Microsoft Word 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.

Project: Digital Sovereignty – Toll Collect

Workshop: Digital Sovereignty Recognize dependencies, reduce risks, remain capable of acting

Format

• One-day practical seminar

Target group

• Executive management
• IT managers
• Data protection officers
• Compliance functions

Content and objectives

• Systematic analysis of digital dependencies
• Assessment of legal and operational risks
• Development of a concrete plan to increase digital sovereignty
• Mapping of the entire IT infrastructure by participants
• Identification of critical dependencies on non-European providers
• Creation of a prioritized risk matrix based on:
• GDPR
• NIS2
• EU AI Act
• Joint development of options for action – from a hybrid model to complete migration to European solutions
• Development of an individual sovereignty roadmap with:
• Responsibilities
• Milestones
• Budget framework

Agenda

• Preliminary self-assessment (current infrastructure)
• Digital sovereignty? Nothing but an illusion
• Digital sovereignty 2026 – Germany’s dangerous dependency in focus
• Digital sovereignty & open source
• What is digital sovereignty?
• Three questions raised by digital sovereignty
• Reflection: Digital sovereignty in your own life
• Why is digital sovereignty existential now?
• Practical examples of digital sovereignty
• Schleswig-Holstein initiative
• Benefits of digital sovereignty for your company
• Assessing strategy options (cost-benefit matrix)
• Sovereign provider? 10 questions
• What does digital sovereignty specifically mean for your company?
• How do you shape digital sovereignty?
• Digital sovereignty and psychological safety
• Psychological safety: The key to high-performing teams
• Why psychological safety in your company?
• Benefits of psychological safety
• Invitation to group work: PsySafety Check (PS-C)
• The “Braintrust” experiment
• Creating a risk matrix
• Creating a roadmap & project plan
• European alternatives to US Big Tech
• 10-point plans:
• NIS2
• EU AI Act
• GDPR
• ISO 27001

• 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)

• 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

Planning, delivery & facilitation of crisis communications and reputation management

AQIM is a non-profit organization based in Austria. It is an association of interim managers from Germany and Austria. Founded in December 2024. Multi-part training with workshops and consulting on preventive crisis communications, in collaboration with the founding members and communications leads. To assess crisis potential for the market entry strategy and ahead of a digital campaign.

Project highlights:

Consulting and training for:

• Assessing crisis potential as a new market participant and for its internet-based communications activities
• Planning and developing crisis communications with targeted measures
• Developing a crisis plan to minimize reputational risks in the event of a crisis
• Delivering training and information sessions

Results:

• The one-off consulting event initially planned to prepare for an information campaign became a multi-part workshop on preventive crisis communications. It gave the organization the skills and confidence to handle an acute challenge, and also helped the participating interim managers build skills they could use in their day-to-day client assignments
• The workshop enabled those responsible to launch the information campaign, which was being prepared at the time and planned to run for six months, on social media as scheduled at the end of January 2026
• Carefully prepared scheduling and clear guidelines for responding to critical voices, including terminology, tone of voice, and compliance rules, ensured a smooth launch and delivery of a 3-month information campaign

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)

• Analyze the current process
• Develop the target processes
• Support implementation of improvements in an SAP-enabled program
• Simplify customer contact
• Streamline internal processes through automated, real-time checks for relevance to complaints
• Create use cases

• 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.

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.

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

• Supported monthly and annual closing activities
• Checked incoming invoices for formal and factual accuracy
• Posted incoming invoices
• Contact person for internal departments on accounting matters
• Created and maintained vendor master data
• Processed open items
• Took on additional accounting-related special tasks
• Managed the functional mailbox
• Performed payment runs

Training and knowledge transfer – Accounts Payable:

In addition to the tasks above, I was responsible for training and transferring knowledge to 8 employees of an external service provider in India who took over the accounts payable activities:

• Conducted structured training and practical guidance throughout the accounts payable process
• Trained employees in checking and posting incoming invoices, including formal and factual checks
• Taught vendor master data maintenance, open-item processing and payment runs
• Trained employees in using the functional mailbox and communicating effectively with internal departments
• Explained accounting procedures, controls and company-specific accounts payable requirements
• Conducted “Training on the Job” using practical posting cases and real business transactions
• Supported the team in independently carrying out accounts payable processes and resolving accounting questions
• Checked the quality and accuracy of work results and provided continuous feedback and coaching
• Supported the transfer of accounts payable processes to the external service provider and ensured structured knowledge transfer and an orderly handover
• Supported a smooth transition by documenting processes, clarifying responsibilities and ensuring consistent application of accounting requirements

Software: JDE, ELO, SAP Concur

• Project management for Porsche interior plastic parts
• Ensuring complete and smooth information flow between the customer and internal departments
• Creating and monitoring resource, schedule and overall project plans
• Active support and independent customer handling
• Coordinating technical discussions and pricing discussions
• Organizing, running and documenting coordination meetings with development and controlling
• Preparing quotations with cost specifications, analyses and presentations
• Independent cost negotiations, change handling and final negotiations
• Carrying out deviation analyses