Michael Westermann Email & Phone Number

Scottsdale, Az, Us

Us

Converted from contractor to FTE.

Columbus, Ohio, Us

Contractor with Nationwide Insurance • Facilitates high performing, self-organized Scrum Team.• Guides software delivery from user story creation to implementation.• Leverages appropriate software delivery practices to continuously improve software delivery, efficiency and quality. • Performs peer-to-peer coaching and metrics reporting.• Strong Scrum Master with a strong technical, testing and requirements background. • Proficient in conflict management, influencing/negotiation and collaboration.• Excellent communication/presentation skills.• Demonstrated decision making experience.• Risk and issue management.• Strong project management skills and understanding/comprehension to technical engineering concepts.• Monitors Team progress using historical data, observations, and experiences to achieve iteration goals and commitments.• Removes impediments to the Team’s progress.• Communicates obstacles requiring outside resolution to the stakeholders.• Identifies risks and issues that might have an impact on delivery.• Facilitates a mitigation strategy for risks that affect the Team.• Facilitates effort or design estimates with the Team to support iteration, release, and delivery in support of projects, enhancement, and defect correction.• Collaborates with the Team leads to provide guidance to the Team in the areas of analysis, design, development and testing, and ensures that best practices are leveraged.• Ensures Team receives coaching to uplift skills across all domains and practices leading to a self organized and cross functional Team.• Ensures the Team has everything needed to plan and execute the next increment of work.• Facilitates scrum cadence (e.g., retrospective, daily standups and show and tell meetings) to encourage collaboration, communication, and feedback within the Team.• Enables automated engineering practices to improve quality, productivity, efficiency and consistency of processes and product.

London, England, Gb

• Mentors and coaches teams (including the Product Owner) in Agile practices and mindset. • Facilitates collaboration and maximizes team performance by driving continuous improvement within assigned technical and/or non-technical team• Removes impediments to team progress whether internal to the team or organizational in nature. When necessary, escalates impediments to facilitate rapid resolution.• Ensures effective communication within and across teams. • Influences and facilitates the empowerment of a self-organizing team. • Schedules and facilitates cross-functional meetings. • Creates appropriate progress tools, information radiators, and reports to provide transparency on the team’s progress/productivity.• Performs risk, issue, and dependency management for the team. • Ensures release management practices align to enterprise standards.• Acts as Agile SME to teams, product owners, and management. • Participats in Scrum Master Community of Practice• Understanding of release-when ready, test-driven development, continuous integration, and product demonstration • Supports and educates product owners, especially with respect to refining and managing the product backlog and decision making.• Ensures rapid and timely delivery of business value (experience, product, and/or service).• Coaches team to achieve goals.• Fosters a growth mindset and spirit of continuous improvement and learning.

• Create and update Requirements.• Support customer UX storyboard and prototyping requirements, review, and updates. • Support pre-sales, sales, customer support, services and other teams to ensure client success • Align cross-product stakeholders with roadmaps, functional specs product strategy and strategic positioning• Interface with customers, prospects, analysts and other internal and external stakeholders• Decompose functional requirements into user stories tied to UX storyboards and prototypes.• Manage all sprint and task planning with and between Product Management, Development, and User Experience.• Manage and groom the product backlog.• Gather requirements from Product Manager, Subject Matter Experts, other Business Analysts, customers, and partners.• Synthesize gathered requirements into clear and justifiable product requirements that drive customer solutions.• Serve as liaison between development, product management, support, marketing, and customers per features designed and developed by the product team.• Serve as Scrum Master• Foster communication and translate technical terms into business requirements.• Facilitate Agile ceremonies: standups, retrospectives, demos, sprint planning etc...• Remove obstacles and impediments for the team.• Create Attainia’s agile best practices

Toronto, On, Ca

Contractor with American Express • Create and update Functional Requirements.• Support customer UX storyboard and prototyping requirements, review, and updates. • Define and manage long-term roadmap for strategic integrations• Support services and other teams to ensure client success • Align cross-product stakeholders with roadmaps, functional specs and strategic positioning• Interface with customers, prospects, analysts and other internal and external stakeholders• Decompose functional requirements into user stories tied to UX storyboards and prototypes.• Manage all sprint and task planning with and between Product Management, Project Management, and Development.• Manage and groom the product backlog.• Gather requirements from Stake Holders, Subject Matter Experts, customers, and partners.• Synthesize gathered requirements into clear and justifiable product requirements that drive customer solutions.• Serve as liaison between development, management, and customers per features designed and developed by the team.• Regularly update Management on project schedule, accomplishments, and impediments.• Serve as Scrum Master.• Foster communication and translate technical terms into business requirements.• Facilitate Agile ceremonies: standups, retrospectives, demos, sprint planning etc...• Remove obstacles and impediments for the team.• Create agile best practices

Scottsdale, Az, Us

Create and update Functional Requirements.Support customer UX storyboard and prototyping requirements, review, and updates.Decompose functional requirements into user stories tied to UX storyboards and prototypes.Manage all sprint and task planning with and between Product Management, Project Management, Development, and User Experience.Improve sprint velocity.Manage and groom the product backlog.Gather requirements from Product Managers, Subject Matter Experts, other Business Analysts, customers, and partners.Synthesize gathered requirements into into clear and justifiable product requirements that drive customer solutions.Serve as liaison between development, product management, support, marketing, and customers per features designed and developed by the product team.

• Facilitate requirements meetings, conduct interviews, and workshops• Acts as primary resource for enterprise business analysis including Confirming Current and future Processes and the planning and scoping of several inter-related initiatives• Gathers and documents business requirements • Translates requirements into business, functional, use case documents and wire-frames• Supports the organization’s key business processes and applications and recommends business process redesign where applicable• Provides functional expertise to developers during the design and construction phases of projects• Monitor development progress throughout the project.• Monitors and ensures business systems standards are being maintained throughout the organization• Facilitate positive change to requirements, ensure changes to specifications are communicated to the team.• Develops and executes comprehensive system test plans, conditions, test scripts, and test cases• Test applications to ensure the software adheres to the client specified business rules.• Work with client, Project Managers, and Developers to resolve issues.• End user training.• Serve as Scrum Master.• Foster communication and translate technical terms into business requirements.• Facilitate Agile ceremonies: standups, retrospectives, demos, sprint planning etc...• Remove obstacles and impediments for the team.• Create agile best practices

Plano, Tx, Us

• Facilitated the compilation of technical specifications and monitor progress throughout the project.• Facilitated positive change to requirements, and ensure changes and specifications are communicated to clients.• Tested on-site applications to ensure the software adhered to the client specified business rules.• Identified functional and aesthetic defects and security issues.• Managed subordinates schedules and work with team members at all levels to ensure event success.• Set-up and configured applications used at client events, (on-site applications).• Worked with client, vendors, Project Managers, and Professional Services to resolve client issues.• Worked with clients to resolve software or hardware configuration issues.• Trouble shoot and resolved event specific issues with on-site applications at event centers.

London, England, Gb

• Write and run automated tests for Extend Health website to ensure that features and tool sets function correctly. Utilize Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, Excel, OneNote, WatIn, MBUnit, and Gallio.• Identify functional and aesthetic defects and security issues.• Perform regression testing on “fixed” defects and establish that the fix does not adversely affect other functionality of the web site.

Managing a five person team of software developers/designers/testers to create a retail product using open source and proprietary technology. I'm responsible for managing the team production schedule, team productivity and client relations as well as Foster communication and translating technical terms into business requirements, facilitate Agile ceremonies, and remove obstacles and impediments for development.

London, England, Gb

Reverse engineered Extend Health’s existing database using SQL Server 2008 and creating an updated ORM diagram using Visual Studio 2008 with the NORMA (Neumont ORM Architecture) plug in.