Microsoft Project Experts in Germany

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.

• Operation and further development of the network and security infrastructure.

• Monitoring, analysis and resolution of network and security incidents.

• Cross-departmental collaboration with other teams on operations and further development, and reporting.

• Firewall vulnerability analysis.

• Firewall access requests.

• Troubleshooting IP communication issues on network and firewall infrastructure.

• Security-critical IT infrastructure, processing of personal data, compliance with legal requirements.

• Products: Palo Alto Networks Firewalls, Cisco ACI, Checkpoint Firewalls, F5

• Technologies: SDN, SDWAN, Cisco EPIC, Cisco ACI

Project content / Description of services:

• Management and coordination of all new-build areas in the assigned region to ensure completion on time

• Responsibility for network planning, budget calculation, and budget approval for optimal resource planning in the construction process

• Cross-project management of service providers for the efficient implementation of joint construction or connection of new-build areas

• Preparation, tendering, and awarding of contracts within budget limits

• Ensuring material supply for smooth joint construction

• Management of fiber-optic expansion and provision of data lines; densification

• Stakeholder management

• Introduction and setup of Kanban board, including maintenance

• End-to-end rollout management

• Escalation management

• Service provider management

• Construction monitoring and management of construction schedules

• Preparation and tracking of project plans and Gantt charts

• Risk management

• Claim management and project recalculations

• Problem and incident management

• Change management

• Capex and Opex control and monitoring

• Contract management and change order management

• Conclusion of lease, purchase, or rental agreements for the development of required properties or lines

• Technical collaboration with construction managers and service providers within the construction projects to ensure the timely completion of new-build areas

• Definition of requirements, categorization, and prioritization, including monitoring and follow-up in accordance with the project plan

• Preparation and delivery of presentations for various management levels

• Preparation and creation of decision papers

• Forecast

• Establishment of project “back to green” post-installation and densification

Environment: MS Office, MS Teams, SAP; SharePoint, Jira, Confluence, Bizagi. GBGS, PowerBI, TKI, Flash Kanban

• Extension of a Swing-based UI for recording Security Restricted Articles during baggage screening.
• Introduction of a new workflow for recording Deboarding Events.
• Extension of the reporting system for Security Restricted Articles and Deboarding Events.
• Implementation using JBoss Wildfly, PostgreSQL, spring-boot 3.x, Java 8/21, Swing, JSF, JAX-RS/Resteasy, Docker, Maven, Kiro.

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.

Led the end-to-end integration and migration architecture for decommissioning SAP IS-U market communication and transitioning to Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) with E.ON IT Services — covering regulated EDIFACT market messaging, a three-phase data migration (transfer of market message inventory after cutover), redesign of market communication processes, and full GDPR and German energy-market compliance.

• Designed the three-tier target architecture (SAP IS-U → NScale B2B gateway → SFMC) processing 50,000–100,000 EDIFACT messages daily within sub-5-minute SLAs.
• Architected the three-phase data migration: 36 months of historical data, zero-loss cutover of in-flight market messages, and near-real-time CDC synchronization.
• Delivered secure, BDEW/GDPR-compliant integration (AS2/OFTP2, RFC/IDoc, REST APIs, OAuth 2.0, Azure AD, AWS S3) achieving >99.5% uptime, <0.1% migration discrepancy, and RTO <4 hours.
• Applied BPMN to model and optimize the market communication processes.

Technologies: SAP IS-U, NScale, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, EDIFACT, OAuth 2.0, Azure AD, AWS S3, BPMN, Jira, Confluence, Draw.io

• Holistic project support from analysis through piloting to implementation in the areas of change, process and project management.
• Design and delivery of customer-specific training courses, seminars and workshops on processes, organization and structures with clear objectives.
• Worked as a coach, trainer and keynote speaker on leadership, conflict and communication for up to 300 people.
• Trainer for mediators.

• Create and lead roadmap forecasting of support opportunities, including colleague training, process design and improvement, and new hire onboarding.
• Collaborate seamlessly with cross-functional teams including Professional Services, Support, Product, Sales, and Solution Engineering.
• Manage business and financial KPIs in alignment with overall business objectives.
• Industrial IT & Data Integration: Implement, configure, and integrate OT/IT systems and data flows, connecting control-layer sources (DCS, PLC, SCADA) to historians, data platforms, and enterprise systems through APIs and standard interfaces.
• AVEVA PI & Historian: Configure, maintain, and extend AVEVA PI (PI Data Archive, Asset Framework, interfaces/connectors) to capture, contextualize, and serve real-time and historical operational data.
• Alarm Management: Support and optimize alarm management systems – e.g. Honeywell Alarm Management – including alarm rationalization, classification, and the analysis of alarm performance, critical alarms, and alarm floods.
• Connectivity & Protocols: Set up and troubleshoot industrial connectivity using OPC UA and OPC A&E, including the configuration of tunnelers / wrappers to bridge OT data sources securely and reliably.
• Production Data Flow: Ensure seamless, secure, and well-structured data flow across the industrial IT landscape, transforming raw operational data into meaningful information for operations and decision-making.
• System Support & Troubleshooting: Provide ongoing support for OT/IT applications, troubleshooting issues across networks, software, and data integrations to keep systems running efficiently.
• Knowledge Management & Best Practices: Contribute to internal documentation, best practices, and troubleshooting guides, and help continuously improve how we deliver industrial IT and data solutions.

Tools & Software: Aveva PI, Salesforce, Active Directory, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Jira, Microsoft, Scrum, DevOps, Docker, CI/CD, Jenkins, GitHub.

Management of data protection & IT security-related projects. Adjustments to knowledge management and consulting processes.

Activities:

• Data protection consulting
• Process optimization in in-house consulting
• Interface to specialist departments, IT security, development and management

• Established a cyber resilience framework for AI-accelerated threats in the Frontier AI Threat Endurance (FATE) program: capability assessments, maturity assessments and gap analyses covering cyber security, operational resilience, incident response, recovery and governance, followed by target concepts and improvement measures
• Supported action owners from specification through implementation: implementation roadmaps, decision papers, management presentations and governance reporting, as well as audit- and supervision-ready documentation; managed stakeholders from IT, Information Security, Risk Management, Operational Resilience, Business Continuity and the business units

• Introduction of service management
• Optimization of processes
• Introduction of an agile way of working
• Introduction and configuration of Atlassian Jira Service Management
• Prioritization of features
• Coordination with stakeholders and the business department
• Management of the backlog and creation of user stories
• Budget management
• Coordination of a Scrum team
• Use of Atlassian Jira and Confluence
• Use of Microsoft Teams
• Working according to Scrum and Kanban

Business analysis / requirements engineering for the introduction of a central authorization platform:

• Analysis of existing requirements for the use of IGA solutions (NetIQ, MidPoint) in an existing IAM cluster
• Capturing requirements as epics and user stories (JIRA) to provide a comprehensive description of the use of an IGA solution for central access control across connected platforms and applications.
• Functional solution descriptions (Confluence) for various lifecycle processes, such as Identity Lifecycle (ILC), Role Lifecycle (RLC), Structure Lifecycle (SLC), and Application Lifecycle
• RBAC: Design of a role model in the IGA solution to automate access provisioning as much as possible, capturing application and business roles
• Approach for onboarding applications to the IGA tool, integrating Keycloak (ID Provider).
• Functions and processes for recertifying entitlement objects and roles, and for assigning / removing them from personalized identities.
• Functions and processes for audit-proof documentation and reporting of managed data and processes in the IGA / IAM environment.
• Planning, execution, and documentation of QA / testing for the 1st implementation phase of the MidPoint IGA solution in the IAM cluster.
• Planning a roadmap for the step-by-step testing and introduction of the IGA solution.

• Monitor supplier performance, including KPI analysis and follow-up on actions
• Conduct supplier assessments & risk analyses
• Plan and conduct supplier and process audits (VDA 6.3, ISO 9001)
• Develop supplier-related processes and incoming goods strategies
• Support PPAP approvals, sampling, and initial sample inspections
• Analyze quality deviations and launch sustainable CAPA measures
• Prepare reports and analyses for management and customers
• Guide new suppliers through a structured onboarding process

• Focus on optimizing and further developing the internal customer EBICS application
• Functional and technical consulting for Aareal First Financial Solutions AG on EBICS standard products and applications in the areas of operations and further development, as well as project-related communication with external development partners and the product manufacturer to implement the corresponding technical optimizations
• As the functional coordinator, providing advice on content-related and regulatory requirements as well as technical prerequisites and requirements, and bringing these together at the functional level
• Consulting on the use of EBICS formats
• Reviewing the current EBICS standard for optimization and further development potential
• Analyzing the current state to identify development potential and deriving appropriate recommendations for action while considering regulatory requirements
• Conducting EBICS tests throughout the project
• Functional responsibility for requirements management and, in this context, recording and documenting requirements for such tests
• Designing a functional and sustainable test management system
• Conducting and evaluating tests
• Consulting on sustainable quality assurance and audits
• Project language: German and English
• Tools/Methods: MS Project, MS Office, MS Visio, TestRail, Confluence, Jira, Business Logics Bankkrecher, Business Logics Test Data Generator, Business Logics Banking Tool, Business Logics Test System, DBEAVER, Squirrel, Unix Virtual Machines, WinSCP, Kitty, Putty, various Aareal Bank products, Online Banking Portal, Aareal Sign, core banking system, SAP Blue Eagle, SAP RE-FX, Aareon Wodis Sigma, Haufe Real Estate Wowinex, GAP Group Immotion, UTS Karthago, SAP IS-U/Waste, SIV kVASy, various EBICS clients