Biography
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 Agilist (SA).
Scrum implementations since 2008:
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.