Asha Palo
Agile Delivery Manager
Milton Keynes Village,BKM
Summary
Seasoned Agile delivery manager with a demonstrated history of effectively guiding cross-functional teams to deliver projects on schedule and within budget. Bilingual professional with nearly 15 years of experience in Agile, Quality Assurance, and Business Analysis within the FinTech sector.
Aiming to lead the delivery of larger and more complex projects to further develop Agile project management skills, transitioning into a senior leadership role within the organization.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
Accomplishments
- Enhanced operational efficiency of the business program by optimizing processes and introducing business process automation, resulting in approximately a 30% reduction in Total Labor Costs (TLC) and Capital Expenditures (Capex).
- Pioneered the concept of QWP and delivered 3 impactful Automation projects , reducing ~10k manual jobs for current FY.
- Achieved high customer satisfaction score by introducing User Forum sessions.
Work History
Agile Delivery Manager
British Telecom
Birmingham, United Kingdom
06.2022 - Current
- Improved business program efficiency by streamlining processes and implementing business process automation, resulting in ~ 30% reduction via Total labour costs (TLC) and Capital expenditures(CAPEX).
- Oversaw budget ~£6.2m and financial reporting for all assigned programs ensuring optimal utilization of resources.
- Developed and executed project plans for successful program implementation, resulting in increased productivity.
- Drove operational efficiency through data-driven decision-making processes and reduced operational costs through comprehensive process improvement initiatives such as introduced Service Now for IT service management within wider team, JIRA/Confluence tools for workstack management.
- Enhanced stakeholder satisfaction through effective communication, frequent feedback sessions, Quarterly Wave Planning with team including Stakeholders and also timely delivery of projects.
- Held MSR (monthly status reporting) and QBR (Quarterly Business Review) with senior leadership on program status, quality deep dive, risks identified and mitigation strategies.
- Pioneered QWP (Quick Win Pilot) concept, enabling implementation of small yet impactful process enhancements within 10-week timeframe. This initiative garnered significant stakeholder engagement and received high praise.
- Managed cross-functional teams to achieve program objectives, fostering collaboration and teamwork.
- Optimized resource allocation by prioritizing tasks based on impact and cost/benefit analysis, resulting in improved project performance.
- Provided program management expertise in lean Six Sigma strategies and agile methods, practices and execution.
Scrum Master
TCS
Norwich,UK
02.2016 - 06.2022
- Improved team efficiency by implementing Agile and Scrum methodologies for project management.
- Work towards breaking down obstacles/impediments, create growth environment for team leading to quality delivery on time
- Managed product backlog effectively, prioritizing high-value items for faster completion.
- Run product improvement workshop with team- suggestions led to 10% drop in customer calls and helped them to self service
- Help sitting Product Manager, to write user stories, create and prioritize backlog items that when introduced to product; brought in 20 % growth in number of users
- Implement various estimation techniques, Retrospective techniques encouraging complete team actively
- Enable interactions between teams to track inter related work items, create plan for removing dependency and make progress
- Additionally, I love to mentor team, run few strategic initiatives for productivity improvement (enjoy using Johari Window technique, My Personal Goal concept) and assist with career development plans
- Conduct Design Thinking workshops in organization helping to brainstorm and zero down to solution.
- Collaborated with product owners, team members, technologists, and other scrum masters to define solutions and drive progress.
QA Lead and Scrum Master
TCS
Norwich
06.2013 - 02.2016
- Created Test plan and strategy, reviewed Test coverage created by QA team
- Analysed requirements and necessity of automation, educate team for implementation and execution
- Led assorted quality-assurance projects and enhanced productivity, realizing 15 % increase in profits
- Having earlier expertise in QA, I always aimed to bring in best QA tools & practices in action within team aligning to organization strategy plus to deliver high-quality software to production
- Streamlined QA processes for improved efficiency, reducing project completion time.
- Evaluated quality problems and performed triage meetings to identify and resolve issues
- Back up the Scrum Master to facilitate Scrum events and reporting project progress.
Quality Analyst Engineer
TCS
India
03.2010 - 05.2013
- Improved product quality by implementing rigorous testing procedures and analyzing results.
- Gathered data on integration issues and vulnerabilities, reported findings and recommended improvements
- Implemented use of Backstop JS for UI regression and JAWS tool for DDA testing
- Collaborated with developers and product owners to stay current on product features and intended functionality.
Skills
- Agile methodologies
- Design Thinking
- Leadership & Team Management
- Excellent Communication
- Problem-Solving
- Stakeholder Management
- Strategic Planning
- Adaptability
Education
Bachelor of Technical Education - Electrical Engineering
CV Raman College of Engineering
In Dia07.2009
Awards
2015-16: European Software Testing Excellence Award for Best Agile Project by European Software Testing Board
2017-18 : Digital CIO award- best Agile project
Languages
English
Full Professional
Hindi
Professional Working
Certification
- Professional Scrum Product Owner- scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Master 1- scrum.org
- Agile Meets Design Thinking- Coursera
- Coaching Skills for Leaders and Managers- Lynda
- Scrum Advanced- Lynda
- IamRemarkable Trainer- Google
- ISTQB
Timeline
Agile Delivery Manager
British Telecom
06.2022 - Current
Scrum Master
TCS
02.2016 - 06.2022
QA Lead and Scrum Master
TCS
06.2013 - 02.2016
Quality Analyst Engineer
TCS
03.2010 - 05.2013
Bachelor of Technical Education - Electrical Engineering
CV Raman College of Engineering