Mark du Plessis
Scrum Master
Cape Town
Summary
I'm a passionate and energetic Agile Coach with over 10 years of experience helping teams reach their full potential. As a professional facilitator and team whisperer, I excel at creating safe and fun environments where teams can collaborate, innovate and achieve great things.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Agile Coach
Agile Sense
6 2023 - Current
- I coach, train, teach and mentor teams in better ways of working, by facilitating, coaching and empowering project teams to become high performing, collaborative units and lead the delivery of the products and platforms using Agile methodologies
- I work closely with management and Scrum Masters to maximise on team delivery performance
- Being a proactive problem solver with a thorough understanding of iterative and incremental delivery with a constant drive for improvement.
Agile Coach/Iteration Lead
Xapo Bank
11.2021 - 02.2023
- My focus was within the Continuous improvement team which services Stream Aligned teams within the Technology space with the Xapo organisation
- I coach, teach and mentor teams in better ways of delivery, by facilitating, coaching and empowering product engineering teams to become high performing, collaborative units and lead the delivery of the products and platforms using Agile methodologies
- Be a champion for remote and asynchronous working practices and driving continuous improvement in collaboration with a team of Iteration Leads
- Being a proactive problem solver with a thorough understanding of iterative and incremental delivery.
Agile Coach
IQ Business
01.2020 - 10.2021
- Old Mutual: Worked with both Business and Technical teams to build a foundation of agile thinking and delivery
- Assisted with Big Room planning and taking teams through a journey of growth
- Worked alongside department heads and team leads
- This journey became a SAFe implementation
- Glacier by Sanlam: Assessed and coached the IT Delivery teams to have a more Agile approach and to break free from old methods that were impeding quicker delivery, Assessed and gave recommendations while working with the teams to be better and continuously improve to become high performing
- Worked closely with management and EXCO
- We used an Agile Fluency approach to setting a baseline and and later to see how we moved the needle and used Nexus to scale scrum for all their technology teams.
Scrum Master
Ipreo/IHS Markit
02.2017 - 11.2019
- The role consisted of facilitating and guiding the team/s involved to deliver the new module in the web application at the highest possible accuracy and quality
- Teams belonged to a vertical which was its own business unit and we used SAFe to manage all the teams delivery, so I worked with my teams as well as worked across multiple verticals to make sure we were delivering the right things on the right time and communicate both internally and externally to my teams.
Agile Coach/Scrum Master/Development Manager
Mezzanine
06.2014 - 01.2017
- Helping teams and individuals adopt and improve Agile methods and practices
- Coaching people and teams rethink and change the way they go about development for the better
- I was responsible for the apps development teams and to work closely with e platform team
- Project Overview: Develop bespoke applications in the Health, Agriculture space in Kenya and Tanzania as well as South Africa
- Responsibilities: Assist teams to build and develop bespoke applications, web and mobile, using a proprietary platform
- Helped teams plan, deliver and review delivery iteratively and we included our stakeholders & internal customers to give feedback on our progress and to guide what we deliver next
- Apps development was across multiple industries such as Healthcare, AgriTech and Technology.
Scrum Master
IMQS
04.2013 - 05.2014
- Worked with a Android mobile team to deliver the first app of the company which was successful, the mobile app was delivered I time as expected, Also worked with the a Geo spatial team that developed the platform for the Geo spatial computing which was integrated with a web app for a EU government for water works which helped them manage water systems better
- We had a iterative approach in which we showcased the app every second week and took not their feedback to drive future development.
Scrum Master
DVT
10.2011 - 04.2013
- As the Scrum Master, my primary responsibility was to facilitate the Scrum framework and ensure that the team adheres to its principles and values
- I was responsible for organising and facilitating all Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives
- I also coach the team on Agile principles and practices, help them identify and remove impediments, and ensure that they have a clear understanding of the product backlog items
- Furthermore, I work with the Product Owner to ensure that the product backlog is maintained and prioritised appropriately
- Ultimately, my goal is to enable the team to become self-organising and to continuously improve their processes to deliver high-quality products.
Education
BBA Degree -
MANCOSA
ICP-ENT - undefined
ICAgile
SAFe 5 Agilist - undefined
SAFe
Certified Scrum Master - undefined
Scrum Alliance
Python development - undefined
Coursera
City & Guilds Dip. & Cert. Culinary Arts - undefined
Institute of Culinary Arts
Skills
Agility
Jira Administration
Agile project Management
Process development
Process simulation
Software development
Engineering practices
Quality assurance
Teamwork
Industries
- Health
- Financial Services
- Agriculture
- Asset Management
Toolkit
- JIRA
- Confluence
- Office 365
- Slack/Teams
- TFS
- GitHub
- Miro
Online Profile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dupiemw/
Work Approach
I like to approach problems/situations with high energy and in a practical manner. Being proactive and getting things done quickly and efficiently is a high priority for me.
Personal Information
- Disability: None
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: Male
References
Mary Thorn, Agile Practices Lead, Mark was one of the best scrum masters I have ever worked with. He is a great servant leader who will do anything to ensure the team is successful. Having been an ex developer his ability to see risks and impediments and navigate through/remove them is very impressive. The most impressive quality about Mark is his emotional/social intelligence of his team and stakeholders. His ability to read a room or navigate conflict with in a scrum team and coach the team to healthy was truly remarkable. Mark is also a joy to work with and be around, always positive and with a can do attitude. Any company would be lucky to have him work there.
Timeline
Agile Coach/Iteration Lead
Xapo Bank
11.2021 - 02.2023
Agile Coach
IQ Business
01.2020 - 10.2021
Scrum Master
Ipreo/IHS Markit
02.2017 - 11.2019
Agile Coach/Scrum Master/Development Manager
Mezzanine
06.2014 - 01.2017
Scrum Master
IMQS
04.2013 - 05.2014
Scrum Master
DVT
10.2011 - 04.2013
Senior Agile Coach
Agile Sense
6 2023 - Current
BBA Degree -
MANCOSA
ICP-ENT - undefined
ICAgile
SAFe 5 Agilist - undefined
SAFe
Certified Scrum Master - undefined
Scrum Alliance
Python development - undefined
Coursera
City & Guilds Dip. & Cert. Culinary Arts - undefined
Institute of Culinary Arts