Andrew Kazarinoff

Andrew Kazarinoff - Agile Coach and Trainer

Leading enterprise Agile transformations on connected paths: Organization (vision, product roadmaps, value stream efficiency), and Team (performance and vitality). Training and coaching development teams toward high productivity with Scrum, XP, Kanban, and SAFe. Skilled training workshop leader and course developer.  Expert in Agile metrics, Agile maturity assessments, and ALM tools.  Certified Scrum Professional (CSP/CSM). Certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC).

 

Scrum implementations since 2008:

Social Security Administration – Agile Coach                                       

 

• Supported an enterprise migration from a waterfall tradition to Agile development methods.
• Developed a metrics-based coaching tool. Designed a teaching tool for Lean Startup.
• Coached teams on Lean Startup, feature and job mapping, and design thinking to accelerate product delivery.
• Introduced innovations that added value to scrum events and to communities of practice.

 

JPMorgan Chase – Agile Coach                                                                                       

 

• Coached 6 teams to improve integrity of the Scrum framework and Scrum events, engagement of product owners, and strength of engineering practices.
• Led workshops on techniques for scrum masters and product owners. Trained and mentored scrum masters.
• Facilitated a product mindset in component teams to bridge the business vision and the development work.
• Trained, coached and mentored project managers and business analysts transitioning into Scrum roles.
• Addressed organizational impediments affecting release frequency, batch sizes, and handoffs.

 

PSE&G – Agile Coach                                                                                               

 

• Rapidly showed how to choose between Agile vs. bi-modal (Scrum and Kanban + waterfall) methods for time and cost efficiency in infrastructure work and hardware delivery.
• Introduced Lean Startup and Kanban to accelerate time to value, and trained using the Kanban Game.

 

ICON Technology Consulting – Agile Coach                                                                         

 

• Trained product managers, product owners, and scrum masters on robust backlog definition and refinement aligned with the business vision. Taught Kanban to teams early in transition. -- Big 3 Automaker
• Launched and trained multiple Scrum teams in preparation for SAFe PI planning– Healthcare company
• Coached SAFe Big-Room planning – Information services provider

Voya Financial – Agile Coach                                                                                           

 

• Transitioned teams from waterfall to Scrum and Kanban in application development for digital marketing.
• Accelerated time to market for a customer service website and an account opening website.
• Quickly ramped up new teams to high productivity using Lean Startup techniques for visioning and planning.
• Introduced engineering practices (TDD, continuous integration, code reviews, refactoring, single code base).
• Helped teams achieve higher productivity through awareness of purpose and design thinking.
• Identified improvement opportunities and designed and delivered training on organizational change enablement.

American Express - Agile Coach                                                                                            

Raised the maturity of development teams supporting merchant services and new card launches. Trained and coached teams transitioning to Agile methods. Introduced productivity and performance metrics for rapid feedback. Elaborated economics-based techniques for product roadmapping and feature sequencing. Delivered classroom training and webinars on planning and estimating.

Results: Accelerated adoption of Agile methods for more rapid new product development.

 

The Coca-Cola Company - Agile Coach                                                                                  

Built collaboration between software development, manufacturing, and the business to support Agile product development. Transformed release and iteration planning. Helped senior management to address organizational anti-patterns and to adopt an improvement plan.

Guided the use of metrics to support continuous improvement in estimating and planning. Coached teams on Scrum practices and techniques. Trained and coached product owners and scrum masters. Helped management to work toward removing delivery pipeline delays and value stream impediments.

Results: Important improvements in collaboration, cross-product alignment, and maturity of Agile practices and techniques.

 

TIAA-CREF - Scrum Coach                                                                                 

Coached multiple teams to adopt Scrum practices and Agile mindset with a focus on business purpose. Developed structures for process metrics and Scrum maturity assessments. Coached and trained a team of inexperienced internal and vendor technical and business people in a first-time launch of a Scrum project that rapidly reached a productive state.

Results: Teams transitioned from compliance toward full adoption, with higher morale.

 

Express Scripts (Medco) - Scrum Coach/Senior ScrumMaster                                         

Facilitated enterprise integration of Scrum into a traditional development environment for this giant pharmacy benefit manager. Coached and trained globally distributed business and technical teams on strong vision definition and product roadmap development, rigorous release and sprint planning, robust testing practices, and mindful retrospectives.

Advanced the organization's competence in Rally. Founding member of a metrics leadership group. Applied Agile maturity audit methods.

Results:  Energized offshore and onshore teams through self-organization and a focus on business goals. Improved collaboration between business and IT steadily increased productivity.

 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas - Scrum Coach and Trainer                                                              

Led an enterprise Scrum rollout of 24 teams. In an exploration stage, engaged senior management with an adoption playbook. Formed and coached a product owner council and product coordination team to communicate a product vision and roadmap. Designed courseware and delivered training to Product Owners and ScrumMasters. Coached teams to reach high productivity.

Developed Agile maturity audits to address anti-patterns. Created and implemented a metrics framework and ALM tool. Implemented concurrent testing and steered installation of continuous-integration tools. Developed and set up an ALM and metrics framework.

Results: Transformed the participation of business owners in release planning and in sprint planning, reviews and retrospectives. Teams began to deliver significant business value. The culture embraced collaboration and continuous improvement.

 

Bowne & Co., Inc. - ScrumMaster, Coach                                                                                    

Improved the effectiveness of Scrum on a project creating a web-based financial content management system. Led the project as ScrumMaster. Trained and coached a distributed team of developers and testers to improve productivity. Coached the Product Owner on product backlog definition and grooming, and on elaboration of stories and acceptance criteria. Initiated robust testing disciplines and drove adoption of automated testing.

Results: Achieved adoption of Scrum practices for high productivity. The team doubled delivery of useful functionality without adding technical debt.

 

Integra Technology Consulting Corp. - Scrum Coach / Trainer                                                              

Sold the concept of Scrum to accelerate development of a data mining application. Developed courseware and trained managers and developers in distributed teams. Coached and mentored a senior executive, a technical lead, and a project manager transitioning into Scrum roles. Put engineering practices in place.

Results: A development organization that delivered more useful functionality in the first month than in six months prior to Scrum, and was able to sustain a high-productive state.

 

Federal Reserve Bank of New York - ScrumMaster                                                           

Facilitated adoption of the Scrum framework through formal training, intensive coaching, and modeling the ScrumMaster role. Reconciled Scrum practices with legacy project lifecycle standards.

Results: Faster project startups, daily focus on project work, less waste from task switching, and Agile collaboration practices.