Barry Claessen2 | Bridgility.com

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Barry G. Claessen

An entrepreneurial, productive, collaborative leader, generating bottomline results applying experience, innovation, and industry best practices to deliver business value via execution of complex initiatives for multiple business sectors.

Creative Leadership enhancing Software Delivery, PMO, Agile Transformations, IT Operations, Vendor Management, and staff development by leveraging Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) practices and capabilities.

Passionate about aligning technology and business to deliver value, developing strategic and tactical plans, and building high-performance teams.

Collaborate with C-level and other leadership in building and executing strategic and tactical plans that deliver business value and maximize ROI and operational excellence.

Core Competencies

Achievements

Agile Transformations & Process Improvements

568 Healthcare education and teaching hospitals benefited from a successful solution delivery by applying Agile Methodologies and implementing cadence to achieve positive results. Read More
7%+ quality increase generated by leading the development and integration of a customized Agile framework integrating general business practices and leadership expectations. Full Details
Positioned the client organization to improve time to market by developing a custom Agile framework and a project execution strategy for the build and delivery of a customized COTS solution.
Facilitated meeting time to market objectives through training and coaching the marketing department in Agile methodology and practices, incorporating product vision boards, storyboarding, and utilizing value-based user stories.
Strengthened quality and accelerated software delivery for a major program via creating a project strategy and implementation of a custom framework anchored in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and by providing continual mentoring and coaching in Agile practices for the vendor and client.
Allayed resource transfer to high-need areas and decreased time needed to deliver completed solutions to market as an integral part of an advisory team developing PMO practices based on CMMI level three process and practices.

Business Process Innovation & Solution Design / Delivery

24,000 identities / devices provisioned (identity management and single sign-on), synchronized across 13 location hubs enabling seamless network access across multiple locations and reducing provisioning time from days to hours. Read Full Story
100%+ growth in current volumes of data supported through delivery of a solution modernizing the database management system (DBMS) of the loan servicing software application.
Championed optimum efficiency in the software deployment process by implementing a corporate release management process between software delivery and technology operations groups.
63% improvement in quality of solution packages gained by creating change and release management software product that reduced document rework and ensured implementation success for software and infrastructure changes.
Advocated consistency of information and improved back office operations efficiency by collaborating with business units to streamline current processes and form a strategy for a consolidated solution to integrate products.
39% decline in processing, print, and mail expenses recorded by architecting and spearheading the build and delivery of a document management solution working across multiple platforms and rendering documents on the web.
9% reduction in default rate and expense savings achieved by providing the technical leadership needed to design and implement a claims processing solution.

Strategic / Tactical Planning & Global Portfolio / Program / Risk Management

$37 billion portfolio growth facilitated by establishing a business strategy to deliver a web-based loan origination platform leading 60+ technical resources to work with product management on requirements definition, building, and deploying web services using Agile practices. Read Full Story
$24.4 billion portfolio supported by guiding 27 resources to customize and implement a loan origination common off the shelf (COTS) product and assisting a data warehouse development team on reporting.
Zero impact to consumer systems while doubling the number of systems changes without altering team capacity accomplished by driving a multi-faceted modernization and re-platforming of a customer information system.
Outsourced loan origination support to an offshore entity in Southeast Asia by assessing and selecting from vendors competing for the contract and leading the transition.
$10 million equipment and licensing cost savings realized through the proposal, architecting, and implementation of a business continuity solution strategy to eliminate planned downtime and reduce unplanned outages. Read Full Story
Elevated percentage of bid wins for a government vendor by partnering to install a process and methodology for Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level-three certification and subsequent recertification.

Work Experience

Bridgility, LLC - Herndon, Virginia

2011 - 2012 & 2014 - Present

A provider of technology consulting services.

Owner / Senior Consultant
Recruited to lead an Agile Transform and provide leadership driving multiple technology programs and company initiatives. Directed 120+ technology and business professionals across the US and South America.

$24.4 billion portfolio supported by guiding 27 resources to customize and implement a loan origination common off the shelf (COTS) product and assisting a data warehouse development team on a reporting solution.
$17.1 million in new business generated by developing proposals and producing wins with a government contractor on software solution services aligned with analysis and identification of client needs.
Positioned organization to improve time to market by developing a custom Agile framework and a project execution strategy for the build and delivery of custom and COTS solution.
568 healthcare education and teaching hospitals benefited from the successful build and delivery modernizing two business-critical products leveraging Agile practices and cadence to achieve rapid market delivery objective.
Strengthened quality and accelerated software delivery for a major program via creating a project strategy and implementation of a custom framework anchored in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and by providing continual mentoring and coaching in Agile practices for the vendor and client.
Advocated consistency of information and improved back office operations efficiency by collaborating with business units to streamline current processes and form a strategy for a consolidated solution to integrate products.
Elevated percentage of bid wins for a government vendor by partnering to install a process and methodology for Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level-three certification and subsequent recertification.

K12, Inc. - Herndon, Virginia

2012 - 2013

An online education company servicing grades kindergarten through 12 via virtual schools / classrooms.

Senior Director, Agile Transformation & Program Delivery
Recruited to lead an Agile Transform and provide leadership driving multiple technology programs and company initiatives. Directed 120+ technology and business professionals across the US and South America.

37%+ quality increase generated by leading the development and integration of a customized Agile framework integrating general business practices and leadership expectations.
Facilitated accelerating time to market objectives via training the marketing department in Agile methodology and practices, incorporating product vision boards, storyboarding, and utilizing value-based Feature/Story prioritization.
Helped retain key employees by actively engaging in the company mentoring program for career development.
Championed optimum efficiency in the software deployment process by implementing a corporate release management approach to optimize planning and coordination across software delivery and technology operations.

GEICO - Chevy Chase, Maryland

2004 - 2011

An online education company servicing grades kindergarten through 12 via virtual schools / classrooms.

Senior Manager, Open Systems DBA | Senior Manager, Manager, Software Development
Led 39 staff tasked with 24×7 operations of 2,500 plus Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2 / UDB distributed databases including the enterprise data warehouse. Administered a $20 million budget encompassing human resources, vendor products for software solutions, database products, and support tool acquisitions.

—Strategic / Tactical Planning & Execution—

$12 million contract with Oracle saving more than 50% on the original contract offering price with a five-year freeze on licensing costs concluded through analysis of existing products, required licenses, and forecasting of future needs.
$10 million equipment and licensing cost savings realized through the proposal, architecting, and implementation of a business continuity solution strategy to eliminate planned downtime and reduce unplanned outages.
24,000 identities / devices provisioned (Identity Management & Single Sign-On), synchronized across 13 location hubs enabling seamless network access across multiple locations, and reducing provisioning time from days to hours.
67% reduction in system issues and failures within six months achieved by leveraging team leadership skills and collaborating with business and technical partners to stabilize a customer information system.

—Global Portfolio / Program / Risk Management—

$2.9 million to $20 million budget goals sustained as planned through the oversight of management, forecasting, and mid-year adjustments.
Zero impact to consumer systems while doubling the number of systems changes without altering team capacity accomplished by driving a multi-faceted modernization and re-platforming of a customer information system.
Mitigated resource transfer to high-need areas and decreased time needed to deliver completed solutions to market as an integral part of an advisory team developing PMO practices based on PMI, Agile, and CMMI level-three practices.

Sallie Mae – Reston, Virginia

1985 - 2004

A leading provider of financial services provider of student loans for the education sector.

Director, Information Technology (Jan 2000 – Feb 2004)
Directed multiple teams comprised of more than 60 technical professionals and four managers supporting software delivery for the loan origination function with a departmental budget of $10 million. Managed budgeting, resource, project, change, and release management.

$37 billion portfolio growth facilitated by establishing a strategy to deliver a web-based loan origination platform leading 60+ technical resources to work with product management on requirements definition, building, and deploying web services using Agile practices.
Outsourced loan origination support to an offshore entity in Southeast Asia by assessing and selecting from vendors competing for the contract and leading the transition.
$10 million in budgets streamlined by installing controls that ensured compliance to budget restrictions.
Supported increasing organizational demands while delivering a large, multi-departmental initiative by leading 32 employees and up to 30 consultants handing all aspects of team management and individual development.
39% decline in processing, print, and mail expenses recorded by architecting and spearheading the build and delivery of a document management solution working across multiple platforms and rendering documents on the web.

Senior Manager, Information Technology & Other roles (May 1985 – Dec 1999)