Portfolio Manager Scrum Master

Harshad Nandu

(Westbury, NY)

PMO Professional (Program/Portfolio Manager)

Summary:

Accomplished, forward thinking and proactive professional with extensive leadership experience.

Recognized for leveraging broad business acumen, technical savvy, and astute problem solving as well as for leading organizations to achieve strategic objectives and articulate a vision for the future.

Strategic-minded with proven track record for setting an atmosphere of teamwork, ownership, and accountability.

Proficient communicator with noted strength in client-centric leadership by accurately interpreting client needs while managing expectations within established matrix.

Known for delivering value according to business need and speed while ensuring quality and budget. Focused on integrity with the ability to build and manage high-performance teams. Supported Business applications Portfolios and technical infrastructure (Servers, Networks & Security & Networks based in Datacenters and Cloud for Retail, Consumer goods and Finance industry leaders.

Education:

University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India

Bachelor of Science

Certifications/Trainings:

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Program Management Professional (PgMP)

Certified Scrum Master (CSP)

Certified SAFe Agilist Product Owner, RTE & LPM

COBIT 5

ITIL Foundation

6 Sigma Green Belt

Skills:

Project Portfolio Management

Resource Management

Demand Management &Prioritization by Strategy/OKR Alignment & Resource Availability

Appropriations/Budget Planning, IT Labor Capitalization

Vendor Management

Portfolio Governance

Process Improvement

Staffing/Team Building

Change Management

Process/Standards Definitions and Implementations

Agile & Waterfall Processes/Ceremonies

Risk Mitigation and Compliance

Service Delivery

Training Development & Delivery

Client Relationship Management

On/Offshore Resource Planning

Technology:

Microsoft Office Suite (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Microsoft SharePoint, CA Clarity, HP PPM

Professional Experiences:

MUFG, New York, NY Aug 2016 – Sep 2023

PMO Portfolio Manager

Managed a scrum team for the development of demand management process for the Union Bank IT Project Portfolio while partnering with senior stakeholders, finance, and LOB teams.

Worked closely with the business and technology to address the high priority issues in line with expectation setup with the regulators.

Worked with risk and regulatory teams to get a full view of all the open issues (MRAs, MRIAs, CoS) by business areas.

Converted from Waterfall to SaFe delivery model, while partnering with team Scrum masters and business stakeholders including Product Owners in making the shift.

Defined Master Scheduling process across IT Portfolio to sequence releases for upcoming quarters according to Organization and Regulatory priorities).

Strengthened and improved Project Execution monitoring with attention to efficiency, user adaption, and control/compliance needs.

Built Multiple presentation materials while partnering with senior stakeholders and prepped ECA members for sharing with Governance committees, Regulators, and the Board of Directors.

Managing multiple scrum teams working on the product in on shore and offshore models.

Facilitating and interacting by bridging gap between business units, Architecture and Tech Leads.

Facilitate daily stand-ups to make sure that each team provides a status update of the previous asks, current period plan and any impediments.

Facilitated backlog refinement sessions, retrospective and review ceremonies.

Worked with RTEs on pre-PI planning and PI execution and facilitated SOS and ART Synch calls.

Work with RTE to remediate any impediments and make sure all metrics are in synch with RTE’s goal.

Identified and help remediate problems, impediments, and defects that could delay the demo and delivery of the user stories in the Agile cycle working across multiple scrum teams.

Track capabilities and features using Rally software on a regular basis.

Established weekly portfolio reporting and review with executives to help escalate and eliminate blockers.

Ralph Lauren, New York, NY Aug 2014 – Aug 2016

PMO Resource Manager

Optimized resource utilization for the Project Portfolio supporting Creative Refresh, Platform development, and re-platforming initiatives; partnered with cross-functional leads to strategize long and short-term needs and identify resource and budget constraints; directed 6 Senior Project Managers and two Analysts.

Conceptualized and rolled out resource capacity model to help forecast resource demand and utilization by team and competencies; partnered with Finance to initiate Labor Capitalization processes (SOP 98).

Facilitated and led replacement of multiple tools with a single PPM solution for end-to-end project life cycle and validation; devised and socialized a resource allocation model supporting hybrid (waterfall, agile and managed services)

Provided oversight and guidance for Portfolio Analytics and Reporting function which assisted Resource Owners/Vendors to address competing priorities within tight timelines.

Accomplishments:

Institutionalized standard Demand Management and Intake practices and related PPM workflow in collaboration with Business and cross-functional Execution teams.

Instituted Resource Capacity Management process

Partnered with Finance teams and Auditors to Established labor capitalization processes in accordance with SOP-98

Estee Lauder, New York, NY Oct 2005 – Aug 2014

Project Portfolio Manager

Prioritized, paced, and tracked technology projects through the life cycle, from strategic planning and funding and execution; coordinated solution and service delivery with three portfolio analysts, 12 project managers, and vendors.

Established weekly portfolio reporting and review with executives to help escalate and eliminate blockers

Drove the decision-making process through formal Governance (IPGC,TAC, ITSC), while ensuring smooth execution focussed on outcomes/value realization and interdependencies

Transformed the culture from reactive to proactive and set direction towards a shared service approach by implementing and realigning processes around ITIL standards.

Partnered with senior executives to manage and monitor a corporate-wide multi-year savings initiative.

Accomplishments:

Consolidated the resource planning landscape for 800+ resources across the globe and diverse skillsets while progressively implementing robust and repeatable processes. Instituted PPM tools and rolled out multiple Word-based templates supporting the PMO processes/standard and Excel-based estimating tools in alignment with PMI standards.

Systems Task Group International Ltd, New York, NY Oct 2000 – Oct 2005

Program / Account Manager

Managed four onshore and 15 offshore resources (developers, analysts, and PMs) to expand product offerings for clients in the commercial lending industry

I.

Accomplishments:

Developed a product line, Finesse catering to Commercial lending (receivable based financing ) businesses and expanded to include letter of credit (LCs) business. Designed an internal project audit process to monitor and control investment portfolio.

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