Xennial Innovations Inc.

In my current accountability, I have been deeply immersed in the role of Community Manager for Xennial Innovations, a position that requires a unique blend of communication prowess and community-building finesse. 

My days are filled with dynamic tasks, from crafting engaging newsletters using ClickUp to keeping our growing community of developers well-informed and visually captivated, to managing the vibrant conversations within our Discord server.

One of my key responsibilities involves wielding the power of social media, particularly on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. 

I've honed the art of developing and executing strategic social media plans to enhance our brand visibility and foster meaningful connections with our audience.

In addition to my digital endeavors, I take pride in orchestrating community events that transcend the virtual realm. Whether it's a virtual gathering or an in-person meetup, I've been the driving force behind planning, coordinating, and executing events that bring our community together.

My role extends beyond the digital space—I've become a regular face at industry meetups, conferences, and events. Attending these gatherings has not only allowed me to represent our brand but has also provided invaluable opportunities to network with like-minded individuals, industry professionals, and potential partners.

This opportunity has been a journey of growth, creativity, and proactive engagement. 

I've fostered a sense of belonging within our community, ensuring that every interaction is not just informative but also enriching. It's been a thrilling experience contributing to the evolution and success of our community, and I look forward to many more months of building connections, organizing events, and shaping a thriving digital ecosystem.

Community Manager

TechTarget

I love writing about technical topics, and writing for TechTarget and TheServerSide has given me an opportunity to learn about a wide array of technical topics, while getting the opportunity to interview and work with experts and leaders in the field.

However, writing is only part of my passion. 

The other big thing that motivates me is working hard to get my message out to as wide an audience as possible. Which is why I take Search Engine Optimization so seriously.

I have over a dozen #1 ranked articles on Google on highly competitive keywords pertaining to Java, Agile, Scrum and Cloud Computing. 

In fact, my articles often rank multiple times on the landing page of Google for competitive keywords. I will often have 3 or 4 videos on the landing page of Google's video tab. That's SEO done right!

Technical Writer and SEO Expert

IngramSpark

When I went to pursue my Scrum Master and Product Owner certifications, I realized there was a real void in the market with respect to resources that guided the learner's path. This motivated me to write and publish the Scrum Master Certification Guide, a 325 hardcover book available on Amazon and bookstores everywhere.

I would love to be able to take full credit for the book, but I simply can't. It was a true team effort in which a community of experts came together to produce a product that I'm infinitely proud of.

Pulling together a network of experts from my social media accounts, meetup groups, industry connections and even friends and family, I built a team of people who were experts on a variety of topics including:

- Content writing
- Book publishing
- Marketing
- Email campaigns
- Image editing
- Scrum and Agile knowledge

The team helped with every aspect of the book, including technical oversight of the content. Editors and contributors corrected for nuance, edited for clarity and quite often fully rewrote chapters to show me a better way to express an idea or concept.

As I said, my name is on the cover of the book, which is most humbling, because it's the team who pulled the project together that deserves the credit, and I'm forever greatful for the team's effort.

To be honest, this book is perhaps the big reason I want to work in the field of team building and community management, because I've seen the power of a highly-motivated, self-managed team, and I've seen first hand how a group of talented developers create outcomes that are exponentially greater than the sum of their individual parts.

Author of the Best Selling Scrum Master Certification Guide

Linode

The people at Linode are the greatest people you could possibly work with!

As a Developer Advocate for Linode, I have assisted the social media team in content creation, product promotion and video publishing on YouTube.

I don't want to take undue credit for Linode's success, but after publishing my first video about Docker, which spoke about Python, nginx and Java, Linode's YouTube channel quickly gained 340,000 subscribers and surpassed the million follower milestone.

(Honestly, my content really had nothing to do with that, but given the timing, I'm happy to take credit for it *smile*)

Developer Advocate

Working to promote IBM's #TodaysArchitect initiative, I helped bring awareness to the community about how the the IBM Z System mainframes can be used to help accellerate work in the areas of intensive computing, including:

- Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning
- Data Science

The engagement included the creation of video content used to promote IBM mainframes, promotion across all of my social media channels, participation in media events, outreach and content planning.

Trend Micro

If you think Trend Micro is just about anti-virus software you'd be completely wrong.

Trend Micro has expanded far beyond its humble beginnings as an OS security platform into the industry's leading internet security platform. Sometimes people need to be reminded of this fact, which is why I was recruited as a Developer Advocate to help spread the message.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

To be clear, this is not a paid position like the others listed in the 'Experience' section of LinkedIn. However, being a community builder has taught me a great deal about how online communities are built and fostered, and that's a big part of my journey, so I feel it's fair to list it here. 

The AWS Community Builder program is a community-driven initiative by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to recognize and support individuals who are passionate about AWS and actively contribute to the AWS community. 

The typical roles and activities associated with an AWS Community Builder include:

- Community Advocacy
- Content Creation
- Knowledge Sharing
- Mentorship
- Feedback Loops
- Collaboration
- Evangelism
- Continuous Learning
- Community Events
- Visibility and Recognition

The AWS Community Builders program does not constitute employment with Amazon. It is instead a community of highly motivated individuals who want to spread positivity and enthusiasm about modern technologies and new approaches to DevOps based deployments.

Community Builder

Scrumtuous Inc

Founder

Lean? Agile? Goal-oriented?

That's me, and that's why I'm here spreading my love for effective product development with Scrum and other proven techniques that work within the Scrum framework.

And how am I spreading this love?

In a variety of ways, but the one I'm most proud of is my recently published Scrum Master Certification Guide. It's a real book, over 200 pages long and available in both hardcover and softcover on Amazon.

The feedback and reviews have been great so far, and it really warms my heart when I get messages from people telling me it helped them learn Scrum, get Agile and of course, gain a coveted PSM, PSPO or CSM designation.

I'm also very active on Twitter and YouTube.

I'm up above 250,000 followers on Twitter, and I think I've posted close to 100 videos about DevOps, cloud computing, Java programming, Python development and of course Agile and Scrum on my YouTube channel.

I've also been honored to work as a developer advocate with incredible and amazing companies including:

- Linode
- Xennial Innovations
- IBM and;
- Trend Micro

It's honestly quite humbling to be associated at all with such amazing leaders in the industry.

I'd love it if you both followed me on LinkedIn and connected.

I'm just at the start of my journey, and I'm excited to see where it all leads. 

Let's build something great together, and let's do it publicly!

I absolutely love talking about the challenges I face and the successes I've enjoyed with other like-minded and highly-motivated individuals. So let's share!

Darcy DeClute

M&T Bank

Senior Scrum Master / Agile Consultant

Alteryx

Agile Coach

Fidelity Investments

Agile Scrum Master | Scrum@Scale Practitioner

Bank of America

SAFe Scrum Master

Nextiva

Agile Consultant

Pike Corporation

Facilitates Scrum team activities and removes impediments – either through direct action or escalating appropriately. Manages Jira and MS Azure Boards to tailor the tools to the expressed needs of teams.

Encourages a positive, rewarding environment that promotes engagement and motivation. Works collaboratively to identify and act on opportunities for continual improvement through retrospectives and openness.  Ensures teams celebrate success whenever possible to build positive feedback loops and a trusting environment.

Coaches on productivity and flow optimization while insulating and empowering teams to self-organize. Provides mentoring to new product owners, scrum masters, and developers on their respective roles within Agile/Scrum. Works with internal customers and Product Owners to encourage continual exploration and discovery to feed backlog.

Hosts Scrum of Scrums to ensure dependencies and impacts are identified and understood. Ensures vertical alignment with business leaders and internal customers throughout product development and delivery. Coordinates with Change Advisory Board and supports all efforts related to product releases. Assesses agile maturity at team and organizational level and offers recommendations to measurably improve dynamics.

Steps in as needed to resolve internal friction or conflict through de-escalation and change management approaches. Assists as needed in a business analyst capacity to research, discover, and capture underlying business processes. Collaborates with trusted partners and software vendors to ensure alignment, appropriate assets, and accountability.

Leads Lean/Agile Community of Practice to evangelize and share Agile Thinking outside of IT.
Measures team and program performance based on business value – emphasizing outcomes over outputs.

Agile Coach / Scrum Master

Harris Computer

Guided winning innovation challenge team using Lean Startup to conceptualize and develop new Incident Command solution for tactical, onscene dispatch. Bridge between Mobile and CAD team to ensure cadence and quality between Scrum teams. Mentored developers and QA analysts in Scrum Agile.

Senior Analyst - Mobile and 911 Dispatch Platforms

ScanOnline

Led two separate divisions within ScanOnline: NTI Software and the Managed Services Group. Responsible for the initial launch of the managed services division. 

Evaluated, selected and deployed ITSM incident response and alert management platforms. Worked with customers to develop processes that ensure proper response and adherence to service level agreements. 

Implemented best practices to support ITIL framework within a co-managed environment with our customers. Developed strategy for scaling managed services team, which is currently projected to double in size by end of year. Collaborated with customers around reporting needs to ensure they gain the business intelligence and visibility into operations required to make informed decisions around capacity and future growth. Tracked and monitored incidents to ensure overall quality of service and provided reports to senior management and customers to prove contractual compliance with service level agreements.

Within NTI software division, I was responsible for moving from waterfall methodology to Scrum Agile. Led the initiative to improve testing and deployment of software products by integrating and streamlining QA processes. Worked from an enterprise architecture perspective to engineer requirement processes which allowed traceability and end-to-end management. Oversaw introduction of rapid application development tools to decrease time to market of critical custom mobile applications.

Director of Products and Services

InterAct Public Safety

Ensured quality of geolocation and mapping solutions embedded in InterAct Public Safety Products used by Dispatchers and First-Responders.

Responsible for manual testing of GIS mapping interfaces. Created test cases for both manual and automated testing. Built and maintained test case repository in HP ALM (Quality Center). Created and maintained network of virtual machines to test complex system integration between mapping solutions and separate products that had to work together flawlessly to provide best location and routing information for emergency response. This included field testing in preparation to deploy to Tier 1 customers at the Federal and State government level: address validation, reverse geocoding, GPS calculations, re-routing algorithms, mobile mapping interfaces, remote locating of public safety assets, response line-up, proximity/response-time dispatching. 

Participated in STIG assessments of software to be deployed on hardened machines to meet specific Federal guidelines and requirements.

Became certified as scrum master and participated in release and sprint planning sessions.

Team Lead - Quality Assurance for Mapping Solutions

SHOP.COM

Researched potential solutions, built partnerships, and assisted in brokering deals with prospective vendors to bring in the best technologies, products and services:

Guided initial conversations around business value proposition that led to partnership between Market America and ChannelAdvisor which has allowed Shop.com to be positioned with an equal footing beside other leading online retail channels such as Amazon, Google, eBay and Sears.

Researched and evaluated online personalization and product recommendation solutions that could handle Market America's scale and unique business infrastructure.

Brokered partnership with a leading Email Service Provider to replace internal email solution. Over 100,000 email accounts were migrated without any negative customer impact. Collaborated on affinity marketing framework to allow up-sell of premium services to distributor base - turning a cost center into a profit center.

Designed and conducted a perceptual study for three distinct groups to compare the quality of cost-effective automated translation solutions. Evaluated and recommended language service partnerships to drastically reduce both cost and time-to-live.

Researched lead generation and lead management platforms to manage prospects and facilitate frequent contact for recruiting efforts by MA Distributors.

Recommended adoption of a Public Relations SaaS platform as a "force multiplier" that allowed MA to inject ideas and content into future articles of major news outlets and magazines. 

Worked extensively with Conquer Entertainment, the music and entertainment division of MA, to develop an online music discovery and lifestyle merchandising platform that could be grafted into the MA business model with minimal disruption to existing IT infrastructure.

Researched and advised on best methods to monetize video content and track user engagement on MeetOn.com.

Senior Business Research Analyst, R&D

agnostic agilist

Accomplished Information Technology Professional with 20+ years of experience spanning multiple disciplines in software development, project management, business analysis, quality assurance, and client services for international projects across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. 

Demonstrated ability to lead software engineers, quality assurance specialists, technical writers, and translators supporting large-scale R&D software product development, complex data platform migrations, and infrastructure projects. 

Deeply experienced in Agile Methodologies and certified SAFe Advanced Scrum Master and is both passionate about Agile and pragmatic about maturity and approaches.

taplio

The Battle

Darcy DeClute

Christopher Vestal

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