Mark Heppler

About Mark Heppler

I have been successfully delivering software products my entire career. I have done this as a software engineer, as a product/delivery manager, as an agilist. My current focus is helping leaders define their organization and/or product goals, then working hands-on with teams to prioritize their work to meet those goals while still finding time to improve how they work.Specialties- Agile, Lean, Kanban training and adoption- Team building- Product definition: features, outcomes, users & stakeholders- Roadmap creation & release planning- Backlog management- Metrics (flow & performance)- Large and small group facilitationI have been active in the agile community as a meetup group organizer, conference volunteer and local advocate for agile practices.KeywordsAgile, Scrum, Kanban, Agile transformation, agile adoption, Product delivery, Product Management, Project Management, Jira, Azure DevOps, Trunk based development, Feature Flags, Ci/CD, automated testing,

Experience

1. Agile Consultant

   Excella

   Jun 2016 — Present · Arlington, VA, US

   Multiple long-term engagements with client delivery programs.Activities & Accomplishments- Designed and facilitated multi-day Agile training, product roadmap, team building seminars/activities/events/- Introduced release planning, affinity sizing, and release burnups to help teams coordinate work and provide longer-term forecasts- Organized and facilitated a multi-team self-selection activity to empower people to determine their team’s makeup- Conducted impact mapping with client organization to identify goals and priorities for large new initiatives- Introduced metrics for improving team performance- Facilitated cross-team refinement and planning activities, ensuring all teams were aligned across the product backlog and short-term goals- Facilitated cross-team retrospectives, generating insights into how teams can work more effectively together within a scaled environment- Collaborated with other coaches to identify opportunities for cross-team improvements- Coached Product Owners through creating and maintaining a product roadmap- Created information radiators to align the client and teams on the purpose, goals and measurements for major milestones- Eliminated pre-existing silo of design by integrating designers within scrum teams- Introduced velocity and sprint burndown charts to provide better visibility into team delivery- Supported project management on monthly metrics, release preparedness report, risk registry, coordinating go-live activities, and onboarding new team members.Other Activities- Host of DC Scrum User Group (DSCUG)- Facilitator at Games for Agility, Learning, and Engagement (GALE)- Created and delivered training, team building workshops to multiple clients- Facilitated events within Excella’s internal Agile Community of Practice to demonstrate new techniques and promote continuous learning.

Education

• Purdue University

  BS

Skills

• Software Development
• Unix
• Scrum Master
• Software Project Management
• Clearquest
• System Deployment
• Business Analyst
• Windows
• Confluence
• IT Service Management
• Microsoft Project
• Jira
• Jenkins
• Project Management
• IT Management
• Employee Management
• Project Delivery
• Sdlc
• Solution Architecture
• Systems Analysis
• Integration
• Requirements Analysis
• Visual Studio
• C
• Dod
• Microsoft Office
• Systems Engineering
• Agile Project Management
• Testing
• Soa
• Rally
• Subversion
• Service Delivery
• C++
• Pmo
• Enterprise Architecture
• IT Strategy