Agile Scrum Master/Jira Support Lead

Position: Agile Scrum Master/Jira Support Lead
Duration: 12+ Months with possible extension
Location: Boston, MA (Hybrid) Mostly remote. (4 days / month onsite)
In addition, the successful candidate may be required to work primarily on site in Boston during the initial training and orientation period and/or for certain positions a primarily on-site role may be necessary.

In your response, please also provide answers to the following questions:
1. How many years of direct experience does the candidate have in managing Agile scrums and the metrics reporting related to status?
2. How many years of experience does the candidate have in using JIRA?
3. Please list any relevant professional certifications the candidate has.

Client Hybrid Work Model
Client operates in a hybrid work model. Under this policy, employees are currently required to work a minimum of four business days per month (two set by management and two set by the employee) on-site at Client Boston office and may work remotely the remainder of the time at a location approved by their supervisor, so long as they comply with the requirements of the telework policy. Under this policy, all employees must be able to report to the Boston office with little or no notice, even including the same workday should an exigent circumstance arise. Therefore, a reasonable proximity to the office is necessary. Client does not reimburse for employees to travel to the office.
• Functional Agile Scrum Master/Jira Support Lead is a role we are looking to add to the BEST Program. Currently, the BEST Program is supported by CGI scrum masters who work with CGI configuration staff to groom user stories; select those that will be assigned to Sprints and Tracks; and maintain status of configuration decisions, blockers, test results and other status metrics in CGI's JIRA tool related to Sprint Tracks (action items, issues, risks). The Client QA/Test Team reviews Sprint Track status in JIRA as entered by CGI, asks for clarification of metrics entered by CGI, and runs its own configuration validation tests with results entered in the CMW JIRA tool. The two JIRA instances share similar categories and organizational structures and dashboards on status are produced by each JIRA owner.
• The BEST Functional Team which is responsible for working with CGI to configure the Advantage software, is frequently asked to respond to questions from both CGI and CMW that relate to configuration metrics on user stories, issues, risks and status of open action items in JIRA. Responding to these questions requires the Functional Lead to investigate or assign to one of her Team Leads, the investigation of JIRA items. While the team has learned how to use the CMW JIRA instance, the work to respond to these questions takes time away from the Sprint planning and tasks that are needed to achieve target configuration goals.
• In addition, the CMW Functional Team does not have a scrum master to organize and drive the curation of user stories to prepare them for Sprinting; help drive stories to completion by tracking the status of and removing blockers identified during workshops; answer QA, PMO and Sponsor questions on Sprint status; and make recommendations to improve velocity and the quality of work coming out of Sprints. This resource would work closely with both the CGI and CMW BEST Teams that manage JIRA instances and assist in coordinating their assessment of Sprint status and reporting. The resource will report to the BEST Functional Lead.
Specific Duties
• Support agile based tasks and activities assigned to the BEST Functional team lead and functional team to ensure alignment of delivery execution with expectations of Program leadership according to the Project Work Plan and Sprint Plan and Schedule.
• In alignment with CGI and BEST QA/Test Team, coordinate CMW and CGI JIRA based reporting to develop consolidated dashboards that provide a picture of functional workstream execution from Epic to story to task to status.
• Work closely with CGI to review their functional configuration / development progress and the supporting JIRA tickets, including the backlog grooming, PI planning, RAID item linkage, test details, and other JIRA ticket information.
• Work closely with BEST QA/Test Team to manage the RAID items associated with functional configuration and coordinate its review of user stories to support test case development.
• Coordinate the CMW Functional Teams grooming of user stories to assure stories clearly describe CMW requirements and include necessary elements needed to make configuration decisions and build test cases.
• Align and communicate with non-functional infrastructure teams on Functional needs, issues, change order, and other tasks resulting from sprints to support efficient communication and resolution of open issues.
• Provide agile methodology guidance and organizational transformational assistance to BEST team members as well as other client staff, as the overall client organization migrates from traditional waterfall to agile approaches.
• Manage, as requested, "mini projects" / stories to ensure end-to-end functional needs are being defined, communicated, configured, tested, and supported by training tools.
• Recommend training for CMW PMO team, client team, and other traditional development business users on Agile methodology, JIRA, and/or other aspects of the Agile methodology and tool set.
• The Functional Agile project manager will collaborate and coordinate with the SI product vendor, BEST Technical Implementation Lead, BEST Security and workflow lead, BEST Functional FIEs, BEST functional PMO members, and Agencies to identify necessary functional implementation configuration.
Required Skills
• Demonstrated and extensive experience as a JIRA expert, having been responsible for all aspects of JIRA configuration, management, usage.
• Certified scrum master with experience in preparing user stories, managing sprints, and reporting on sprint metrics. Demonstrated experience in managing Kanban Board, dashboards, metrics, and provide analysis of Project Scope / Burndown.
• Project Manager with demonstrated experience in large complex operational environments.
• Exposure to technical configurations, technologies, and processing environments in one or more projects of similar size and complexity to BEST.
• Exposure with system agile CI/CD implementation approaches and methods to enable continuous change / improvement processes.
• Experience in implementation of SaaS solutions with integration with on-prem components.
• Ability to support root-cause analysis and work with other administrators and development teams to identify and drive resolution.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities across multiple teams.
• Excellent customer service attitude.
• Demonstrated written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
Preferred Qualifications
• Project manager with State government experience with more than 3 years in state government
• 5+ years in a leadership project management role using JIRA
• Certified Agile Scrum Master with 5 years of experience in managing Agile methodology in a large-scale project environment.
• Extensive experience in business solution development and implementation
• Experience in designing and implementing financial and/or payroll /human capital management applications.
• Experience with Software as a Service cloud implementations particularly those in which legacy on premise applications have been migrated to cloud delivery options.
• Experience in transforming functional team from traditional / legacy environment to agile approach.

Minimum Entrance Requirements
• Bachelor's degree in related field with 3 - 5 years' experience with testing, project management or change management coordination in a large organization.

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