Agile Coaches in Germany

• Impact: Structured requirements analysis and quality assurance as a foundation for the further development of a software solution.
• Analysis, documentation, and coordination of requirements. Conducting stakeholder analyses, interviews, and workshops to gather and validate requirements. Conducting requirements reviews and working closely with business departments and development teams.

Techniques & Tools: Requirements Engineering, Stakeholder Management, Workshop Facilitation, System Context Modeling, Requirements Reviews, Quality Scenarios, Miro, Jira, Confluence

Supporting agile scaling according to SAFe and stabilizing delivery capability in an international multi-project environment.

• Stabilization of Feature and Integration Teams in the SAFe context
• Preparation and facilitation of complex, cross-functional PI Plannings
• Promoting collaboration with international teams in India
• Process optimization and strengthening of agile team ownership

• Providing cross-functional support to new teams as they introduce Scrum

• Coaching existing Scrum teams as needed and using various agile methods to establish an agile mindset and culture within teams and across the company

• Analyzing existing Scrum implementations, identifying dysfunctions (lack of commitment, avoidance of responsibility, etc.), and developing measures to improve team performance and satisfaction

• Introducing clear (product) goals focused on product value

• Providing hands-on support to different teams at various stages and helping them adapt to the organization’s specific needs

• Trialing weekly sprints to enable faster feedback and adjustments, and increase transparency and delivery capability

• Supporting the shift toward greater self-organization and personal responsibility

• Improving agile processes and structures within teams and streams

• Successful scaling

• Repaired a broken “ScrumBan” process, then established a pure Kanban system; increased output in the Kanban flow by 22% within four weeks

• Increased team autonomy and decision-making ability by implementing new decision strategies; resulting in up to 25% better outcomes

• Redesigned retrospectives (including one-to-one coaching and workshops), which led to consistent implementation of the resulting action items

• Intensive coaching of Product Owners (POs) to develop and support “Empowered Teams”, alongside leadership development to place agile frameworks and methods in a realistic context (“de-illusioning”)

• Supported change management processes to promote an agile company culture among management and teams, improving internal communication to increase transparency and effectiveness in agile processes

AI-supported document processing and inventory management integration

Design and development of an AI-supported application for the automated processing of delivery and invoice documents, connected to SelectLine ERP. Documents are analyzed using AI, matched with orders and line items, and prepared for posting goods receipts.

IMPACT:

• Automated extraction of structured order, delivery and invoice data from PDF and image documents
• Automatic and manual mapping of documents to orders and order line items
• Integration with SelectLine ERP for order import, status synchronization and goods receipt postings
• Traceable processing through separate analysis, mapping and posting processes as well as technical logging
• Development of a containerized end-to-end architecture with AI analysis, workflow automation and relational data storage

KEYWORDS: AI, document analysis, OpenAI, n8n, SelectLine ERP, FastAPI, Python, JavaScript, MariaDB, Docker, REST API, PDF, OCR, mapping, inventory management, goods receipt, workflow automation

• Agile Transformation Coach within an SAP-driven End-to-End Lead-to-Cash program, supporting leadership and management teams in implementing and evolving the Sherpa Way of Working, strengthening Agile practices, role definitions and responsibility clarity (RACI), and delivery effectiveness
• Member of the leadership core team for the Way of Working, shaping and evolving agile operating models, challenging existing practices, and driving pragmatic, system-level improvements
• Conceptualized a Polarion-based Scrum Master dashboard as a single, role-based entry point for sprint status, dependencies, risks, and governance artefacts, reducing reporting overhead and improving transparency
• Provided targeted 1:1 coaching to the Master Scrum Master and Scrum Masters, strengthening leadership capability, role effectiveness, and support for team-specific challenges, including the redesign of Scrum Master syncs and collaboration formats
• Worked with teams and leadership on End-to-End Lead-to-Cash process analysis and documentation in SAP Signavio, supporting alignment, transparency, and a shared understanding of process expectations across teams

• Spearheaded the transformation of Telefonica Germany’s cloud journey into a self-service, automated marketplace by leading process analysis and design efforts; facilitated UX/UI collaboration and served as Scrum Master for cross-functional agile teams to ensure timely and quality delivery
• Designed, launched, and managed an enterprise-wide Learning & Development program focused on cloud-native skills, upskilling over 1,500 employees; undertook full vendor management including sourcing, tendering, contract negotiation, and ongoing partnership to ensure curriculum alignment with evolving organizational needs
• Implemented cloud migration processes aligned with corporate compliance and process governance; improved process transparency and audit readiness while reducing operational risks
• Architected and led a cross-divisional communication strategy to enhance organizational engagement; developed multiple channels including newsletters and intranet content, acting as single point of contact for all departmental communications to ensure consistency and alignment

I support the development of an industrial automation and communication product in which hardware, firmware, embedded software, system architecture, and testing work closely together. As a coach and technical sparring partner, I support product and project owners as well as development teams in turning product goals into a clear technical delivery structure.

• Technical Vision & Strategy: translated product goals into prioritized requirements, milestones, decisions, and executable work packages for HW-/SW teams.
• HW-/SW Collaboration: structured the interfaces between hardware, firmware, Embedded Linux/RTOS, fieldbus/connectivity, system test, and product management; made risks and dependencies transparent.
• Coaching & Leadership Sparring: clarified roles, responsibilities, prioritization, and decision paths with technical leads and teams and strengthened cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Methods & environment: Polarion, GitHub, requirements engineering, configuration management, PROFINET, embedded systems, agile delivery, coaching, and facilitation.

• Leadership coaching
• Coaching leadership teams
• Workshop facilitation (small groups and large groups of up to 120 participants)
• Team development measures (IT and non-IT)
• Conflict resolution / mediation in escalating conflicts

• Transformation Consultant, Release Train Engineer and Program Lead – responsible for the new Way of Working in the Open Gateway Program; optimizing the flow of value by ensuring the ART events and artifacts function correctly, including the Open Gateway Release Train Kanban, Inspect & Adapt (I&A) workshop, ART Sync Meetings, and PI Planning to ensure stakeholder alignment;
• Coaching and guiding the Product Owners, Business Owners, Product Management, Program Managers, Leaders, Tribe Architect
• Coaching the OGW Core Team (cross functional) within the OGW Program and developing optimization measures in their transformation process;
• Facilitating and working actively towards the creation of the Definition of Ready (DoR) and the product Definition of Done (DoD);
• Introducing knowledge sharing workshops and grow the agile engineering practices;
• Hold Team lift-off workshops;
• Help the group to become a team by providing system team coaching and multifunctional learning;
• Facilitate, decision making, feedback loops for learning new skills and practices

Tools: JIRA, Confluence, MS Teams, Miro

• Senior agile practitioner in a complex, regulated pharmaceutical environment — facilitating Scrum ceremonies across three international teams (~40 people) while supporting delivery governance and agile coaching.
• Time-limited assignment to bridge the gap until the client could fill the role internally
• Facilitated all Scrum ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Review, Retrospective) across multiple international teams; kept sprints predictable and productive
• Coached teams and Product Owners in agile practices within a GxP-regulated environment, pragmatically balancing agile ways of working with QMS compliance requirements
• Tracked and visualized delivery metrics, managed dependencies, and produced status reports for senior stakeholders and Steering Committee
• Stepped up to project leadership of the internal CCMS product initiative: introduced structured processes and transparent tooling into a previously low-governance environment
• Actively contributed to the company-wide Agile Community of Practice, including authoring blog articles on agile topics
• Commended for analytical thinking, reliability under pressure, and the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously

• Orchestrate cross-functional delivery across organisational units in the Connectivity domain, aligning teams around integrated end-to-end, customer-testable value rather than isolated component delivery.
• Drive a shift from local component optimisation towards shared outcomes and a common delivery goal, increasing focus and enabling significantly faster integrated delivery.
• Coordinate across 15 cross-functional organisations in a highly complex OEM environment; bring Product, Engineering, Programme Management and specialist functions together to resolve dependencies and improve decision-making.
• Coach Product Managers, Product Owners and stakeholders on product responsibility, prioritisation, outcome orientation and aligned backlogs.
• Use Claude through an AWS Bedrock integration to analyse Jira and Confluence content, identify patterns, dependencies and quality gaps, and support structured product and delivery decisions.
• Establish AI-native requirements excellence with LLM-supported quality gates for epics, features, stories, acceptance criteria, roadmaps and task breakdowns; scale adoption through templates and prompt playbooks.

Due to founding another company during COVID, the managing director stepped back from day-to-day operations, which left the team without leadership for around 3 years.

My task was to train a new Product Owner, shape the developers and the Product Owner into a cohesive team, and coach this newly formed team into a state where self-organized value delivery for the customer would be possible again.

Because of the political situation in the US, the main customer of my client saw a drop in revenue, which made a change in the business model necessary for my client. I was allowed to support the transition from a service provider to an AI-first company with a broad customer base in a strategic advisory role, hire staff, and facilitate several C-level negotiations between my client and its new customers.

TASKS

• Training team and management in Scrum and agile ways of working
• Coaching a junior Product Owner up to PSPO II level
• Mediating conflicts in change processes
• C-level consulting and negotiation facilitation
• Developing and evaluating business models
• Leading the hiring process for 4 new employees

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Successfully coached Product Owner to PSPO II level
• Formed a cohesive Scrum team from a team without leadership
• Restored self-organized value delivery for the customer
• Successfully transitioned to AI-native development (Claude)
• Successfully changed the customer's business model

TOOLS & METHODS

• Team building
• NVC according to Rosenberg
• Conflict management
• Workshop facilitation
• Negotiation facilitation
• Leadership coaching
• Personio hiring