Portfolio

MICHAEL MARCHI

CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CS@SP

640 Regal Lane, Algonquin IL, 60102  |  847-477-2841  |  [email protected]

SUMMARY

Michael is a results-oriented Agile Coach, evangelist, and product delivery professional who helps organizations get the most out of their people, processes, and technology. He is a natural leader with experience in financial, insurance, life sciences, medical supply chain, accreditation, and building automation sectors. Michael is an active member and frequent contributor and speaker within the Chicago Agile community and is a founding member of the Agile Professional Learning Network. He has a strong background in software engineering with over 30 years of product delivery experience in technical and non-software areas. Michael is equally comfortable engaging at a tactical level with delivery teams, as well as the strategic level with executives – and adapting as necessary to address all levels in between.

AGILE EXPERIENCE

Pfizer
Apr 2020 – Jul 2021
Agile Coach

  • Assisted Business Process Excellence office of a large pharmaceutical company in full-scale agile transformation across the enterprise.
  • Provided in-depth training, coaching and support for 18 teams embarking on their agile journey, coaching at both leadership and team levels in both digital and non-software, including process adoption, marketing, and legal.
  • Coached two Agile Release Trains to execute agile delivery at scale.
  • Created and delivered curriculum for onboarding internal coaches and helped develop and contribute to agile communities of practice.

AbbVie
Oct 2019 – Jan 2020
Agile Trainer, Agile Coach

  • Created training materials for Business Process Office to build skills and capability using User Story Mapping techniques.
  • Training materials included classroom training with examples, as well as a hands-on story mapping workshop, followed by targeting coaching to reinforce training
  • Piloted methodology across several application models, including Early Project Planning, Process Mapping, Backlog Creation, Release Mapping, and Opportunity Canvas maps

Northern Trust                                       Oct 2018 – Sep 2019
Agile Team Coach, Assessment Lead, Agile Transformation Coach

  • Partnered with the Agile Transformation Lead to develop and deliver an automated Agile Maturity Assessment across an entire line of business, including baseline and future state readouts, as well as tracking current state improvements
  • Team Coach for a high-visibility Scrum team, their leadership and their product sponsors, which achieved one of the highest scores on the Agile Maturity Assessment
  • Troubleshooter/investigator for shared service program experiencing issues integrating XP, Scrum and ongoing support activities. Conducted interviews, performed value stream mapping and developed coaching/improvement strategy to address findings
  • Engagement Manager and Trainer for Digital Marketing group switching to agile
  • Organized and led development of Agile Community of Practice

<Unnamed Regulatory Agency> 
Nov 2018, Aug 2019
Agile Trainer

  • Tailored and delivered Agile Deep Dive training class for two pilot Scrum teams.
  • Training included an overview of Agile and Scrum for development team, product owner, scrum master, agile estimation and planning

Aon Retiree Healthcare Services (ARHS)
Apr 2018 – June 2019
Agile Trainer, Engagement Manager

  • Conducted tailored agile training for Agile Scrum Teams, Product Owners, Scrum Masters and Leaders, including workshops on Agile Estimation and Planning techniques
  • Provided tactical oversight of two Team Coaches working with four Scrum Teams
  • Provided strategic oversight of the Organization Coach operating with the Executive Action Team (Scrum Team comprised of organizational leaders, working to deliver a backlog of organizational impediments).
  • Developed the agile assessment model, coordinated baseline/current/future state maturity readouts as teams advanced over course of engagement
  • Developed agile metrics measurements aligned to client KPIs

Vizient, Inc.
Sep 2017 – Sep 2018
Agile Team Coach

  • Worked with both co-located and distributed, cross-functional teams as they learned to shift from manager-driven to self-directed team
  • Developed and executed agile assessment model, coordinated baseline/current/future state maturity readouts to build transformation backlog
  • Coached Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Development Team members, stakeholders and leaders in backlog refinement, agile estimation and release planning
  • Focused teams on developing stronger agile engineering skills
  • Led quarterly product roadmap sessions to improve visibility of upcoming releases

USG
Oct 2016 – Jan 2017
Agile Assessment Lead

  • Approached by client to evaluate the agile maturity of a pair of existing Scrum Teams working to deliver a major multi-year platform update to their order management system
  • The client wanted to begin scaling the initiative with additional teams, and was looking for assurance they had a stable framework in place
  • Oversaw and coordinated the efforts and reporting of the agile team coach as he assessed team performance against industry standards
  • Analyzed findings to create transformation roadmap which was delivered to IT Leadership as one of the engagement deliverables

Allstate Insurance
Sep 2014 – Aug 2017
Agile Team Coach, Agile Program Coach, Scrum Master

  • Team Coach and Scrum Master for two of the first Scrum teams to pilot the new agile process and the first Operations team to adopt Scrumban to balance infrastructure improvements with ongoing support requests
  • Organizational Coach and Scrum Master Coach and mentor for eight-team shared service group, achieved scaling through Scrum of Scrums
  • Partnered with EPMO leaders to create and execute an agile transformation strategy
  • Established and worked within a community of coaches providing guidance and mentorship across twelve technology and business portfolios to hundreds of distributed teams worldwide
  • Staged rollout of agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) across product area while maintaining bi-modal capability, as well as regulatory compliance within the organization
  • Led the following initiatives: Scrum Master Community of Practice, product mindset, scope planning, budget/resource planning, release management, issue/risk management and overall portfolio alignment wo company vision and goals

Agile / Scrum Trainer

  • Developed materials and delivered internal agile training for Agile Teams, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Stakeholders and Leaders
  • Over a three-year period, provided training for nearly 1000 individuals as they shifted from pure gated waterfall into Scrum and Kanban frameworks

Indigo Interactive, Inc
Sep 2013 –Aug 2014
Director of Engineering / Agile Sponsor / Agile Practice Coach

  • Responsible for all aspects of delivery, from inception through delivery and maintenance.
  • Defined and implemented method for converting agile estimates into time and material job bids
  • More than doubled in-house headcount and broadened subject matter coverage to include customer support and user experience roles
  • Identified commonalities in multiple project workflows then aligned and consolidated deliverables to reduce schedule time 30%.
  • Experienced facilitator of value stream mapping sessions
  • Created a team culture of cooperation and shared responsibility, no titles, no silos and open collaborative work environment

Siemens Industry, Inc, Building Technologies
Jul 2001 –Sep 2013
Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer, Software Engineer IV

  • Agile Champion:  Siemens Industry, Building Technologies
  • Agile / Scrum Trainer for 300+ engineers across U.S, Switzerland, Italy and India
  • Site Scrum Master:  Desigo CC North America
  • Group Technical Lead (GTL):  Desigo CC North American Migration Team
  • Project Architect and Product Owner:  Insight Workstation product line
  • Technical Lead:  Lead Designer, Scrum Master for the Insight Workstation product line

EMPLOYMENT

42 North Unlimited, LLC / Agile Realms
July 2021 – present
Agile Coach & Trainer, Consultant, Owner

Specializing in organizational transformation to enable agility. Our coaching consultants help shine a light on the gaps and challenges that are impeding your transformation to agile ways of working. We engage across organizational boundaries, spanning the tactical to the strategic, as well as between implementation and the business. We provide value throughout your agile journey, but our expertise really shines within two environments. First, in the early days of an organization’s agile adoption when enthusiasm is high and there is an emphasis on learning and growth. Second when an organization has been struggling to adopt agility and is looking for guidance to get back on track.

AHEAD Consulting, LLC / Vertical Trail, LLC / Boston Consulting Group
Apr 2020 – July 2021
Agile Consultant / Expert Advisor
AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in enterprise cloud infrastructure, intelligent operations, and modern applications, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation. Vertical Trail (acquired by AHEAD) is a preferred vendor/partner supplying agile coaches for BCG.

Strive Consulting, LLC
Sep 2014 – Feb 2020
Manager, Management Consulting / Agile Practice Leader

Agile Practice Leader responsible for defining and sharing agile offerings, creating and enhancing agile content, participating in sales and business development activities, overseeing agile engagements, and growing agile capability within the consulting community. Client Engagements included:

Indigo Interactive, Inc
Sep 2013 –Aug 2014
Director of Engineering / Agile Sponsor / Agile Practice Coach

Provided accreditation management software and services to aid non-profit accreditation groups, in the review and renewal process to determine if educational programs meet defined standards of quality.

Siemens Industry, Inc, Building Technologies
Jul 2001 –Sep 2013
Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer, Software Engineer IV

Championed a grass-roots trial and adoption of agile ways of working. Proved viability of agile modes of delivery while maintaining compliance. Travelled the globe, training other engineers to follow our lead to successful delivery.

PAST INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

42seven, Inc.                                                      President/Co-Owner/Consultant
Nov 2000 – Jul 2001

Conning Asset Management
AVP – Information Technology
Jan 1999 – Nov 2000

Noddings Investment Group
Systems Development Manager
Apr 1997 – Dec 1998

A-T Financial Information, Inc.
Senior Analyst
Oct 1992 – Mar 1997

FutureSource
Software Systems Engineer
Feb 1987 – Oct 1992

Apache Electronic Graphics
Asst. Customer Support Manager
Sep 1986 – Feb 1987

EDUCATION

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
Bachelor of Science, Mathematics and Computer Science

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Feb 2006

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Jan 2009

Certified Scrum Professional – Scrum Master (CSP-SM)
Apr 2018

Certified Scrum Professional – Product Owner (CSP-PO)
Apr 2018

Certified Scrum @ Scale Practitioner (CS@SP)
Dec 2018

Certified SAFe 4.0 Agilist (SA4)
Feb 2017-Jan 2021

Series 7 – General Securities Representative
Oct 1998 – Dec 1999

Series 63 – Uniform Securities Agent
Oct 1998 – Dec 1999

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS / PUBLICATIONS

Agile Professional Learning Network of Chicago (aplnchicago.org)                                                    Nov 2008 – Present
Founding Board Member / Community Leader / Mentor

  • Co-founded APLN Chicago to serve the Northwest Chicago suburban agile community
  • Serve as Master of Ceremonies for monthly meetings
  • Frequent presenter and facilitator of monthly presentations and Open Space sessions
  • Since 2017, expanded organization to include a one-day annual conference (Agile Professional Learning Conference), boasting multiple tracks of activity and dozens of speakers

Publication: ISBN: 978-0-7695-3768-9, 2009 Agile Conference – “Weaponized Scrum”

Agile Blog: scrummybears.com

EXPERTISE

  • Agile Roles: Transformation Coach, Team Coach, Executive Coach, Scaling Agile, Agile Intervention, Product Owner, Scrum Master
  • Agile Methodologies: Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, Scrum@Scale, SAFe
  • Agile Techniques: Value Stream Mapping, User Story Mapping, Open Space Technology, Engineering Practices
  • Agile Practices: Agile Estimation, Program Backlogs, Product Roadmaps, Release Planning, Maturity Assessment
  • Program / Project Management, Organizational Change Management
  • Agile Tools: Jira, Rally, Excel, Mural, Miro, Lucid Spark