I’ve been a scrum master for a number of years now and what a journey! After discovering the SUGSA community, it’s been a wonderful experiencethat led to my current role at Jumo as an Agile Lead. I’m so lucky to be at a company that appreciates the agile journey and it’s all because my involvement with SUGSA.
I’ve been in the IT industry for 20 years now and I’ve done pretty much every role possible at some point. I’ve grew up in England, lived in Austria and am now settled in Cape Town, adopting Afrikaans as my 2nd language. Family is the most important thing in my life and I view the SUGSA community as extended family, you know like that mad aunty who keeps you on your toes…
I’m currently working at Jumo as an Agile Lead. Before that I was working at 22seven as an Agile Facilitator. I come from a counseling background and have been in the Agile space for about 4 years.
I am in the business of helping others to become better, to find the small things they are proud of and multiply it by 10x. “Nothing exalts the soul or gives it a sheer sense of buoyancy and victory so much as being used to change the lives of other people.” – E. Stanley Jones
I was a project manager come business analyst and have since morphed myself into a scrum master. I’ve been working as an SM for over 3 years now. I have an Honours degree in Psychology and continue to be fascinated by what makes people tick and am myself on an ongoing journey to grow and learn. I used to be a big runner, now I’m embracing yoga and playing with my kittens.
I have a huge passion for people and agile. I love to teach and share experiences. I want to make engaging in conflict and non-violent communication my specialist subject mainly because there is so much I can learn from it and the best way I learn, is to do, gain experience and teach others. I also love playing games and chowing on some good biltong 🙂
I have been working in the Cape Town Software industry for the past 6 years, primarily as a developer. The business domains in which I have worked in have varied over the years from real estate to sports betting and asset management where I currently sit. Initially I mostly worked in more traditional/waterfall environments, until I was shown the light of Agile. As result, a big focus for me has become helping others to see the light (often battle in itself!).
My career aspirations are to build on this experience with the ultimate goal of transitioning into a role as an Agile Coach. A key motivation for this transition is that I take great pleasure in working with people to help them to improve themselves and their working environments and as a result work towards achieving their own aspirations.
Before entering the workforce, I studied at Rhodes University doing a Bsc in Computer Science and Information Systems followed by Honours in Information Systems where I graduated top of my class. More recently, I have obtained a KMP Foundation I: Applying Kanban certification from the Lean Kanban University and Scrum Master Accredited Certification from the International Scrum Institute.