Paul Henman, Agile Coach

As a hands-on Agile coach, I specialize in tailoring approaches to fit unique team needs, promoting job satisfaction, product quality, and customer satisfaction. Recent improvements include a 50% reduction in replanning over three months and a 75% increase in the frequency of customer feedback.

Specialties:

  • Agile Transformation
  • Scrum, Kanban, XP, Lean Methodologies
  • Structured Experiments and Short Feedback Cycles
  • Facilitation, including Story Mapping, Lift-Off Sessions
  • Kaizen for Continuous Improvement
  • Probabilistic Forecasting & Predictability Enhancement
  • Training, Coaching, and Mentoring
  • Agile Roadmapping, Backlog Management & Rolling Planning * Key Performance Indicators & Transparency Enhancement

Recent Roles

  • Senior Agile Coach, Index Exchange (4 years)
    more…
    • Spearheaded program-level backlogs & rolling planning, reducing replanning by 50% & increasing visibility into product direction.
    • Facilitated consolidation of overlapping backlogs with Product Owners, leading to a single prioritised backlog & the removal of resource allocation plans; improved clarity, transparency & focused discussions.
    • Promoted the use of structured experiments with short feedback cycles, resulting in increased confidence in product direction accuracy.
    • Improved team collaboration through the use of customised “Lift Off” sessions for new Product Delivery Units.
    • Collaborated with POs to facilitate Story Mapping sessions, resulting in the co-creation of backlog items, highlighting risks, and reducing unknowns & dependencies for more efficient delivery.
    • Led the transition to probabilistic forecasting, increasing predictability by reducing reliance on estimation & gut feel. Moved discussions to focus on addressing the causes of variance.
    • Provided training and mentoring to address specific observations from teams’ meetings. Some issues required collaboration with or escalation to their managers.
    • Introduced teams to Kaizen (continuous improvement) to address issues & opportunities sooner, shortening feedback loops.
    • Supported teams’ growth beyond Scrum “by the book” through training and coaching that covered various elements of Kanban, Lean, XP, and other Agile approaches.
  • Agile Coach, EventMobi (1½ years)
    more…
    • As the sole coach at EventMobi, I improved the teams’ retrospectives by increasing the clarity of discussions, identifying root causes, and using shorter feedback loops when making changes.
    • Coached the product team and senior stakeholders on product roadmapping techniques and backlog management (prioritisation and pruning).
    • Introduced new key performance indicators and the use of visualisation/information radiators to increase transparency.
  • Senior Agile Coach, EPAM Systems (3½ years)
    more…
    • Built a strong network of agile coaches within EPAM Canada by facilitating regular Coaches Community meetups, promoting continuous learning and sharing real-world challenges, discoveries and successes.
    • Introduced large (170+ people) project group to the fundamentals of Agile by training, coaching and mentoring them on the Agile mindset, Scrum, and aspects of Kanban, Lean, and XP.
    • Mentored multiple project managers towards adopting a more agile, servant-leader approach to support a client’s business improvement project.
    • Co-developed tools and documentation with a client’s ePMO (Enterprise Project Management Office) to support their organisational change. Initiated feedback processes including interviewing many delivery team members, project managers and senior leaders to seek their input on the challenges they encountered during the transition.
    • Supported client’s Agile transformation through the facilitation of lean coffee sessions and an Agile book club, as well as coaching individuals and teams on an ad hoc basis.
  • Agile Coach, RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) (3 years)
    more…
    • Provided on-demand training, coaching and mentoring to managers, dev teams and business partners. (As a member of the original Agile Centre of Excellence (CoE) at RBC, coaches were assigned to projects for a maximum of six months.)
    • Contributed to revisions of RBC’s Agile Management Framework. (AMF described how Agile projects could meet the bank’s reporting, auditing and other governance structures.)
  • Previously
    • in Ontario: Agile Coach; Scrum Master; Project Manager.
    • in England: Scrum Master; Project Manager; QA Manager; Team Leader; Software Engineer.

Education / Professional Membership

Other Interests

  • Photography: founder & organiser of Toronto Photo Walks for amateur & established photographers
  • Badminton: player, executive committee member and webmaster for local badminton club
  • Toronto Agile Community: volunteer, photographer

Contact Paul

emailcontact_paul@TorontoAgileCoach.ca
phone+1 647-388-5356
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhenman/
linkedin

Downloads

download

PDFs available to view/download:

See also my testimonials page