Micro Focus ALM / Quality Center Expert

Agile Transformation: introducing agile principles and transforming traditional IT departments into Scrum and Kanban teams

IT Operating Model: redesigning the IT organization and introducing modern delivery structures and roles

Flight Levels: building up Flight Levels practices within IT to align strategy, coordination and operational execution

Leadership & Coaching: recruiting Agile Coaches and coaching Scrum Masters and IT leaders

ERP Operations: acting as Interim Product Owner for the existing ERP landscape and ensuring business continuity

ERP Transformation: reorganizing and supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager; Phase 1 (financial accounting) live since October 2025

Operational Core (ERP): establishing dedicated teams for ERP Support, Feature Development, and ERP Migration

Modern Workplace: initiating the transition towards a Microsoft 365-based cloud workplace environment

Integration: establishing a dedicated team to drive integration and connectivity initiatives

Warehouse Operations: building a cross-functional team to support logistics and warehouse-related capabilities

Maintenance & Operations (M&O): introducing a dedicated team for system engineering, security, stable operations and continuous improvement

AI Initiatives: identifying and promoting practical Artificial Intelligence use cases across the IT department

As Interim Head of IT for a German medium-sized industrial distributor, I am responsible for 31 IT employees and lead the digital and organizational transformation, reporting directly to executive leadership. I took over an IT department with almost no basic structures – no clear roles, processes, documentation or ticket system – and with significant technical debt that tied up most of its capacity. Introduced agile principles and ways of working in the IT organization and transformed the traditionally structured IT department into cross-functional Scrum and Kanban teams focused on transparency, collaboration, and customer value delivery.

Redesigned the entire IT organization by establishing a modern operating model, introducing new roles such as Product Owner, Scrum Master and Solution Architect and strengthening the organization through strategic hiring and targeted capability development. Recruited and onboarded Agile Coaches to accelerate the transformation and personally managed and coached Scrum Masters as well as IT department leaders to foster servant leadership, self-management and a culture of continuous improvement.

Aligned IT-internal planning across eight teams to three Flight Levels based on Klaus Leopold (strategy, coordination, team), laying the foundation for later company-wide portfolio management. Consolidated the backlog of more than 10 workstreams and prioritized it by business value and cost of delay. Introduced a ticketing system to increase transparency and enable data-driven decision-making, flow-based work management, and greater accountability at all levels.

Established and supported multiple cross-functional teams, including the Operational Core (ERP) domain with dedicated streams for Support, Feature Development and ERP Migration, as well as teams responsible for Warehouse Operations, Maintenance & Operations (M&O) including system engineering and security, Modern Workplace, Data Quality and integration initiatives. Worked closely with Agile Coaches to support team development, remove impediments, and continuously improve delivery effectiveness.

Acted as Interim Product Owner for the operation and enhancement of the existing ERP landscape while supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager. Reorganized the project organization and had the already negotiated contract with the implementation partner realigned with a focus on approach and overall responsibility; Phase 1 (financial accounting) has been live since October 2025. Collaborated with the selected implementation partner to design and establish the project organization and target operating model for the ERP transformation, introducing agile delivery structures and ways of working. Facilitated the alignment between business, IT and the external vendor and played a key role in negotiating the contractual framework and delivery model to ensure a sustainable foundation for the transformation program.

Initiated the strategic modernization of the workplace environment through the adoption of Microsoft 365 cloud capabilities, establishing the foundation for enhanced collaboration, scalability and future digital services.

Launched AI initiatives to identify practical business use cases and promote the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the IT department. Encouraged self-management and empowered teams to take ownership of decisions, delivery and continuous improvement.

• Security Clearance 2 (SÜ2) verified
• Reported to the GMN Serie1 TP subprogram management
• Ensured the handover of around 300 deployable data center containers to the Bw customer in accordance with contractually defined military requirements
• Ensured transport and acceptance by Bw
• Ensured staff training
• Prepared decision papers (e.g., project plans, governance models, communication plans, controlling models, roles and responsibilities matrices)
• Analyzed existing processes, identified areas for improvement, and designed solutions to increase their efficiency and effectiveness
• Responsible for project governance through reporting and resource planning in the subprogram using Jira, PM Pulse, KeyPIA (MicroStrategy)
• Developed the project methodology using agile methods
• Handled customer requirements (Requirements Engineering)
• Prepared for and supported contract negotiations for “System Maintenance 2027+” (7-year term, 500+ Mio budget)

Banking & Invest – Replacement of digital application journeys

Shared product responsibility for the digital application journeys (accounts, investment accounts, home financing) of a large financial services provider working with three partner banks – from the prioritized backlog and partner bank integrations to regulatory requirements (WpHG, ESMA, BFSG); contributed to the introduction of MS Copilot and AI use cases.

Result: Continued to develop the platform reliably across around 30 releases over 2.5 years; launched two new partner processes and met regulatory deadlines.

Self-employed Motivation Coach | Job Coach | German as a Foreign Language Coach

I offer individual motivation, career, and language coaching for people who want to develop personally and professionally.

My services:

• Motivation coaching: Building self-confidence, self-motivation, and personal skills.

• Job coaching: Career guidance, job search, and support with entering the job market.

• Application coaching: Preparing resumes and application documents and getting ready for job interviews.

• German as a Foreign Language coaching: Individual support to improve German for everyday life, work, and integration.

• Integration coaching: Supporting people with a migration background with professional and social integration.

• Activation coaching: Encouraging initiative and reducing individual barriers to finding work.

My goal is to motivate people to recognize their strengths, overcome language barriers, and develop new career prospects.

Individual, practical, confidential, and focused on results.

Coaching in German and Russian. In person or online by appointment.

AI Readiness - Part 3: Creating an e-book on the use of AI in software testing

• Designed and created an e-book on the sensible and safe use of AI in software testing from the perspective of an experienced test expert.
• Used generative AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity Pro) as a sparring partner for structuring, wording suggestions and creating variations, with all content finally reviewed and approved using my own expertise.
• Developed practical insights into the opportunities and risks of AI in testing, with a special focus on collaboration between testers and AI instead of “tester vs. AI”.
• Title: “11 starke Gründe: Dream-Team statt Rivalen - Tester und KI sind gemeinsam unschlagbar”
• Subtitle: “Wie Mensch und Maschine im Softwaretest das perfekte Team bilden – und warum reines KI-Testing riskant ist.”
• Planned use of the e-book as a basis for workshops, customer meetings or internal training.
• Technology: Generative AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity Pro, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, many years of hands-on professional testing experience, common sense.

Working Environment

• Insurance / Claims Management (Property, Liability, Automotive)
• REST-based ClaimAPI with Guidewire ClaimCenter

Scope

• Further development of the internal REST-based ClaimAPI with Guidewire ClaimCenter as the backend and various portals/front-end offices as clients, and with the following objectives: + increased AI-supported claims processing outside of Guidewire ClaimCenter + and support for all lines (property, liability, automotive).
• Further development of automated claims processing

Activities

• Interfacing IT & Business
• Design activities with documentation in Confluence, Jira: + Requirements engineering (functional and non-functional) + Design of REST endpoints and coordination with interface partners (esp. AI-colleagues) + Identification, design and evaluation of alternative solutions (moving away from a monolithic approach toward fine-grained endpoints, with code reuse across all lines if possible) + Creation / refinement of product backlog items in Jira, i.e. epics, user stories and tasks, incl. alignment with developers & POs during (pre-)refinement sessions + Using AXA Secure GPT when creating / refining user stories (description, acceptance criteria) and designing REST endpoints + Estimation and prioritization of user stories and tasks during Sprint Planning sessions + Coordination and support during the implementation of Product Backlog items + Driving decision making with preparation and presentation of decision-making documents
• Quality assurance: + Test management, including test case creation using Xray in Jira + Test execution using Bruno as REST client and in Guidewire ClaimCenter + Submission of test artifacts for PO approval + Analysis of production bugs

Methods Big Room Planning (aka PI-Planning in SAFe), Scrum, BPMN, EPK, UML, ERM, DDD

Tools / Tech Stack Teams, Confluence, Jira with Xray, OpenAPI/Swagger, REST, JSON, XML, MS Office, Bruno, GitHub repository (reading), Guidewire ClaimCenter, AXA Secure GPT (AXA's in-house GenAI solution based on Azure OpenAI)

• Managed the integrated SAP S/4HANA delivery plan for 12 BTS workstreams, including milestone, dependency, and governance management.
• Coordinated end-to-end delivery across Business, IT, and Operations, focusing on execution, readiness, and issue resolution.
• Responsible for RAID, test, cutover, and deployment management to ensure a successful go-live.
• Implemented KPI tracking, status reporting, and PMO governance to provide transparent management of performance, risks, and escalations.

Migration of an existing application to a new IT infrastructure.

• Managed all project activities (infrastructure, applications, data, security, architecture)
• Planned complex network architectures with security requirements
• Designed and coordinated firewall configurations
• Planned and managed interfaces between ERP, cloud, and third-party systems
• Coordinated middleware solutions (e.g. SAP Integration Suite, MuleSoft, Boomi)
• Defined data flows, mapping rules, and integration architectures
• Managed data migrations and master data harmonization
• Coordinated with business departments, IT teams, service providers, and external partners
• Team size: International team of 35 employees – Germany | Poland | India | USA
• Languages: English

Tools: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project), Brainloop, Jira, Confluence, MS SharePoint

• Create a tracking concept for Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, including the data layer, events, triggers, and reporting
• Manage the project team (developers, designers, performance)
• Communication interface between stakeholders and digital specialist departments

• QA Lead for end-to-end quality assurance of the Sparkasse & Sparkasse Business banking apps (iOS/Android); design and implementation of the Test Strategy including functional testing, regression testing, and UAT for eID, Push Notifications, and white-label components
• Creation and maintenance of test concepts and test plans in TestRail; structured Defect Management and error analysis; stakeholder management and risk management for the early identification of critical quality risks
• Accessibility Testing according to WCAG 2.1 (iOS/Android); coordination of AI-supported test automation and optimization of test processes to shorten release cycles
• Release Management: planning, management, and coordination of all test activities; status reporting to management and stakeholders; quality assessment of releases and release recommendations in an Agile/Scrum environment
• Challenge: Highly complex build and release process across several Sparkasse institutions; close coordination with the DevOps team to stabilize the CI/CD pipeline and ensure reproducible test builds before every release.

Tools: Jira, Confluence, TestRail, Android Studio, Xcode, Firebase, Jenkins, GA4

• Success: Successful launch of the eID authentication process - quality assurance ensured for 50+ Sparkasse institutions

• Goal/Motivation: PAYONE urgently needs a 360° view of its customers. PAYONE has not had an overarching master data strategy so far. It is not possible to identify customers across all relevant systems.

The organization should be enabled to identify customers across all relevant systems. Establishing the basis for master data management at PAYONE

• Challenge: Due to company acquisitions, the system landscape is very heterogeneous. The company is very dynamic and burdened with many system harmonization and integration projects, meaning resource shortages and changes in project priorities repeatedly make this an almost impossible task.

Due to BaFin findings, the project has a central task and role. The initial focus is on migrating all customers, including their AML/KYC data, from the master-data-leading backend systems to Salesforce. This is intended to resolve one of the largest findings and establish the relevant ODD/EDD processes.

In addition, customer data must be harmonized in Salesforce. Some customers were entered multiple times as a result of earlier migrations. The aim is for only one customer record to remain in Salesforce and for the relevant information from the backend systems to show which products the customer uses and in which processing systems they receive Payone services.

Project: ONE Customer

Budget: 1,5 Mio. €

Team: 10/30 employees (full-time/part-time); 4 vendors/providers

Integration: 8 (subsystems/interfaces)

Applications: Salesforce; SAP S4/HANA; in-house developments

Tools: MS Office; Jira, Confluence, Sharepoint

Methods: Hands-on; Agile (SAFe); Prince2

Introduction of new hospital software

• Supported the introduction and implementation of new hospital software during ongoing clinical operations
• Coordinated and provided operational support for the software rollout in clinical departments
• Delivered user training and guidance to hospital staff to ensure safe and efficient use of the new software
• Explained software features, workflows and new digital processes to the relevant user groups
• Provided on-site support to doctors, nursing staff, medical departments and administrative employees during the introduction and transition phase
• Acted as a First Responder for questions, usage issues and incidents related to the newly introduced software
• Logged, analyzed and initially assessed user issues, and coordinated follow-up with the responsible support team and technical departments
• Helped users transition existing workflows to the new digital processes
• Identified recurring user questions and operational challenges and shared relevant findings with the project team
• Worked closely with project management, IT, the software provider and the hospital's responsible contacts
• Provided ongoing feedback from clinical operations to project management to improve the rollout and user acceptance
• Helped ensure a smooth transition to live operations
• Supported users during the Go-Live and stabilization phase
• Documented support cases, user feedback and open items, and tracked them through to resolution
• Coordinated closely with project management to meet project goals, rollout dates and implementation requirements

• Supporting the International Web Presence of the BA (IntWeb) project in the area of quality management, with the aim of taking responsibility for the quality of processes and project results while considering BA standards. The main objectives of the project are to give professionals abroad a quick overview of their opportunities for moving to Germany and to enable them to take the necessary steps consistently and with digital support by providing access to services.

• Defining the general guidelines in the QA handbook

• Summarising test results in QA reports for PLA

• Analysing project results for improvement opportunities

• Quality management of requirements analysis (particularly processes, methods, and tools)

• Ensuring compliance with SERA requirements

• Creating a cross-project test concept

• Agreeing on sprint completion reports

• Formal review of work results in accordance with requirements and/or the project plan

• Contact person for internal audit, external audits by auditors, or BRH (Federal Court of Audit)

• Technologies: JIRA, Confluence, MS Office, GitLab, Kubernetes

Transformation PMO:

• Establishment of strategic program and project management, development of a PMO, creation of a common understanding of projects.