Melaina Oak Email & Phone Number

Coach organization on Agile development processes while supporting multiple scrum teams. Facilitate Scrum ceremonies (daily standup, sprint planning, sprint review, retrospective, and refinement), release planning activities, and assist with release and launch activities for medical device software. Serve as an advisor to VP of Engineering and VP of Product Management.Accomplishments:• Provide functional and cross team leadership to deliver multiple product releases. Keep… Show more Coach organization on Agile development processes while supporting multiple scrum teams. Facilitate Scrum ceremonies (daily standup, sprint planning, sprint review, retrospective, and refinement), release planning activities, and assist with release and launch activities for medical device software. Serve as an advisor to VP of Engineering and VP of Product Management.Accomplishments:• Provide functional and cross team leadership to deliver multiple product releases. Keep stakeholders informed of plans, progress, and issues. Assist with backlog management and roadmapping activities.• Introduced use of release burnup charts with standard deviation projections and implemented other metrics to track overall release progress.• Created Agile playbook to educate and support multiple flavors of Agile development (Scrum, Scrumban, and Kanban).• Developed process for tracking business value of backlog items. • Improved required design control procedure to better align to Agile methodologies.• Led back room through successful Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) and other audits. Show less

As a servant leader, help a cross-functional team deliver software solutions to meet customer needs. Coach team on best practices and continuous improvement opportunities. Act as release coordinator for multiple products.Accomplishments:• Improved release planning practices by coaching team to come up with high level planning estimates to compare against recent release trends to help drive realistic and predictable release plans.• Introduced the practice of backlog refinement to… Show more As a servant leader, help a cross-functional team deliver software solutions to meet customer needs. Coach team on best practices and continuous improvement opportunities. Act as release coordinator for multiple products.Accomplishments:• Improved release planning practices by coaching team to come up with high level planning estimates to compare against recent release trends to help drive realistic and predictable release plans.• Introduced the practice of backlog refinement to help maintain a funnel of ready work for the team to do.• Facilitated a discussion of best practices and identified several practices to continue or start. Coached the team on changes to adopt these practices. • Increased communication of the team’s release plans to non-Agile Operations groups, enabling those groups to better evaluate their resource allocations.• Developed a Scrumban approach and adapted team processes to be more efficient given rapidly shifting business priorities.• Took on Product Owner responsibilities and led requirements discovery for some of the team’s products. Successfully balanced Product Owner role with being the Scrum Master. Show less

Supervise engineering and project management activities and staff. Coordinate delivery of both large and small scale healthcare IT software programs. Lead continuous improvement initiatives. Drive Agile practices, including release and sprint planning, backlog definition and refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. Accomplishments:• Coached teams on the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) principles to support global development efforts, including helping facilitate release… Show more Supervise engineering and project management activities and staff. Coordinate delivery of both large and small scale healthcare IT software programs. Lead continuous improvement initiatives. Drive Agile practices, including release and sprint planning, backlog definition and refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. Accomplishments:• Coached teams on the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) principles to support global development efforts, including helping facilitate release planning for a program with 6 teams in 5 locations. Presented a scrum master’s perspective on SAFe at a GE Healthcare Agile best practices meeting.• Guided formation of multiple new Scrum teams, applying leadership skills to help teams form, norm, and perform in a short period of time. • Developed an engineering process to align with new quality management system requirements. Supported adoption of the process for in-flight programs while maintaining the original schedule. Simplified other processes to help scrum teams reach the definition of done.• Led Scrum teams to adopt new approaches, such as pairing and Behavior Driven Development (BDD).• Provided functional and cross team leadership to deliver on-time releases, including a tight time frame release for a business critical product. Established the release backlog and schedule, identified risks, and developed mitigation plans. Kept stakeholders informed of progress.• Mentored other Scrum Masters and direct reports. Show less

Managed the technical writing activities and staff for healthcare IT software programs. Role expanded to include global responsibilities across three office locations in March 2011. Established staffing plans. Created project plans and managed expectations to plan. Provided technical expertise and coaching for direct reports. Accomplishments:• Orchestrated the team’s efforts for on-time delivery for all product releases, including multiple updates per year for up to 7 products… Show more Managed the technical writing activities and staff for healthcare IT software programs. Role expanded to include global responsibilities across three office locations in March 2011. Established staffing plans. Created project plans and managed expectations to plan. Provided technical expertise and coaching for direct reports. Accomplishments:• Orchestrated the team’s efforts for on-time delivery for all product releases, including multiple updates per year for up to 7 products. Successfully adapted plans for late-breaking requirements and scope changes to meet business commitments.• Successfully transitioned team processes and workflows to Agile software development practices. Influenced the organization to include documentation as an integral part of the development effort, reducing program schedule risk by decreasing the time required to finalize content at the end of a release.• Developed quality metrics for the engineering organization as part of a cross-functional team. Analyzed metrics for trends and reported findings to senior business leaders.• Removed inefficiencies in the localization process, reducing the project timeline by 20%. • Identified the need to move to a topic-based authoring approach and worked with a technical lead to evaluate and select a new toolset. Established a phased approach for implementing a complex effort with limited resources.• Developed leadership potential of direct reports by positioning them to take on increasing responsibilities, such as serving in cross-functional leadership roles on development teams. Show less

Provided project management and arranged resources as needed to set and meet business priorities for the technical writing team, in addition to technical writing responsibilities. Mentored peers in developing technical and professional skills, such as project management and process improvement.

Created and edited software documentation including online help, user guides, reference materials, release notes, and technical specifications. Continuously improved the quality of documentation, software, and development processes. Assisted with customer training. Demonstrated steady progression in skills, resulting in promotions within the technical writer career band.