Andrea wore many hats in the App team and they consistently worked well and resolved issues as a team. The App high-level roadmap was well-defined, aligned to [the key product] and shared with the wider organisation. The feature planning is well placed to ensure prioritisation and decision-making will be based on value and has set the team up for success. Andrea brought her agile skills to the App team and the App regular release cycle has been achieved. She is always willing to step up and help out her colleagues, in any way possible.
Welcome
I’m Andrea Benton, and I love delivering change. That can be via projects or product-led development.
I’ve worked in technology areas mostly, but still consider tech just a tool to get things done. What’s important is people, not the things.
While I’ve had much experience with project delivery using the classic “waterfall” method, it is delivery via Agile, and Scrum or Kanban, which is what I’m passionate about helping implement and improve. That’s because everyone brings their skills to the mix, and each is encouraged to be the best they can be. That synergy does produce more than the sum of the individual parts, producing better results and business outcomes.
Agile is so much more than just the ceremonies / the mechanics: without the values, the mindset and understanding for those ceremonies they’re empty rituals. There can be improvement in delivery with those rituals, but the fun, with the teams and delivery increases with increased living out those values.
Over the past 10 years I’ve been enjoying collaborating with and facilitating with project delivery teams, product owners and stakeholders, in Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Product Owner and Business Analyst roles.
I’m always looking for teachable moments, to help grow people’s understanding and practice of Agile and Scrum and improve their processes.
That is built on a solid technical foundation with over 15 years of technology experience, including software and web development, and project management and delivery, of software, web sites, infrastructure, and cloud.
My career has included working in management and running a business, so I’m always thinking about what’s best for the company as a whole, and the clients, not just the details of the technology.
I learn rapidly, readily adapting to new work and new experiences, learning whatever is required to get the job done well.
I keep on learning about Agile and Scrum, and so have worked towards, and now have the dual certification as a Certified Scrum Professional – Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Professional – Product Owner with the Scrum Alliance. And learning continues.
Currently I live in Sydney, Australia. Before that I lived in Portland, Oregon, USA, for 8 years, and earlier in Hong Kong for 3 years. Most of my career has been spent with organizations spread around the world, collaborating across timezones. Living in different cultures and working with people around the world has given me a global mindset.
See my résumé / CV for full details of my career:
Résumé / CV Overview
Work Experience
Expertise
Qualities
Testimonials
Education
I’ve included a bunch of resources around Agile / Scrum and related areas in the Library.
Questions? Want to have a chat? Please contact me.
Testimonials
Andrea has done a great job of defining what agile should be, and has started to make a difference in the team as she provides the coaching. She is clearly passionate about agile and committed to making a difference. Her enthusiasm is appreciated by people, as is the work she does with the tools (eg Jira) to help enable teams. The time spent behind the scenes helping teams is really adding value eg cleaning up tickets. One area to highlight is her work on the mobile app. Her impact has been fantastic. She stepped in when our service provider dropped the ball, sorted it out in a few days, and has kept it on the straight and narrow since. The (expected) successful delivery of the new timeline will be in a large part due to her work.
Andrea plays an active role within IT to support a variety of initiatives to help lead IT whether it be involvement in non-project work such as rollout of toolsets or actively being involved in Isentia as a leader such as organising team events.
Recent Posts
What are the keys to success with Agile development?
Agile is not just a set of tools or processes to follow; it is an attitude or mindset that goes beyond the mere implementation of…
Continue reading → What are the keys to success with Agile development?
Scrum vs Kanban
Two of the most widely used agile frameworks are Scrum and Kanban, both of which offer different approaches to agile development. In this article, we’ll…