Lead Scrum Master at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Description

Education and Experience Required

• Bachelor Degree in Information Technology
• Scrum Master certification
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (Optional)
• Min 5 years of Agile Practitioner and Scrum Master experience
• Strong Project Management background
• Salesforce / CRM experience
• Ability and track record of managing feature teams across the function
• Experience of other methodologies like RUP, Kanban etc.
• Excellent communication skills in English in written and spoken form
• At least 5 years experience working in an agile environment, preferably in a variety of situations
• Delivery Management critical - Experience in the delivery of multiple Application Development Projects from strategy through to deployment.
• Proven track record in Scrum Master role
• Expert level skills in a relevant programming language(s) and relevant design
• techniques.
• A logical, analytical approach to problem solving and close attention to detail.
• Experience in the financial industry delivering & supporting financial applications

Key Accountabilities:

Delivery

• Lead multiple sprints for teams using Agile methodology
• Ensuring SCRUM artefacts are maintained and updated
• Ensuring that sprints are running smoothly and corrective actions taken wherever appropriate.
• Effectively communicate to project manager/delivery manager about the progress as well as blockages in the on-going sprints.
• Ensuring all change governance and standards are adhered to.
• Ensuring code quality is maintained
• Developing plans to ensure delivery of teams’ work.

Transition to Agile

• Understand current development/delivery model and guide teams to adapt agile strategy.
• Apply best practices to implement and/or resolve adoption issues
• Satisfactory resolution of issues raised during transition.
• Support Project/Delivery Manager in planning and transition of releases.
• Providing expert guidance and assistance to colleagues for successful transition.
• Accountability: Leading others and business skills
• Responsibility for supervising, co-ordinating, participating in, and accountable for sprints of teams located at different geographic locations.
• Making effective use of resources during the sprint to ensure that business objectives are met and deliverables achieved to agreed time, cost and quality.
• Familiar with the details of at least one business area and has experience of liasing with peers in that area
• Is respected and consulted by business area peers and seen as a point of contact within the team
• Is able to teach and coach team members to deeper understanding of Agile

Delivery Capability

• Ability to maintain a dialogue in difficult situations
• Ability to coach team members and product owners in the adoption of Agile
• Experience in maintaining and supporting multiple sprints
• Knowledge of major functions and features of workflow analysis tools
• Resolves major problems and fluently applies escalation and notification procedures for incidents

Management

• Adapts style to contribute and enhance overall team performance and works effectively with people across a wide range of disciplines and levels (both internal and external/3rd party suppliers)
• Experienced at leading or managing a variety of teams and projects.
• Deals comfortably with ambiguity and uncertainty and is effective when working with unstructured teams, situations and environments
• Aware of project costs and resources, help in tracking actual against budget and managing the balance of delivery within time/cost/quality constraints

Application Management

• Understands how service support applies to own technical function:
• Has experience of incident & problem management disciplines
• Has experience of maintaining configuration items, raising changes and planning releases
• Has good operational knowledge of the service desk and incident systems
• Has experience in developing and maintaining technical reference documents
• Familiar with technical documentation standards, guidelines and best practices
• Working knowledge of scripting/utility tool component, features and facilities

Stakeholder Management

• Can effectively manage and develop relationships with key decision makers and stakeholders to achieve successful outcomes
• Uses stakeholder management strategy effectively and knows how to navigate the organisation
• The ability to facilitate and negotiate with multiple parties to bring about agreement and resolution, even when position is not initially shared by others
• Clearly and effectively communicates difficult or complex ideas clearly to stakeholders, peers and subordinates
• Adapts style to contribute and enhance teams performance by working effectively with people across a wide range of disciplines and levels, both internal and external.