Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Languages
Accomplishments
Timeline
SeniorSoftwareEngineer
Amala A Senior Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer

Amala A Senior Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer

Hyderabad

Summary

An Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer & Experienced Scrum Master Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Professional (ICP-ACC, CSP-SM, A-CSM, SAFe Agilist, SAFe 5 SASM) having about 16+ years of exp. in IT Industry and 8+ years experience in Agile leadership roles like Enterprise Agile Coach, Team Coach, RTE and Scrum Master with strong development background.

Experience in MySQL, Tableau, IBM Cognos, OBIEE 11g, ETL (DataStage), Oracle 12C, WebSphere Message Broker, HTML and JavaScript.

Experience in various domains like BFSI, HealthCare, Commercial Real Estate and Telecom. Worked for various clients like HSBC, CIGNA Healthcare, Cable & Wireless and GE Consumer Finance.

Part of various Agile Groups, Meet ups and contributor on various agile groups on networking sites. Experience in Agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, SAFe and LeSS.Serve as the servant leader for your team(s) by ensuring clear communication and helping the team reach its goal. This role will drive the adoption of Scrum and various other agile methodologies to focus on value, flow, quality, predictability, modern engineering practices, and driving continuous improvement of their teams as well as work with other Agile coaches and Scrum Masters within your area.You will also facilitate team productivity by removing impediments that may obstruct the pursuit of the team's goals and by preserving flexibility and ability to rapidly respond to changes on the team.Certified Scrum Master, Safe Scrum Master - an experienced leader who serves towards devising and implementing strategic teamwork solutions that foster communication and collaboration across geographically distributed cross- functional teams. Accomplished at introducing and facilitating the adoption of Scrum principles, removing impediments, and promoting self- organization. MBA &B Tech, PG Diploma in Data mining offering more than 10+ years of rich experience in the IT Industry; expertise entails: - Agile frameworks - Scrum, Kanban - Software Testing Lifecycle Management (STLC) - Manual & Automation Testing - Quality Assurance (QA) - Test Case Design & Execution - Defect Management / Bug Trac - Banking& Finance &Telecomm Domain - Scrum& iterative development, Client Relationship Management - Team Management/Trainings Ability to translate stakeholder requirements in to different tangible deliverables such as functional specifications, use cases, user stories, workflow/process flow diagrams and user acceptance criteria document Resourceful in handling all aspects of SDLC/ STLC inclusive of analyzing client’s requirements, suggesting technology-based solutions, testing & scheduling project for releases; familiar & working in the Agile Form (Scrum) of SDLC Organize and facilitate project planning, daily stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives, sprint/release planning, demos &other Scrum-related meetings. Manage sprint planning and execution, which includes the management of project progress and provide status & visibility

Overview

12
12
years of professional experience
11
11
Certification

Work History

MBA &B Tech, PG Diploma in Data mining

  • Offering more than 10+ years of rich experience in the IT Industry; expertise entails:
  • Agile frameworks - Scrum, Kanban
  • Software Testing Lifecycle Management (STLC)
  • Manual & Automation Testing
  • Quality Assurance (QA)
  • Test Case Design & Execution
  • Defect Management / Bug Tracking
  • Banking & Finance & Telecomm Domain
  • Scrum & iterative development, Client Relationship Management
  • Team Management/Trainings
  • Ability to translate stakeholder requirements into different tangible deliverables such as functional specifications, use cases, user stories, workflow/process flow diagrams, and user acceptance criteria document
  • Resourceful in handling all aspects of SDLC/ STLC inclusive of analyzing client’s requirements, suggesting technology-based solutions, testing & scheduling project for releases; familiar & working in the Agile Form (Scrum) of SDLC
  • Organize and facilitate project planning, daily stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives, sprint/release planning, demos & other Scrum-related meetings
  • Manage sprint planning and execution, which includes the management of project progress and provide status & visibility
  • Work with Product Management, Business Analyst, Architects, and UI designers to plan ahead and ensure product backlog is prioritized, groomed, and has sufficient detail, so that it is ready to be worked on by Scrum teams to avoid any downtime, ambiguity or rework
  • Create and maintain release burn downs, velocity projections and project forecasts in order to create project visibility and enable timely project adjustments
  • Led and coordinate the daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint demos, sprint retrospectives and backlog refinements resulting in on-time delivery rate of 97%
  • Tight grip on agile estimating & planning, forecasting, conflict resolutions
  • Helped the team to develop, capture, and analyze metrics to facilitate team improvements resulting in the automation of manual reports that saved 35 hours monthly
  • Assisted product owners and project managers in preparing and refining the backlog for Program Increment (large scale planning) as well as sprint planning, Familiar with the concepts of project planning & execution from scope management to activity sequencing, risk analysis to QA; successfully executed Testing & Automation projects for Web Applications using Selenium & Cypress – Automation Tools
  • Proficiency in Software Testing involving setting-up of test environment, creation of test scripts / cases, execution of Testing, Defect Management, Bug Tracking & Reporting with expertise in utilizing Tools like HP ALM, Jira
  • A Customer-Centric Professional with abilities in custom designing Automation solutions & motivating team members to maintain deliverables as per SLAs negotiated with clients; recognized for outstanding problem solving, communication and analytical skills
  • An Effective Leader with abilities in guiding team members, allocating resources among them and enabling knowledge sharing among the teams; regularly updated team on Testing Activities & Other Requirements through Daily Scrum Calls & Stand -up Meetings
  • Worked onsite ( UK & UAE) as Scrum Master
  • Have great communication skills, worked with USA, UK & Australian clients

Release Train Engineer

Colruyt Group
Hyderabad
04.2023 - Current
  • Maintain the plan of record for a product release.
  • Track status, maintaining dashboards and reports.
  • Work with cross-functional teams to ensure product features are delivered
  • Monitor progress to ensure application releases are delivered on time and within budget
  • Communicate status to all stakeholders. Be the point of contact for the product allowing scrum teams to focus on execution
  • Manage risks and resolve issues that affect release scope, schedule, or quality
  • Manage the release backlog; continuously order and prioritize
  • Engage frequently with the scrum teams to review progress, facilitate action resolution, remove impediments.
  • Prioritize continuously in accordance with the understanding and validation of customer problems and needs
  • Possess expertise in gap analysis, system analysis, and stakeholder management and served as Liaison between the various stakeholders in the business
  • Coordinate with Services and support to schedule resolution of issues with released product
  • Conduct Release Readiness reviews, Milestone Reviews, and Business Go/No-Go reviews
  • Maintain a release repository and manages key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists
  • Continually work towards making improvements in the release process.
  • Managing the ART flow of value, or steps used to create value for the project
  • Coordinating and aligning ART activities with the organization's strategic goals
  • Implementing PI planning events and monitoring their progress
  • Encouraging teams within the ART to collaborate on certain tasks to meet goals
  • Promoting improvement through inspect and adapt (I&A) events after PI completions
  • Helping keep the ART productive by ensuring the use of lean-Agile processes
  • Manage projects with top-down oversight throughout entire execution to ensure success as defined by adherence to standards of scope, budget, and timeline.
    • Facilitating Agile ceremonies such as Sprint / PI Planning Readiness, by fostering the preparation of Vision and Backlogs, and through Pre- and Post-PI Planning meetings.
    • Facilitating Periodic Synchronization meetings, including the Scrum of Scrum / ART sync at the Program level and the Value Stream sync for Solution Trains.
    • Partner with Product Owner to Prioritize/Resolve backlogs, Slashing Technical debt and eliminating duplication codes. Collaborates with other RTEs for resolving Prioritization, Conflicts and Synchronization.
    • Driving continuous improvement via Inspect and Adapt workshops; assessing the agility level of the Team / ART / Solution Train and helping them to improve.
    • Helping the team decide the backlog for every sprint and encouraging cohesion, while planning Agile best practices.
    • Leveraged Scrum metrics to identify process bottlenecks, inefficiencies, as well as continuous improvements.
    • Communicate and coordinate with affected stakeholders and assist in the management, planning and control of the project.
    • Report planning Results and Program status to Senior management, Business owners, Feature owners, Product owners, and other Partners.
    • Coaching different stakeholder groups (leaders / Product Owners/teams / Scrum Masters) in Agile practices and Mindsets.
    • Ability to influence and gain alignment at all levels of the organization including senior leadership.
    • Supporting and improving the usage of DevOps, CI/CD (continuous Integration /Continuous Deployment) across the Agile train(s).
    • Manage program level coordination, such as creating timelines, milestones, and cadence of increments and releases and oversee the development of reports and analyses that document program activity.

Scrum Master ( Project Manager )

Colruyt India
04.2023 - Current
  • Assist the Delivery Team and Product Owner in continuous process and product delivery improvement embracing servant leadership model
  • As a Scrum Master work with my squad on a daily basis to facilitate value delivery by removing the blockers
  • Protect development team from outside distractions, impediments, or team conflicts, and maintain focus on product backlog project timeline with constant motivation
  • Proficient in facilitating all Scrum ceremonies like Backlog Management, Sprint planning, Daily scrums, retrospectives, Sprint Reviews, Stakeholder meetings, and software Demonstrations
  • Documentation and presentation skills - Product guide/Business Requirements, Diagrams, Story mapping, Document (BRD), Epics, User Stories, Use Cases, Solution Documents, Process Flow
  • Create user Story Mapping in Jira, with clear acceptance criteria as per the business requirements

Agile Coach Scrum Master

Xebia IT Architects India
Hyderabad
08.2021 - 03.2023
  • Have done Enterprise Agile transformation
  • Hold good expertise with Scrum, Kanban, SAFe
  • Coach agile teams by assessing current agility maturity, support them in continuous improvement
  • Partner with global LACE team for enterprise transformation initiatives
  • Did ART launch ceremonies, value stream mapping, value stream analysis
  • Possess expertise in gap analysis, system analysis, and stakeholder management and served as Liaison between the various stakeholders in the business
  • Possess strong Leadership coaching skills & Coach RTEs, scrum masters, product owners on agile principles, PI planning, and agile ways of working
  • Experience setting up CoPs for Agile roles
  • Ability to create agile maturity assessments and guidelines, frameworks to support teams
  • Assisted teams in identifying blockers or impediments that were preventing them from achieving their goals.
  • Facilitated Agile ceremonies such as Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Retrospectives and Reviews.
  • Conducted regular reviews of team performance against defined KPIs and metrics.
  • Advised teams on how to optimize their workflow using techniques like pair programming, continuous integration, and test-driven development.
  • Developed training materials to educate stakeholders about agile processes.
  • Communicated sprint objectives clearly to ensure everyone was aligned with the goal.
  • Monitored team performance metrics such as velocity, throughput, cycle time.
  • Led workshops on Agile principles and best practices.
  • Mentored junior members of the team on the agile methodology.
  • Collaborated with Product Owners to define user stories and prioritize backlogs.
  • Encouraged collaboration between developers and other stakeholders by facilitating open communication channels.
  • Analyzed customer needs and provided recommendations for changes or enhancements based upon those findings.
  • Supported teams in resolving conflicts or disputes that arose during sprints or planning meetings.
  • Coached teams in Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
  • Created strategies for transitioning from traditional project management approaches to agile practices.
  • Maintained strong knowledge by participating in workshops, conferences, and online education classes.
  • Coached stakeholders on their roles in the Scrum process and how to best support the team's success.
  • Collaborated with other Scrum Masters across teams to ensure consistency in processes and tools used.
  • Organized meetings between stakeholders from different departments to discuss potential solutions or strategies.
  • Assisted with release planning and coordinated efforts between multiple teams working on related projects.
  • Enforced scrum values such as transparency, respect, commitment, courage, focus, openness and inspection.
  • Worked closely with senior management and other stakeholders during strategic planning sessions for upcoming releases.
  • Tracked metrics related to sprint performance and identified areas of improvement for future sprints.
  • Created dashboards using various tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Trello, to track project progress and milestones.
  • Worked with project owners and end users to prioritize feature development and enhancements based on critical paths and business needs.

SaFe Scrum Master

TCS
Hyderabad
04.2016 - 07.2021
  • Implementing Scrum and SAFe practices in software development to increase the value flow.
  • Ensures teams attain a high-performance level in the practice of scrum delivery by recognizing areas of strength and improvement, employing appropriate coaching and development techniques.
  • Documentation and presentation skills - Product guide/Business Requirements,
    Diagrams, Story mapping, Document (BRD), Epics, User Stories, Use cases, solution documentsProt
  • Protect development team from outside distractions, impediments , team conflicts , Maintain focus on product backlog, project timelines
  • Assist the Delivery Team and Product Owner in continuous process and product delivery improvement embracing servant leadership model
  • As a Scrum Master work with my squad on a daily basis to facilitate value delivery by removing the blockers
  • Hold strong & real time good expertise on Scrum, Kanban, SAFe
  • Coach Agile teams by assessing current agility maturity, support them in continuous improvement
  • Partner with global LACE team for enterprise transformation initiatives
  • Did ART launch ceremonies, value stream mapping, value stream analysis
  • Possess strong Leadership coaching skills & Coach RTEs, scrum masters, product owners on agile principles, PI planning, and agile ways of working
  • Experience setting up CoPs for Agile roles
  • Ability to create agile maturity assessments and guidelines, frameworks to support teams
  • Assisted teams in identifying blockers or impediments that were preventing them from achieving their goals.
  • Facilitated Agile ceremonies such as Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Retrospectives and Reviews.
  • Conducted regular reviews of team performance against defined KPIs and metrics.
  • Advised teams on how to optimize their workflow using techniques like pair programming, continuous integration, and test-driven development.
  • Developed training materials to educate stakeholders about agile processes.
  • Communicated sprint objectives clearly to ensure everyone was aligned with the goal.
  • Monitored team performance metrics such as velocity, throughput, cycle time.
  • Led workshops on Agile principles and best practices.
  • Mentored junior members of the team on the agile methodology.
  • Collaborated with Product Owners to define user stories and prioritize backlogs.
  • Encouraged collaboration between developers and other stakeholders by facilitating open communication channels.
  • Analyzed customer needs and provided recommendations for changes or enhancements based upon those findings.
  • Supported teams in resolving conflicts or disputes that arose during sprints or planning meetings.
  • Coached teams in Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
  • Created strategies for transitioning from traditional project management approaches to agile practices.
  • Maintained strong knowledge by participating in workshops, conferences, and online education classes.
  • Coached stakeholders on their roles in the Scrum process and how to best support the team's success.
  • Collaborated with other Scrum Masters across teams to ensure consistency in processes and tools used.
  • Organized meetings between stakeholders from different departments to discuss potential solutions or strategies.
  • Assisted with release planning and coordinated efforts between multiple teams working on related projects.
  • Enforced scrum values such as transparency, respect, commitment, courage, focus, openness and inspection.
  • Worked closely with senior management and other stakeholders during strategic planning sessions for upcoming releases.
  • Tracked metrics related to sprint performance and identified areas of improvement for future sprints.
  • Created dashboards using various tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Trello, to track project progress and milestones.
  • Worked with project owners and end users to prioritize feature development and enhancements based on critical paths and business needs.Responsible for ensuring scrum/ SAFe is understood and the team adheres to Scrum theory, practice, and guidelines
  • Coach the scrum team in self-organization, cross-functional skillset, domain knowledge and communicates effectively, both internally and externally working within the scrum team
  • Work with the scrum Team, as well as internal and external stakeholders, to influence and drive decision making and support organizational project or product teams
  • Resolves team impediments with other scrum masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization
  • Works with Agile coaches and other scrum masters to grow within the role
  • Contributes to the advancement and improvement of agile practices within the organization
  • Facilitates and supports all scrum events: sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective
  • Acts as a leader who coaches and supports agile teams assigned to ongoing change delivery and broader department initiatives, business and corporate initiatives

QA- Testing

Knoah
Hyderabad
02.2014 - 02.2016
  • Performed QA testing on websites to ensure optimal functionality across browsers and devices
  • Coordinated efforts between departments such as programming, art, QA testing and production teams
  • Resolved application defects identified during QA testing in a timely manner.
  • Managed bug tracking systems and reported any issues found during QA testing back to developers.
  • Deployed applications onto staging servers for QA testing purposes.
  • Provided support during QA testing by troubleshooting any UI issues that arise.
  • Oversaw QA testing activities prior to launch of new websites or features.
  • Provided training sessions for new members of the Quality Assurance team on best practices and tools used in QA testing.
  • Developed test plans and strategies for QA testing.
  • Created detailed reports on findings from QA testing cycles, including root cause analysis.
  • Prepared defect reports summarizing findings from QA testing activities.

Tester

Genpact
Hyderabad
12.2012 - 01.2014
  • Performed exploratory testing to identify defects in the application or system under test
  • Provided technical support during UAT phase for customers who are not familiar with QA process
  • Identified and documented test plans, test cases, and test scripts for software applications
  • Conducted compatibility tests on different operating systems and browsers
  • Collaborated with developers to resolve technical issues in a timely manner.
  • Executed functional, system, integration, regression, end-to-end, and user acceptance tests.
  • Developed automation scripts to automate manual tests and improved the testing process efficiency.
  • Reviewed product design specifications to develop effective testing scenarios for validation.
  • Ensured compliance with established QA policies throughout all stages of the software cycle.
  • Analyzed requirements documents and developed comprehensive test strategies accordingly.
  • Utilized SQL queries for database validation and to verify data integrity in testing processes.

Education

MBA - Finance & HR

MBA
Osmania University
05-2014

Skills

  • Azure DevOps
  • Project Planning
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Scaling Agile
  • Leading scrum meetings
  • Agile Best Practices
  • Scrum Framework Expertise
  • Agile Coaching
  • Agile Metrics Tracking
  • Kanban Knowledge
  • Coaching and Mentoring
  • Task Prioritization
  • Root Cause Analysis
  • Productivity Improvement
  • Project tracking
  • Project Management
  • Customer Relations
  • Test Automation
  • Performance Optimization
  • Continuous deployment
  • Continuous integration
  • Incident Management
  • Version control systems
  • Software Testing and Validation
  • Cypress E2E Testing
  • Cypressio Tool
  • Problem Resolution
  • Training & Development
  • Estimation Techniques
  • Agile Transformation
  • Work Planning and Prioritization
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Scrum Methodology
  • Project development
  • Selenium
  • Proficient in Selenium WebDriver
  • Experience with Selenium
  • JUnit Testing
  • Automation expertise
  • QA testing
  • Application debugging
  • Process Improvements
  • Agile Methodology
  • RESTful API's
  • Object-Oriented Programming
  • Software Development Standards
  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Agile development methodologies
  • Software Development Tools: JIRA, Confluence
  • HP ALM
  • HP ALM and Quality Center
  • Jira, Atlassian, Rally
  • Trello Project Management
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Verbal Communication
  • Active Listening

Certification

  • ICP-ACC Accredited from Agile Coach
  • PSM 1 Certified from Scrum.ORG
  • PSM2 Certified from Scrum.ORG
  • PSPO Certified from Scrum.ORG
  • Safe Agilist certified from Scaled Agile
  • Safe POPM Certified from Scaled Agile
  • Safe Advance Scrum Master Certified from Scaled Agile
  • Safe Scrum Master Certified from ScaledAgile
  • ISTQB certified from International testing quality board
  • ITIL V3 Certifed
  • Lean certified from Six Sigma

Languages

Telugu
First Language
English
Proficient (C2)
C2
Hindi
Proficient (C2)
C2
Tamil
Upper Intermediate (B2)
B2

Accomplishments

  • Completed the Finance Payment reconcilliation Project for ( Etihad Airways) on time and under budget in UAE
  • Did Agile Transformation for Price House Waterhouse Coopers & coached the team, leadership on Agile practices
  • Brought Agile Maturity in cross locations , have strong expertise handling teams located in different georgraphies ( UK, EU,UAE,India)
  • Saved the company $[Amount] over [Number] years by implementing a successful productivity improvement plan & cutover schedule
  • Presented with the Bravo Award Award for spurring more than 70% growth for 4 consecutive months.
  • Improved customer satisfaction ratings by [Number]% by implementing Scaled Agile frame work, showing visible results
  • Designed and launched the [Project Name] Project, resulting in a [Number]% increase in market share for the company.
  • Achieved [Result] through effectively helping with [Task]
  • Collaborated with team of [Number] in the development of [Project name]
  • Achievced early market to release for MVP's ( for Critical time bound projects)

Timeline

Release Train Engineer

Colruyt Group
04.2023 - Current

Scrum Master ( Project Manager )

Colruyt India
04.2023 - Current

Agile Coach Scrum Master

Xebia IT Architects India
08.2021 - 03.2023

SaFe Scrum Master

TCS
04.2016 - 07.2021

QA- Testing

Knoah
02.2014 - 02.2016

Tester

Genpact
12.2012 - 01.2014

MBA - Finance & HR

MBA

MBA &B Tech, PG Diploma in Data mining

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Amala A Senior Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer