Christopher Middleton

Chris Middleton and I currently work as a technology manager at the Walt Disney Attraction Technology. I have been married to my beautiful wife for over ten years now. I am a proud father to two kids that keep me very active and smiling. Our family very much enjoys the perks that comes with working at Walt Disney World and visit the various theme parks together. When we are not in the theme parks, you can typically find us at the beach or in a pool swimming soaking up the Florida sun.

I have been working for the Walt Disney World company since March 1995. Before moving in to my current technology role, I spent 12 years working various roles at different resorts at Walt Disney World. One resort is my ultimate favorite Disney’s Polynesian Resort and where I started by Disney career. Besides the Polynesian I also work at the Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club resort and Disney’s Pop Century resort. I became a master of the front desk for many of the resorts. Because of this, I was selected to join the WDW property management replacement project as a subject manner expert where I got to tell people what I wanted a system to do. This was my first ever interaction with a technology type project and I was hooked. After this project went live in 2010, I transitioned in to the technology space as a business analyst specialist. Since then I have never looked back and have been promoted to a manager with in our organization.

As I moved up to management, our organization (like many) went through a transformation where our technology teams moved from traditional waterfall delivery model to adopting agile processes. In my area specifically, we adopted scrum processes for our delivery and support model. I personally was very new to agile processes but became a huge supporter as a former business representative. Since our organization transformation, I have been soaking up as much as I can when it comes to the various agile practices available and sprinkling in various technique to our scrum teams.

Currently I am a leader of two scrum teams within Walt Disney Attraction Technology. My scrum teams are responsible for the Walt Disney World property management functionality as well as n room experience functions. I have been leading these teams for over 3 years. Besides leading two scrum teams, I provide agile guidance to other scrum teams within our area that are led by my peers. Additionally, I sit as the Lodging Technology representative for the Walt Disney Attraction Technology Agile Community of Practice. In this forum we have been able to host multiple panels our organization to share and learn best practices from other agile teams within our organization.

During our organization transformation and as our area moved to adopt scrum practices; we hired an agile coach that I became very fond of and who really help our area to adopt scrum practice. One of her best quote is a quote I still use today: Stop Starting, Start Finishing.