Meet the ICON Coaches

Bryan has worked extensively with Fortune 100 companies, charting their course towards business agility and SAFe transformations, and guiding them on their quest to achieve an improvement culture focused on transparency, inspection, and adaptation. He has assisted organizations in discovering more effective practices for managing work and people, at times using tools from the Agile world, and other times using more traditional management practices.  His goal is to facilitate the creation of organizational change through collaboration that consistently generates value and ultimately meaningful products that solve customer problems. 

Bryan is a Technical Agile Coach and DevOps Engineer with over 12 years of experience supporting CI/CD pipelines and DevOps tooling deployed at Fortune 500 enterprises in finance, telecom, education, retail, aerospace, and insurance. He also has 14 years of experience supporting development in RE/SCM/RM roles using tools such as Git, Jenkins, Bamboo, ADO, TFS, VSS, and Perforce. 

As a Technical Agile Coach, he is passionate about partnering with organizations to improve their technical practices using a tailored, diagnostic approach that focuses on alleviating the biggest constraints first to optimize and accelerate the flow of value quickly. As a Certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC 5), Bryan partners with other Agile Coaches, System Teams, and Architects to ensure this targeted enabler work is integrated into relevant backlogs and prioritized to ensure the trains have sufficient architectural runway to deliver value. 

Bryan is a co-contributor to, and Certified Exam Developer for, the SAFe DevOps Practitioner Course, and holds that certification (SOP 5). 

In his free time, Bryan enjoys 30 Printing, Scuba Diving (GUE Fundamentals-Rec/PAD! Master Scuba Diver), gardening with his wife, Sarah, and hanging out with their two kids (Danae - 15 and Davin - 12). 

Markanthony Akem is a Sr Lean Transformation Coach with vast industry experience. He’s had a long and rewarding career in Agile software development, business analysis, Merger/acquisition, project management, and systems design. He sees change as an inevitable evolutionary force in any business’s life cycle. It is why he has dedicated his life to being an active agent of change. Through his efforts, Markanthony has successfully implemented multi-million-dollar solutions across various industries. These solutions transformed the strategic outlook and market position of numerous fortune 500 companies.

Markanthony's dynamism results from the various environments he has thrived in throughout his time. Born in England, he spent most of his life in Nigeria, where he was awarded a degree in Economics from Ebonyi State University. His journey continued in the United States, receiving a graduate degree from the University of Phoenix. Graduating among the top 5 students of his class, he has displayed immense acumen in the transformation and poise needed to guide teams towards agile maturity. 

Ed is a Trainer, Coach, Mentor, and Agile Transformation Leader with over 40 years of IT experience. He has performed many roles, from Developer/Tester to Project Manager on projects of all sizes in telecom and has been involved in Agile Transformations at multiple companies in retail, telecom, finance, insurance, and oil/gas domains for over 20 years. Ed is team-focused and likes to facilitate discussions with the right people to resolve problems, applying his experience and the Agile/SAFe principles to discover a solution. Ed has been an SPC since 2012 and has helped launch many Agile Release Trains for various companies. 

When not working, Ed may be found reading books on the beaches of Florida or visiting Seattle to spoil his grandson.  

Ken is a hands-on coach and leader focused on engaging teams for results. He is experienced in driving change for under-performing organizations and projects driven by deploying processes, implementing technology, and engaging teams. Ken is a SAFe SPC and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt who creates structure without bureaucracy. He uses innovative thinking and facilitates problem-solving to address core business needs rather than technical issues. His areas of expertise include Project Management (PMP), ITIL Change Management Service Desk, Problem Management, and Service Management. 

Ken is currently a doctoral candidate in Organizational Change from the University of Southern California. 

Niraj is a Mentor, Trainer, and Agile Transformation Coach with 25+ years of national and international experience. He started his career as a developer, moved up the corporate ladder into senior management, and then into the Agile world. He has worked as a Scrum Master, Agile Transformation Consultant, and SAFe Agile Coach for the last 10+ years. He has led and participated in numerous Agile Transformations for companies of all sizes, including Fortune 100 and 500 companies, where he has mentored others in Agile values, principles, and techniques. Niraj has extensive hands-on experience in implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), including launching Agile Release Trains (ARTs), running PI Planning sessions, and providing portfolio, program, team, and leadership coaching and training. Niraj is a certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC4), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), and ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP).

Niraj has a dual Masters degree (an MS and an MBA) and lives in the United States and India (and is hopeful to live in other countries) depending on where his Coaching assignments take him. 

For over 30 years, Tom has been improving organizations through reworking processes, Agile transformation, technical education, application development, facilitation of strategy, and problem-solving workshops. As a technical lead on an IBM web development team, he guided his organization on an Agile path before joining the IBM Agile Academy as an Agile Transformation Coach. Working with Vice Presidents, Directors, managers, and team members, he trained and coached diverse development and operations teams around the world. More recently, as an independent consultant, he has worked with several large corporations on Scaled Agile Framework implementations as well as customizing Agile scaling frameworks for clients drawing on SAFe, Modern Agile, LeSS, Scrum@Scale, and Disciplined Agile. 

Jim has over 35 years of helping large and small companies solve painful problems in technical and organizational areas. His early career was in software for large and complex mission-critical systems. He was a developer, designer, architect, and business analyst. Jim has been intrigued by the human side of technology success for the last 20 years, which led him to Agile and SAFe. He is motivated by observing successful SAFe Transformations in organizations that benefit in tangible ways from their efforts. As a coach, he has seen the organizations he works with gain clarity on what matters and what doesn't, and then concentrate on the former. These principles are so powerful that they work when adopted in any organization—in every sub-group, in any industry, at every level, whether co-located or distributed—despite the current level of Agile maturity within the organization and regardless of the current structure. The key is to have a coach that can make them real to you and your people.

Tom Chalk began his professional journey in 1987. Throughout his career, Tom has held many roles, including Developer, Systems Engineer/Architect, Scrum Master, RTE, Product Owner, Product Manager, Agile Coach, Agile Practice Director, and AVP. Tom is very passionate about teaching, mentoring, coaching, and helping organizations deliver Business Value. His expertise is in System/Software Life Cycle and SW Modernization (DevOps, Microservices), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Agile Transformations, understanding Agile Levels of Enterprise, Portfolio, Program, & Teams, and making Agile easy for those new to the practice. Tom's previous clients include Bristol-Myers, Healthfirst, BCBS, AMEX, Estee Lauder, The Hartford, WEX, and Panera Bread. 

Tom is a USAF Veteran (Airborne Operations), a Washington Capitals hockey fan, and an avid Harley Davidson rider.

Kelland is a SAFe Program Consultant, Lean-Agile Coach, and Consultant with front-line experience. He has over 10 years of experience in IT leadership, Coaching, and various Agile Roles across several industries including Technology, R&D, and Education. Kelland's coaching style incorporates real-life examples and practical ideas that he has accumulated throughout his career and is driven by his values of compassion, understanding, and empathy. 

With over 25 years of professional experience, James is a Leadership Coach and consultant specializing in Organizational Scaling, Portfolio Management, Flow Engineering, and Enterprise Agility. He specializes in coaching and training large companies; typically those who engage in VUCA and disruption by developing their innate Agile capability to sense, respond and adapt.

Because most organizations are uniquely challenged with implementing systems-thinking and adaptive management at scale, James’ coaching style amplifies “starting where the client’s feet are” and dampens dogma or any focus on behaviors that do not “move the needle”. He successfully navigates the client landscape by applying his synthesized knowledge of leading methodologies. These approaches include SAFe(SPC4), Design Thinking, Cynefin, Model-Based System Engineering, Enterprise Business Agility (EBAS), and many more that might apply to the client’s “problem to be solved” and deliver a measurable result.

Before consulting, James was a derivatives trader on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange specializing in financial futures and foreign currency options. James enjoys film-making, option-pricing theory, lean cooking, queuing theory, and listening to music. 

Scott has over 20 years of experience in implementing process improvement within Software Development companies. His foundations in Agile, eXtreme Programming (XP), and Scrum have enabled him to deliver products and solutions for enterprises around the globe.

He began the exploration of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) and became an SPC in 2014. Scott specializes in integrating Scrum Teams into larger Agile Release Trains that are focused on Value Delivery, organizational OKRs, and KPIs. Scott has led many SAFe Transformations and enjoys helping large-scale enterprises appreciate transformational benefits including; increased speed to market, improved quality products, and higher employee engagement. 

In his free time, Scott enjoys hanging out at the beach and golfing. His claim to fame is playing a round of golf with Tiger Woods in high school.

For almost 25 years, Chris has enabled organizations to get the most out of their teams, leading large-scale strategic transformation programs ranging from corporate planning and forecasting to mergers and acquisitions. Chris has delivered Agile Programs across Consumer Products and Fintech as an IT Executive, a Product Owner, a Product Manager, a Program Manager, and a Business Analyst. He believes in "walking the walk," helping teams win through sustained behavioral change by modeling ways of working to achieve results. Chris also has an extensive IT Vendor Management background and understands how to achieve the most from your strategic partners in an Agile world.

Chris cherishes time with his wife and kids the most in his spare time, but he also seeks the next opportunity to golf whenever possible.

David sincerely supports Life as an Executive Advisor, Leadership Mentor, and Business Agility Coach, with an overall goal of helping individuals regain line of sight and inspiration for the "organizing causes" they (are trying to) identify with. His personal goal is for Life as "a working adult" to feel as wonderful as it did as an innocent child. The core tactic is a "restoration of curiosity" through a reduction in speculation and personal fear, in favor of the shared pursuit of what truly is known (together). Direct, shared experiences as a Team - a group of people sharing a cognitive space - brings awareness which yields healthy debate, full commitment, and accountability for meaningful Outcomes - those desired experiences of both Customers and Employees.

David combines his own leadership experiences with the collective experiences of people working in various Sectors and Industries of the last 26+ years, which are now taking form as repeatable Frameworks (i.e. Scrum, SAFe, Design-Thinking, etc). He ascended quickly as a Finance Controller in his 20s, helping a Division of 1,500 people recover from certain closure, priming the parent organization for IPO. Lean (re) Start-Up principles and Strategic Hypothesis Validation through fully inclusive tiered decision making brought broad-scale ownership by everyone in that recovery. As an IT Director, David was part of two leadership teams at key inflection points as those private venture start-ups scaled to establish a formal Corporate identity, priming for acquisition in one scenario, and to double (later triple) its scale nationwide in the other scenario. David also served a globally distributed team of 600+ talented people as a VP of Product Development, aiding in their adoption of Scaled Agile Delivery practices and resolving some tough situations in their value-chain. As a consultant, he hopes to greatly expedite a compassionate and meaningful state of existence for working professionals.  

In a career that spans 30 years, Bill has been a developer, analyst, architect, program leader, CTO, and consultant that some of the largest software development organizations in the world have relied upon to help them transform their ability to harness digital innovation for their competitive advantage. He has extensive experience in managing major development projects, as well as enterprise IT strategy, Agile, SAFe, and DevOps process improvement definition/redefinition efforts, for both large and medium-sized organizations. 

Dan James is a 40+ year veteran of the IT world (wearing every hat in the stack along the way), an Agile specialist since 2002, and an Agile Coach since 2008. Today, Dan focuses on Lean-Agile, SAFe, and DevOps enterprise transformations and coaching within the Fortune 500, from financial services to healthcare to transportation and industrial technologies. He pragmatically guides his clients to become adaptive and Lean by out-learning and out-improving the competition, building quality, and organizing around continuous value delivery. Dan is a Certified SAFe 5 Program Consultant (SPC5), a SAFe 5 DevOps Practitioner and trainer (SDP5), and a certified Professional Scrum Master (PSM). Dan has an MBA with an IT Management specialization but has been able to preserve his sense of humor longer than his IT career. When not training and coaching agile at scale, Dan is a professional studio musician - so there’s no guessing where he’s at on weekends! 

Jeff is a skilled and effective Enterprise Agile coach and trainer with a demonstrated track record of helping teams and initiatives find or regain footing. His combination of strong technical knowledge, exceptional interpersonal skills, and backgrounds in finance and hospitality enables effective understanding and engagement across the full range of stakeholders and support for their Agile journey. A SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) with experience launching and training ARTs, Jeff believes and advocates for using experiential learning activities and experimentation to power your organizational transformation.

Terry spent the first 28 years of his career in Product and Manufacturing Development with a High-Tech computer company, the last 8 of those years involved Lean/Agile, Scrum, and SAFe.  He was lucky enough to be on the ground floor to one of the largest SAFe Transformations at the time in 2013, with 8 Trains, 225 Scrum Teams, across 4 geographies and all in the same week. Now a coach, Terry continues to learn from everyone he works with, including his fellow ICON Coaches. He believes that Scrum and SAFe are great frameworks, but they will only show you where your problems are if you let them. Terry is passionate about helping his clients with transparency and making everything visible. If you can’t see it, then it is hard to ask the right questions and even more difficult to make improvements. He also loves to use Excel to do summary reports from Rally to help RTE’s see their entire Train in one place. 

Terry is a certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC4), Scrum Master (CSM), Certified AgilityHealth Facilitator (AHF) and has held roles as Release Train Engineer (RTE), Scrum Master, Lean/Agile/SAFe coach/trainer, and Rally Administrator. He holds a Master’s in Business, a BS in Electrical Engineering, and a Minor in Computer Science.   

Coming Soon

With an extensive history of delivering successful large-scale regulatory and digital transformation programs, Jane is a passionate, creative, and enthusiastic Lean-Agile Coach, consultant, trainer, and mentor who is proficient in leading, facilitation, and coaching. Jane has a proven track record of transforming workplaces into vibrant spaces where happy productive teams are empowered to rapidly deliver value and quality whilst continuously learning and improving. 

Emily is a business and technical SAFe/Agile SPC5 Coach, Trainer, Certified Scrum Master, & Certified Release Train Engineer, who has a Top Secret/Q DOE clearance. She is proficient at enabling high-compliance programs using a people-focused approach to coaching. A master facilitator and energized change agent adept at harnessing the power of leadership across all aisles from management to developer to supplier to find root causes to the organization’s deepest blockers.

Over the last ten years of her technical career she has worked with all types of projects and teams, including new software development, hardware, COTS implementations, DevOps, management, and business teams whether small and localized or dispersed and remote or any mixture in between.

Finally as an awarded Diversity and Inclusion Champion, she focuses on creating an inclusive environment where individuals can bring their whole selves to work and is an eager mentor for early-career individuals looking to grow themselves and their skills. 

Like any Agilist, Enric's journey in the Agile world has been evolving for years. He started with traditional project management and execution within large corporations before moving on to Agile approaches. He played the role of Scrum Master in the finance, entertainment, e-commerce, and insurance arenas. After growing into the role of Coach of Teams, Enric discovered the value of being an Enterprise Coach that helps organizations with their Agile Transformations. Enric takes a holistic and integral approach to Agile Transformations, where Agile is not just a process or a set of values, but also a mindset, a way of looking at the world, a way of responding to the emerging future, a way to organize, and a way to achieve a higher level of maturity as a leader. Additionally, Enric has had the opportunity to learn in a variety of environments and cultures, including California, Texas, the UK, Mexico, and Spain. He holds certifications in SAFe SPC, Scrum, and professional co-active coaching by CTI. 

Mitchell "Mitch" Malloy has 25+ years in the software industry. As a Coach and Mentor for 10+ years, he keeps a focus on value, an eye for excellence, and a passion for people. Since the 1990s, Mitch practiced Agile techniques while growing in his own Agile journey. He has led and participated in numerous Agile Transformations for companies of all sizes, where he has mentored others in Agile values, principles, and techniques. 

As an SPC and SDP, he is certified to train and mentor Teams, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Product Managers, developing Lean-Agile leaders. Drawing from his depth and breadth of experiences, Mitch has: managed technology as a Naval Officer, taught applications and programming to high school students, and developed software as a Technical Lead. He has coached youth and high school sports and has mentored teenagers as a Youth Pastor. Mitch enjoys working with and cultivating teams of all sizes, but his primary team and greatest accomplishments are his 5 children and grandchildren that he and his wife have raised together. 

Cathy has 25+ years of experience in Application Development as a Software Engineer, Director of Application Development, and Scaled Agile Coach. As her career progressed, Cathy recognized her passion to help people and organizations mature in their careers and Agile journeys, and so for the last 10 years, she has been practicing and coaching Agile. As a SAFe-certified SPC, POPM, and SDP (DevOps) professional, Cathy has helped multiple companies initiate and deploy their Agile and DevOps practices. She has worked in numerous industries, including manufacturing, logistics, insurance, software development, broadcasting, utilities, and retail, where she has provided coaching and training for teams and executives.

As a certified Enterprise Business Agility Strategist (EBAS), Cathy has been a driving force in strategic planning for multiple companies. Her background in Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence provides her the unique ability to evaluate an organization’s Agile progress from different views and metrics, then tailor the next steps based on findings. Cathy has both managed and coached teams across the globe, including in the US, Europe, and Asia. She holds a Computer Science degree from Central Michigan University and has her CPIM certification for manufacturing. 

Charlie is an Enterprise Agile Transformation Coach and Lean-Agile Leader with extensive experience in Agile Enterprise Transformation, Scaling, Training, Continuous Improvement, Modeling, Program and Product Management. He has over 20 years in IT and 15 years working with Plan (Waterfall) and Change (Agile) driven product development methodologies. Charlie holds a consistent track record of building and leading highly productive Agile teams that consistently deliver measurable value to customers.

Kenny is a detail-oriented Scrum Master with over 9 years of proven experience in facilitating development teams in SAFe environments, coaching Scrum Teams to adhere to Agile principles, and carefully removing impediments while providing necessary assistance as a servant leader. He is a certified Scrum Master with a growth mindset focused on managing development teams, leading and facilitating work activities of both collocated and distributed teams as well as being involved in executive coaching and stakeholder engagement.

Gary has an extensive IT background and has worked in just about every imaginable role over the years. Starting as an IBM mainframe operator he progressed to become a programmer. In more recent years he has served as a Business Solutions Manager, Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Release Train Engineer. Regardless of position or organization, he seeks out opportunities to guide, coach, and train colleagues in Agile practices.

His experience covers a wide range of industries including Financial Services, Retail, Consumer goods manufacturing, Healthcare, and Insurance. Certifications include the SAFe 5 Program Consultant and Lean Six Sigma.

Gary is passionate and enthusiastic about all aspects of an Agile transformation. He particularly enjoys engaging with and coaching new teams as they navigate their journey to high performance and beyond.

His focus areas are on developing teams that are cross-functional in their technical capabilities, transparent in their practices, and committed to the concept of continuous improvement.

During the winter months, Gary is an avid skier – yes, in SW Ohio of all places. Most weekends will find him leveraging his love of coaching by training and certifying other ski instructors throughout the Midwest.

Dennis is an experienced SAFe Coach with a strong track record of helping transform organizations using the SAFe implementation roadmap. A dynamic facilitator and instructor with a strong track record of training and coaching clients around the principles of SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, and AIOps. He has a history of developing client relationships by being transparent and earning trust by engaging with prospects to identify challenges around delivering business value. A self-motivated internal enabler/mentor that strives to expand and accelerate growth among colleagues in the areas of SAFe, Agility, DevOps, and AIOps.

Travis is currently on his third career, drawing his passion for helping Organizational Leaders implement 'Good Change' in their organizations using Agile, Lean, and other practices. He has led multiple Enterprise-wide Re-engineering efforts within the context of Digital Transformation, Agile Transformation, and efforts in Lean/Lean Six Sigma. His energy and passion are powered by his experience in System and Software Development and Support for over 25 years, as well as the problems he encountered and the learnings he developed. He retains multiple industry certifications including SAFe Program Consultant, Certified Discipline Agilist, Enterprise Business Agility Strategist, and Lego Serious Master Strategist. 

Allen is a dedicated, experienced coach and instructor with demonstrated capacity to effectively manage a variety of IT projects and staff. A natural leader with business acumen and technological expertise, Allen has a strong record of increased responsibility, variety in job assignments, and solid accomplishments, including an MBA in Systems Management.

Allen's specialties include Scaling Agile practices with SAFe, Project Management, software development methodologies - Agile (SCRUM / Kanban) and waterfall), Business Analysis, Strategic Planning, software development methodologies, process improvement, metrics and measures, resource/capacity planning, business process modeling, program management office, vendor management, coaching, mentoring, training, conversions, data warehouse, disaster recovery, and budget management. 

Darshan is a Solutions-orientated Technology leader highly regarded for more than 19 years of progressive experience developing, implementing, and supporting complex infrastructures and technical solutions for leaders in the retail and services industry. He is an Azure Certified Solution Architect with superior expertise in Development Methodologies, Develop Per Supervision, and Client Relations. Darshan is a motivational and influential Project Manager, providing effective leadership in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments. He has a track record of surpassing goals and expectations for quality, schedule, and cost while implementing leading-edge IT solutions. As an out-of-the-box thinker, Darshan, thrives in collaborative environments, working across business and technical teams to increase profits and reduce costs through  Continuous Improvements and Strategic IT Infrastructure Planning.

Karen personifies the profound drive for excellence she's paid to deliver. Business has a new language. A life-long student of Lean/Agile concepts and principles, Karen is a globally recognized translator for 21st-century transformation. She leads tech startups from scratch to Silicon Valley, eases monolithic giants through the troubled waters of digital change, and rouses new, essential positivism everywhere in between. With the imagination to challenge norms, Karen builds visionary leaders who fuse strategy with execution. Her passion for people and efficiency fuels the courage to break form and embrace the Lean mindset. Karen utilizes her unique background in Psychology, Engineering, and Computer Science, along with her deep knowledge of Agile and Lean, to adapt strategy and evolve operating models that are responsive to her clients, their clients' ever-changing needs, and shifting landscapes. 

Karen is extensively experienced in Business and Leadership Agility and is a popular, passionate speaker who presents laser-focused, culturally sensitive, universal values. She is the author of highly successful proprietary Lean/Agile iterations for pan-agency growth across the business, including Operations, IT Development, Product Development, and Mergers/Acquisitions. She has curated multiple cross-global projects and teams of 100 to 10,000+ for Fortune 500 companies in the Airline, Supply Chain, Financial, Insurance, Healthcare, Retail, U.S. and Foreign Government, Gamin, and Worldwide Publication sectors.

Karen is a joyously connected mother to Hunter, MacKenzie, and Devin, life partner to Dale, and dedicated servant to Charlie the English Doodle. Her family enjoys traveling abroad and time on the water. Karen is dedicated strongly to charitable efforts that focus on the inspiration and development of young people. 

Yasmeen has over 15 years of experience in Project Management, Information Systems, and Sales.
She possesses an M.B.A and B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Information Systems and has knowledge and experience in Systems Engineering, Business Process Engineering, Customer Relationship Management, Project Management, Technology Procurement, and IT Service Management. Her exceptional leadership and business management skills are the result of being a strategic thinker with the ability to analyze complex situations and create new insights to improve business processes. She specializes in maximizing the use of technology and delivering Capacity Management Services to optimize existing IT Resources. 

John is a results-oriented, MBA-trained business management leader with 20+ years of business, consulting, and Agile coaching experience. He has been an SPC since 2015 (SA since 2014) and has employed SAFe to coach Executives, Program Leadership, Scrum Masters, Product Management, and diverse technical teams, helping them make the transformational change from traditional waterfall-oriented approaches to Agile and SAFe delivery practices and principles. His efforts have resulted in improved program alignment, a higher velocity of work delivered, and quicker responses to customer requests. His broad skills were gained through sound Fortune 100/500 industry experience and delivering multi-million dollar Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Business Intelligence solutions. He has balanced experience in coaching, consulting, program/project management, and systems development and has also co-authored several Agile Boot Camp courses. John enjoys playing Jazz, Gospel, and virtually any kind of music on his Alto or Tenor sax. He also loves travel and photography. 

Erwin is a certified Scrum Master, Agile Team Facilitator, and Agile Coach passionate about working with teams and mentoring others. Erwin has a consistent track record of transforming teams and cultivating an Agile mindset to encourage continuous learning and improvement. He has a history of guiding development teams in their growth to become self-managing, encouraging cross-functional collaboration, and coaching distributed teams to improve in coordination and communication. He enjoys playing volleyball, meditating, and trading stocks in his free time. 

Tim Walker is a career software engineer, educator, and team coach applying "outside-in" behavior and test-driven approaches to Agile Teams and enterprises at scale. Tim's Behavior Driven Development and Agile Testing courses are teaching Agile Teams effective practices towards CI/CD implementations and provide the basis for the practice and culture changes required for effective DevOps. Tim's goal is to assist teams to achieve excellent results in their Lean and Agile initiatives by teaching them how to "bake in quality" while constantly improving their flow and delivery of Business Value and outcomes.

Bringing over 35 years of iterative software engineering experience, Tim is an expert in Test-First practices including all aspects of BDD/TDD, and consults industry leaders on enterprise Agile quality. As an educator and hands-on technical practices coach, Tim brings a quality mindset to any Agile Team. He enables Enterprise Agility where excellence can thrive by helping to create meaningful portfolio views of Value Delivery, visualizing queues, and limiting WIP using Jira (or other team tools) with AgileCraft and VersionOne. This serves to guide transformation initiatives and to make explicit dependencies visible as we move towards DevOps Value Streamflow.

Tim is a certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) with specialties that include: Lean and Agile software testing, Iterative Process Methods, Executable Requirements, DevOps, Chef/Puppet/Ansible, AWS EC2 Development, Docker, BDD in Infrastructure and Database, Test automation strategies, Ruby/Rails, Cucumber, BDD, TDD, OOAD, Scrum, Kanban, Java, C and Assembler. 

As an Agile professional, Jessica is passionate about coaching, empowering, and helping others achieve their full potential. Her skills include creating a psychologically safe environment, emotional intelligence, mentoring, and coaching teams to be high powering and self-organizing. Jessica has focused her skills and abilities on creating, building, and improving the relationships and interactions with every person she encounters. To her, there is nothing more important than the gift of genuine connection. Her industry certifications and experience include ICAgile Certified Professional, Team Facilitator, Agile Business Analyst (IIBA Endorsed), PSM1, and SAFe 5.1 SM.