Mark Bowers

I have always been amazed by the influence a work environment has on productivity and happiness and how closely those two factors work together.

Great work environments are hard to find, but I have found a passion for making any place I work a better place to work. Once one has a taste for collaboration and teamwork, it’s hard to accept a state of drudgery for yourself or others.

I am driven to develop new abilities, take on new roles and responsibilities, and help others do the same. To be constantly learning. In doing so, I have had the great fortune to work with and learn from many people - co-workers, managers, and leaders. In hindsight, I may have learned most from those I have sought to teach, lead, or mentor.

One of my first professional jobs was as an engineering technician at a large international architecture firm. I was very fortunate that my boss, Jack DeMay, was a true servant leader. He helped me realize my passion for teamwork and expanding my limits. I didn’t know what a servant leader was at the time, but he set the standard for my entire career.

In the 90’s I became captivated by process improvement. It seemed like I found my calling. I started reading and studying the works of Ivar Jacobson, Steve McConnell, and any other author offering an alternative to ‘command and control’ management.

With a mind for building collaboration, solid relationships, and great teams, I worked as a developer, tester, business and systems analyst, project manager, solution engineer, consultant, development manager.

My first Agile transformation role was in 2003 as a development manager for a telecommunications company. I was faced with the typical waterfall silos management structure, each role assigned to a part of the lifecycle, each with a different process methodology. I was hired to improve the process in hopes of rising above the chaos and realizing some project success. I was lucky enough to have two brilliant architects well versed in Agile and two expert testers skilled both in automation and our technical systems.

Together we led the transformation for 165 individuals with a light-weight Unified Process model: 4-week iterations, just (barely) enough documentation, and demos to stakeholders at the end of every month.

We created a community of practice of senior developers to test out proposed designs and architecture and form a basis for coaching the junior developers.

Our test team worked proactively with development teams to implement and automate testing during development. Bugs found in system testing dropped to a fraction of the usual amount. I was hooked on Agile.

While working in the financial industry as a Transformation Project Manager in 2012, I used Scrum with the help of an evangelist co-manager. We started several teams in the US and India, and I led process improvement teams as the Scrum Master.

We trained senior managers to start creating user stories and adopt Kanban methods to drive better requirements at the program level and began implementing release trains.

The resulting success allowed even waterfall based teams to adopt many Agile methods and ideas.

I started Method, LLC, in Boulder, Colorado in 2013. The company’s initial purpose was to support customers for the European software company that created Kanbanize, a leading ALM tool, wanting to build a presence in the US market. I facilitated legal, sales, and enterprise customer support.

From that starting point, Method has been moving to provide coaching and consulting services for organizational Scrum transitions.

I became a Scrum Product Owner in early 2015. Within the TV network and gaming industry, I coached and supported a new Scrum team while mentoring several off-shore Product Owners. I promoted cross-functional Scrum teams and led the transition of all development and database functionality to new development centers.

Recently, I worked as an Agile Transformation Coach, defining and implementing a 12-week project to train new Scrum teams for a telecommunications company in Bellevue, Washington. I took the role of Scrum Master for several of the local teams and coached new and transitioning Scrum Masters and Product Owners for local and international teams. I brought 170 users onboard CA Agile Central while leveraging the tool to help move six teams to Scrum.

In the last half of 2016, I worked for a data center in Denver as the Scrum Master for two teams and Agile Coach for two others. I worked with the PM Office to bring agility to a massive backlog of potential projects.

Currently, I am starting work as a Scrum Master and Agile Coach in Healthcare, where I will be part of a team transitioning over 600 employees to Scrum. I look forward to learning a great deal from being part of a large community of fellow Scrum Masters and Coaches implementing Scrum on a large scale.

As Scrum become normalized for software development, I see a future in leading Scrum transformation for the entire enterprise. Government, corporations, and community organizations moving to Scrum could solve many world problems: reducing scarcity and waste at all levels. Organizations that can promote the basic principles of Scrum while working to foster autonomy, mastery, and purpose can form the basis of a great society.

Scrum has been a critical part of my career and personal development. With it, I hope to continue helping others build collaboration and teamwork at every level.