Ladonna Johnson

Software Release Manager @IHG Hotels & Resorts

Atlanta, GA, US

As a Software Delivery Manager at IHG, I lead the multi-million-dollar rollout of HotelKey, a cloud-based Property Management System (PMS) across IHG’s international and domestic hotel network. I manage the full delivery cycle, working closely with Product Development Managers, Product Owners, and cross-functional teams to ensure smooth and timely releases.I oversee Agile processes, leading daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives, and manage the Jira Scrum Board to track feature delivery, testing, and defect resolution. I coordinate weekly demos and release notes to stakeholders and host Pre-Go/No-Go and Go/No-Go meetings with key leadership teams, ensuring releases meet business, security, and infrastructure requirements.I am responsible for coordinating the resolution of defects, ensuring all issues identified in testing are communicated and resolved before production deployment. I also lead weekly production incident reviews to manage escalated issues.Throughout the project, I’ve driven process improvements by suggesting and implementing the integration of QTest with Jira for better defect traceability and ServiceNow integration for smoother production support ticketing. I also collaborate on IT roadmap planning and release schedules, ensuring that incremental code deliveries are well-planned and early feedback is incorporated.My focus is on optimizing communication and collaboration between development, testing, deployment, and business teams to ensure successful, on-time delivery of high-quality software. Through my work, I’ve helped improve testing processes, streamlined communication, and enhanced overall project execution, consistently meeting delivery targets.Key skills include: Agile Project Management, Scrum Mastery, Jira Management, Release & Incident Management, Cross-functional Leadership, Cloud-based Systems, Stakeholder Engagement, and Process Improvement.