Simone Steffanoni Torres

• Facilitated Scrum ceremonies and Agile practices, improving team collaboration, delivery predictability, and stakeholder alignment across cross-functional teams. • Improved backlog refinement and prioritization processes, reducing rework by 25% and increasing delivery visibility through Agile metrics such as velocity, cycle time, and sprint reporting. • Acted as a servant leader by removing impediments, improving communication between business and technical teams, and supporting faster and more effective decision-making. • Strengthened continuous improvement practices by transforming retrospective insights into actionable initiatives, increasing team accountability and Agile maturity. • Supported teams in identifying recurring operational bottlenecks and process gaps, contributing to workflow optimization and reducing unnecessary support dependency. • Implemented Azure DevOps dashboards and reporting practices, improving visibility into delivery progress, risks, and team performance for stakeholders. • Leveraged AI tools to optimize sprint reporting and stakeholder communication, reducing manual effort and improving visibility into risks and impediments.

• Implemented Scrum in a Waterfall project within an international and multicultural team by defining Agile roles, ceremonies, coaching sessions, and two-week sprint cycles, while also acting as Scrum Master to support the team’s transition and improve collaboration, transparency, and delivery maturity within three sprints. • Facilitated Scrum ceremonies and Agile practices, improving team collaboration, delivery predictability, and stakeholder alignment across cross-functional teams. • Guided the team in creating and refining user stories with clearer acceptance criteria, improving backlog readiness, reducing requirement gaps, and supporting more predictable sprint planning and delivery. • Defined and reinforced the Definition of Done and Sprint Goals with the team, improving shared understanding, reducing incomplete work, and increasing sprint focus, delivery predictability, and overall quality.

• Led mobile QA activities for iOS and Android applications, improving release quality by executing functional, regression, accessibility (Jaws), API (Postman), and UAT testing across multiple release cycles. • Led QA strategy and Master Test Planning across all SDLC phases, improving test coverage and reducing delivery risks within planned timelines. • Delivered a one-month QA consulting engagement for a banking client, standardizing the Master Test Plan, defect flow, testing roles, and ALM processes, improving QA governance and reducing setup time by 30%. • Led the test team in defining an automation strategy for regression testing, starting from 200 manual test cases and no existing automated coverage; prioritized key scenarios for automation, reducing manual regression effort by 50% and achieving 100% automated regression execution on every deployment within one year.

• Progressed from contractor to permanent IBM employee, recognized for consistent performance, ownership, and high-quality delivery across complex projects in multiple industries. • Executed functional and regression testing in mainframe environments, validating batch processes, complex business rules, accessibility, and UAT readiness, identifying high-impact defects that helped reduce production incidents and support regulatory compliance. • Managed distributed QA teams and Testing Factory activities, standardizing test execution, defect management, and reporting processes to improve delivery control and team efficiency by 25%. • Strengthened release quality by promoting requirement reviews, unit testing, regression, UAT, and critical flow validation, reducing defect leakage by 20% and supporting safer production deployments.

• Developed and executed functional test cases for HR and Banking projects, improving requirement alignment, validation accuracy, and test coverage across key business flows. • Performed manual, integration, and regression testing, identifying critical defects and supporting UAT cycles, root cause analysis, and more stable production releases.