Denis G. - Freelancer

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Baunatal, Germany

Experience

Mar 2025 - Present

6 months

Kassel, Germany

Hybrid

Freelancer

Stepwise Growth

Introducing or optimizing agile practices.
Transforming existing structures toward more flexibility and adaptability.
Supporting leaders in working with agile teams and in their own role.
Gradually scaling project and product organizations.
Transforming business units to enterprise agility.
Taking on responsibility in specific agile roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, etc.).
Coaching role holders.
Agile workshops & hands-on trainings.
Facilitating retrospectives, refinements, planning sessions, and workshops

Dec 2020 - Oct 2024

3 years 11 months

Wolfsburg, Germany

Hybrid

Chief Scrum Master / Project Enterprise v.2

Volkswagen

Global pricing system threatened to fail because of the complexity of its implementation. 70 team members, 26 countries, 6 brands.

My contribution: implementing Scaled Scrum, building self-organized teams, establishing feedback cycles, simplifying decision-making.

Result:

Project goals met early and under budget
Go-live rolled out in 26 countries without delay
Stakeholders went from skeptics to active supporters
The framework is still used as a blueprint today

Sep 2018 - Dec 2020

2 years 4 months

Wolfsburg, Germany

Agile Coach / Software Development Center

Volkswagen

12 product teams already working in an agile way. There were issues due to knowledge monopolies, silo thinking between teams, and a lack of transparent and participative setting of department goals.

My contribution: developing the 12 product teams further, both structurally and culturally. The focus was on strengthening professional excellence, handling changing product portfolios, and sustainably developing cross-team collaboration through Objectives & Key Results.

Result:

Improved connectivity: silo structures were broken down.
More efficient resource use through an agile rotation concept
Early problem detection thanks to team health checks
Higher goal achievement and clarity.
Measurably increased motivation across the department

Jan 2016 - Sep 2018

2 years 9 months

Wolfsburg, Germany

Scrum Master / Project End-to-End Vehicle Bill of Materials

Volkswagen

Replacing 25 IT systems with a central SAP landscape. The challenge lay in the complexity of legacy IT, long release cycles, and close coordination between business units and IT.

My contribution: introducing Scaled Scrum, reorganizing test management, establishing fast key-user feedback cycles, and implementing consistent agile requirements management.

Result:

Reduced release times from 1.5 years to 0.5 years.
Introduced minor releases. Cycle time < 1 month.
Reduced bugs per release from about 800 to 20 per release.
Eliminated the bug-fixing phase after each major release.
Transformed from a project to a product organization

Jan 2015 - Jan 2016

1 year 1 month

Wolfsburg, Germany

SAP Developer / End-to-End Vehicle Bill of Materials Project

Volkswagen

Jan 2014 - Jan 2015

1 year 1 month

Wolfsburg, Germany

On-site

IT Junior Staff Program / Further Training

Volkswagen

Jan 2012 - Dec 2013

2 years

Wolfsburg, Germany

Clerk / Network Technology

Volkswagen

Summary

Transformation that excites people and delivers results.

My mission: to create work cultures where people willingly enjoy their work and achieve outstanding business results.

With 16 years of professional experience, I've supported over 260 project team members through transformations, optimized million-dollar budgets, and reduced release times by 67%.

"When we go to Denis, it'll be good!" That's what not only colleagues but also skeptical decision-makers say after successful projects.