Stefan Simrock
Business Analyst
Experience
Business Analyst
Large municipal utility
- Conducting business analysis for battery energy storage systems and their marketing (BESS)
- End-to-end view of optimization and marketing processes including sales, technical qualification, implementation, optimization, marketing, billing, and cross-functional processes
- Designing and facilitating workshops with business units
- Preparing, aligning, and anchoring requirements
- Transitioning to the solution design phase and mapping requirements to IT solutions
Sabbatical
Overall project manager for an IT project
Uniper
- Overall management of an implementation project for an IT solution for energy trading and delivery
- Extending an off-the-shelf product with company-specific business processes
- Developing a long-term strategy and realigning failing projects
- Planning, steering and controlling project tasks
- Optimizing the project organization with over 20 members and introducing traditional and agile methods
- Implementing dependency and risk management and defining measurable project goals
- Continuous controlling and reporting to the steering committee and top management
- Stakeholder and vendor management in a challenging environment
IT Project Manager
Deutsche Giganetz
- Leading an IT project for strategic fiber expansion and marketing (FTTH)
- Managing requirements for sales, commercial, and technical construction areas
- Conducting requirements workshops
- Creating an IT strategy and coordinating the solution design
- Aligning with stakeholders, business units, and IT departments
- Project planning, steering, and reporting to the project office
Agile Coach
- Supporting the implementation of agile ways of working and transformation
- Stakeholder mapping and communication
- Building and managing the backlog
- Conducting team vision and strategy workshops
- Realigning the product portfolio and roadmap management
- Applying design thinking methods
- Working with agile metrics (velocity, burndown)
- Using agile development practices (pair programming, CI/CD)
- Continuous improvement and feedback process (demos, reviews, retrospectives)
Team Coordinator Trading Logistics IT (Interim Management) / Product Owner
Vattenfall Energy Trading
- Leading an international IT team for business-critical applications in energy trading and market access
- Ensuring the operation of highly critical 24/7 applications and their further development
- Coordinating transformation projects in Trading Logistics IT and ETRM
- Developing strategies for consolidating and modernizing the IT landscape
- Cloudification and migration from on-premise to Microsoft Azure
- Introducing automated release and deployment processes (CI/CD)
- Coordinating security and access concepts as well as pen tests
- Stakeholder and requirements management, resource and budget management
- Maintaining and prioritizing the backlog to increase the value of the agile product
- Coaching and team development in agile methods
Sabbatical
Team Coordinator and Operational Management (Interim Management)
Vattenfall Energy Trading
- Leading an IT team of 5 members for critical 24/7 applications
- Ensuring operational management and support
- Knowledge management and skills development (Confluence, internal training)
- Implementing agile and DevOps practices (pair programming, CI/CD)
- Coordinating continuous development according to market and compliance requirements
- Requirements management and interface with business units
- Budget and resource management
Business Analyst, Solution Architect and IT Project Manager
Vattenfall Energy Trading
- Implementing third-party systems (e.g., scheduling, nomination in the power market)
- Developing in-house software and IT infrastructure projects
- Carve-in and carve-out projects
- Process analysis, modeling and identifying optimization potentials
- Conducting interviews, workshops and documenting requirements
- Translating business requirements into technical specifications
- Evaluating solution architectures and performing cost-benefit analyses
- Preparing decision documents and coordinating governance processes
- Traditional project management: planning, controlling, risk and dependency management
- Test management and go-live processes
IT Subproject Manager / Consultant
Raffinerie Heide GmbH
- Supporting the company transition through IT carve-out
- Identifying and documenting affected processes and applications
- Developing and implementing decoupling strategies
- Defining work packages for process and system owners
- Planning, controlling and monitoring the implementation
- Coordinating and reporting to program managers and steering committees
IT Project Manager
Yxlon International
- Set up and stabilize a new software development team after Carve-In
- Ensure knowledge transfer and documentation
- Implement Scrum and introduce agile methods
- Coordinate external vendors
- Manage epics and translate business requirements into technical specifications
- Create documentation, acceptance processes, and hand over to operations
- Train and roll out the new software across Europe, the USA, and Asia
Software Architect
Shell
- Develop the software architecture for a globally deployed enterprise application
- Define guidelines and patterns for object-oriented development in C#/.NET
- Address SOX and IT compliance requirements
- Develop a security framework and user authentication concept
- Lead a 20-member development team
- Create documentation and conduct user and support training
- Oversee the transition-to-support process
Software Architect and Team Lead
Speech Design Carrier Systems GmbH
- Analyze existing technologies and evaluate architectural approaches (agent-based, SOA)
- Design architecture and implement core SOA components (ESB, event dispatcher, high-availability services)
- Supervise and coach developers, conduct software reviews
- Perform vulnerability analysis and design a concept for a scalable, highly available telecommunications application
- Build a development team and introduce object-oriented programming (C#/.NET)
- Enhance competitiveness through new product features
Summary
I see IT transformation as a holistic approach that covers general aspects like processes, methods, technologies, and architectures. These are supplemented by company- and business-specific topics. It's the combination of strong business understanding, broad technical knowledge, and experience in team development and leadership that I use to successfully deliver IT projects.
My background is many years of deep experience as a software developer and software architect in various, technologically demanding and highly business-critical projects. In recent years, I have worked as a business analyst, solution architect, project manager, agile coach, and interim manager in numerous IT transformation projects for leading European companies in the energy, telecommunications, and industrial sectors.
Skills
- Interim Manager: Leading And Developing Teams Of Up To 20 Members
- Interim Management Of It Teams: Building And Leading Interdisciplinary Teams
- Coaching And Mentoring In Agile Methods (E.g., Scrum/kanban) As Well As Classic Project Management Approaches
- Promoting A Collaborative Team Culture, Conflict Management, And Team Development
- Ensuring Knowledge Management And Skill Development (E.g., Sharing Tools Like Confluence, Internal Training)
- Project Manager: Leading Software And Infrastructure Projects – Traditional And Agile
- Planning, Steering, And Controlling Projects Using Traditional And Agile (Scrum, Kanban, Safe) Methods
- Taking On Various Agile Roles, Such As Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Or Product Owner (Depending On Project Needs)
- Risk And Dependency Management, Reporting, And Project Governance
- Coordinating Test Management And Quality Assurance (E.g., Acceptance And Go-live Processes)
- Stakeholder Management At Various Levels (Business Units, External Vendors, Management)
- Agile Product Management And Software Development (Scrum And Kanban)
- Epic Owner And Product Owner: Creating And Maintaining The Product Backlog And Roadmap, Defining And Prioritizing Epics, Features, And User Stories
- Working With Agile Metrics (Velocity, Burndown Charts, Definition Of Done/ready) And Continuous Process Improvement
- Supporting Development Teams In Implementation, Reviews, And Retrospectives
- Coaching On Agile And Devops Development Practices (E.g., Pair Programming And Reviews, Continuous Integration/delivery)
- Solution Architect: Analyzing It Landscapes And Developing Solution Approaches (Technical/commercial), Including Business Cases
- Capturing And Modeling Existing Processes And Identifying Optimization Potential
- Developing Strategies And Concepts To Consolidate And Modernize It And System Landscapes
- Evaluating Different Solution Architectures For Technical (Api Design, Cloud/on-premise Integration, Security Requirements) And Economic (Roi, Tco) Aspects
- Conducting Cost-benefit Analyses And Creating Business Cases For Decision Making
- Including Regulatory, Security-related, And Market-specific Requirements (E.g., In The Energy And Telecom Sectors)
- Business Analyst: Requirements Management And Workshop Facilitation
- Acting As Interface Between Business Units And Development Teams; Analyzing And Documenting Business Processes, Data Models, And Use Cases
- Structuring And Documenting Requirements (Requirements Engineering) In Tools Like Jira, Microsoft Devops
- Moderating Requirement Workshops, Interviews, And Joint Design Sessions (Design Thinking) With Stakeholders
- Process Analysis And Optimization (E.g., Gap Analyses, Creating Delta Concepts, Identifying Efficiency Gains)
- Translating Business Requirements Into Technical Specifications And Test Cases
- Preparing Decision Templates And Supporting The Decision Process
- Creating Clear, Audience-focused Presentations (Powerpoint, Confluence) And Decision Documents (Business Cases, Proofs Of Concept)
- Coordinating Decision Processes In Steering Committees Or Top-management Meetings, Including Alignment With Sponsors And Executives
- Incorporating Risks, Dependencies, And Compliance Requirements Into Decision Documents
- Ensuring Traceability And Documentation Of All Project Decisions
- Stakeholder Management In A Complex Environment; Interface Between Internal Clients, Development Teams, And Suppliers
- Defining And Implementing A Communication Strategy For Different Stakeholder Groups
- Conflict Management Between Business Units, Development, And External Vendors (E.g., Escalation Processes, Solution Workshops)
- Ensuring A Continuous Feedback Process (E.g., Demos, Reviews, Retrospectives) And Driving Adjustments
- Collecting And Evaluating Bids, Managing External Partners Regarding Quality, Cost, And Deadlines
- Change Management And Organizational Development
- Designing And Supporting Change Processes, Including Agile Coaching And Support For Product Owner Roles
- Training And Involving Various Stakeholders (Management, Business Units, External Partners) In Transformation And Innovation Initiatives
- Actively Managing Resistance And Implementing A Comprehensive Communication Strategy
- Establishing And Promoting A Learning Organization (Retrospectives, Lessons Learned)
- Introducing And Cultivating Continuous Improvement Processes
- Cloud And Infrastructure Projects (Azure, Aws, On-premise Migrations)
- Planning And Coordinating Data Center And Cloud Migration Projects (Data Center Shutdown/move, Cloudification, On-prem To Azure/aws)
- Coordinating Creation Of Security And Access Concepts, And Conducting And Evaluating Security Audits And Pen Tests
- Designing And Operating Hybrid Cloud Architectures, Automated Release And Deployment Processes (Ci/cd)
- Ensuring Stability And Scalability (E.g., Monitoring, Logging, Alerting In Cloud Environments)
- Working With Common Cloud Services (Container Technologies) And Infrastructure Tools
Languages
Certifications & licenses
Certified Project Manager (IPMA Level C)
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