined, testable, and aligned with business objectives.
- Analyzed and modeled existing business processes to identify inefficiencies, gaps, and areas for improvement. Conducted process mapping, gap analysis, and root cause analysis to identify opportunities for optimization.
- Acted as a liaison between business stakeholders and the development team, facilitating communication and collaboration. Coordinated meetings, documented decisions, and ensured that everyone was aligned on project goals and priorities.
- Managed the scope and change by ensuring project requirements were well-defined, documented, and communicated to all stakeholders.
Senior Business Analyst
Global System
- Implemented the Scrum methodology for a 12-member development team, creating a backlog, gathering requirements, and delivering processes and workflows.
- Collaborated with the director of technology and general property manager to maintain employee profiles for 600+ individuals on the Identity Management Software.
- Ensured regulatory requirement compliance related to identity management, including regulatory change management, policy management, risk assessment, monitoring and testing, training and awareness, issues management, and governance and oversights.
- Ensured HIPAA compliance for identity management, including 270/271, 276/277, 820, 835, and 837 EDIs, regulatory change management, risk assessment, and governance.
- Delivered measurable outcomes through various services, such as pay-for-performance, member-provider matching, ACO and telehealth options, and specializations in SUD, MAT, ABA, and eating disorders.
Business Analyst
Quest Infosense
- Enhanced online access for customers to log in and access the current savings and fixed deposit accounts, including an application to provide account summary, a facility to transfer funds between different accounts, and online bill payment.
- Served as a liaison between stakeholders and the project team by assisting the business in identifying processes and documenting their business needs. Conducted requirements gathering workshops and did reverse engineering.
- Interacted with SMEs and carefully recorded the requirements in a format that can be reviewed and understood by both business and technical people. Identified actors and use cases to create use case diagrams that described the system's behavior.
- Handled the online banking application for a centralized customer access - savings account, checking account, and credit card account via the Internet.
Project History
Waterfall to Agile Transformation
Led three teams to become cross-functional and self-managing while providing guidance and support to ensure alignment with project goals. Fostered a culture of CI, resulting in increased productivity, innovation, and better project outcomes.
• Played a key role as the scrum master in the Wells Fargo mainframe application conversion to microservices project, driving the team toward a successful outcome.
• Established a culture of openness and transparency, improving team communication and collaboration, leading to more effective teamwork.
• Collaborated closely with the team to identify and eliminate obstacles hindering progress, increasing team velocity and productivity.
• Ensured timely and efficient delivery of high-quality microservices and modernization enhancements.
• Focused on improving stakeholder satisfaction by closely collaborating with stakeholders, understanding their needs and priorities, and keeping them informed of the team’s progress.
• Successfully drove the team towards a successful outcome, completing the Wells Fargo mainframe application conversion to microservices project on time and within budget.
• Supported the team in adopting Agile principles and practices, promoting continuous improvement throughout the project.
• Played a pivotal role in maintaining a positive and productive work environment, fostering high team morale and motivation.
SAFe Implementation and Transformation Initiative
Drove the success of the Intel NPI project by ensuring the delivery of high-quality product increments, prioritizing continuous improvement, and fostering effective collaboration with stakeholders to achieve business objectives.
• Successfully facilitated the PI planning meeting for Intel’s NPI (New Product Introduction) project, ensuring a clear understanding of objectives, priorities, and dependencies for the upcoming program increment.
• Worked closely with teams to ensure their readiness for the PI planning meeting, conducting backlog refinement and pre-planning sessions to address any impediments or dependencies.
• Supported the RTE in coordinating and orchestrating the PI planning meeting, managing the agenda, and facilitating discussions to ensure effective team collaboration and alignment.
• Collaborated with product management and product owners to align team objectives with the overall business goals and priorities, translating them into actionable user stories.
• Ensured continuous improvement by facilitating discussions on process enhancements and identifying bottlenecks during the PI planning meeting.
• Promoted a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging teams to adopt practices that enhance their performance in future iterations.
• Played a key role in helping the team deliver high-quality product increments and continuously improve their processes and practices throughout the Intel NPI project.
Agile Transformation with Kanban
Led multiple teams within the quarter to achieve Well Fargo's top-performing team and increased Agile maturity levels by implementing effective Agile methodologies and promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
• Managed over 17 developers, testers, and analysts across two teams for the Wells Fargo project in partnership with DMI.
• Led the data management insights and enterprise data lake initiative for corporate investment banking and wealth investment management.
• Oversaw data ingestion, conformance, curation, and data publishing to downstream partners for financial and regulatory reporting.
• Implemented Kanban methodology as the Kanban lead to enhance team maturity and optimize workflow.
• Introduced and enforced Work in Progress (WIP) limits for improved focus and capacity management.
• Increased team productivity and reduced bottlenecks in the workflow by implementing Kanban practices.
• Conducted daily and weekly cadences to address obstacles and ensure progress toward project goals.
• Collaborated closely with teams to identify areas of improvement and implement continuous improvement practices.
• Achieved consistent delivery of high-quality work with increased speed.
• Achieved heightened customer satisfaction and more robust business outcomes for Wells Fargo.
Coaching Agile Teams and Implementing Kanban Fundamentals
Integrated multiple APIs for Moody's data retrieval. Received positive feedback from Moody's teams on the effectiveness and reliability of the implemented APIs.
• Successfully coached Moody’s Agile teams.
• Implemented Kanban fundamentals for improved workflow.
• Educated teams on Agile principles and Kanban concepts.
• Visualized workflow using Kanban boards.
• Set explicit limits on work in progress (WIP).
• Measured and monitored flow with metrics like CFDs, lead time, and cycle time.
• Fostered a culture of continuous improvement.
• Conducted regular retrospectives for team reflection.
• Promoted collaboration and effective communication.
• Adapted coaching approach to Moody’s context.
• Successfully integrated multiple APIs to provide data/information retrieval capabilities.
• Collaborated with Moody’s other teams to understand their requirements.
• Developed efficient and scalable API solutions.
• Ensured seamless communication and coordination between teams.
• Implemented robust error handling and data validation mechanisms.
• Conducted thorough testing and validation of API functionality.
• Delivered high-quality APIs within the specified timeline.
• Enabled Moody’s teams to retrieve data/information quickly and efficiently.
Education
Master's Degree in Digital Forensics
University of the Cumberlands - Williamsburg, KY, USA
Master's Degree in Information Systems
Stratford University - Falls Church, VA, USA
Certifications
Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional
Databricks
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate
Microsoft
PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Certified Agile Leadership for Organizations
Scrum Alliance
Kanban Management Professional (KMP)
Kanban University
Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Professional Scrum Product Owner Level II (PSPO II)
Scrum.org
Professional Scrum Master Level II (PSM II)
Scrum.org
SAFe 4 Agilist
Scaled Agile
Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
Scrum Alliance
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master
Scaled Agile
Agile Coaching Certification (ICP-ACC)
ICAgile
Skills
Tools
Jira, Atlassian Suite, Salesforce, Microsoft Power BI, VersionOne, Office 365, SQL, Confluence, Trello, Rally, Asana, Azure Machine Learning, R, ETL
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile, Agile Project Management, Servant Leadership, DevOps, Microservices Architecture, Testing, Agile Leadership, Microservices, Agile Software Development, Kanban, Azure DevOps, Lean Project Management, Implementation Project Management, Requirements Analysis, Proptech, Event-driven Architecture
Platforms
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure
Industry Expertise
Financial Services
Other
IT Business Analysis, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, Agile Coaching, SAFe 4 Advanced Scrum Master, Stakeholder Management, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Project Coordination, Quality Assurance (QA), Technical Project Management, Team Leadership, Hybrid Project Management, App Development, Online Payments, Business Analysis, Feature Prioritization, User Requirements, Sprint Planning, Project Planning, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), User Experience (UX), Web Development, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Project Tracking, Business Process Analysis, Estimation & Planning, Business Requirements, System Requirements, Product Management, IT Project Management, Project Management Professional (PMP), IT Product Management, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Product Owner, Jira Align, Scrumban, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Hybrid Frameworks, Technical Program Management, Agile Program Management, Cybersecurity, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence (BI), Project Management, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Digital Platform Development, System Administration, Microsoft 365, Product Development, Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Hardware, Digital Project Management, Lean Product Development, Integration, Human Resources (HR), GAP Analysis, SaaS Product Management, Process Automation, Project Reporting, Inventory Management, New Product Development, Digital Forensics, Information Theory, Data Analysis, Business Systems Analysis, Healthcare IT, Healthcare & Insurance, Selenium, Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), APIs, API Integration, Business Solutions, Evaluation, Elicitation, Collaboration, Python, Serverless Architecture, Technical Product Management, Big Data, Apache Spark, Delta Lake, Data Pipelines, Data Lakehouse, Data Modeling, Database Security, Databricks, Microsoft Azure, Vendors & Suppliers, ServiceNow, SAP, Machinery, Energy Management, Materials Management, Mechanical Engineering
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