Thomas Kastell
Project Manager
Experience
Project Manager
OGL Food Trade
Part of a company-wide SAP S/4Hana cloud migration program including 6 implementation teams migrating the whole business process landscape from on premise into the cloud. Managing of two project teams on data migration and creation of business cockpits for pricing and logistics. Conducting two workshops to define the data migration approach and the Kanban working mode. Setting up release and deployment plans. Conducting stakeholder management and management reporting. Setting up the full project structure in Jira and sharepoint.
Key Contributions:
- Conducting two scoping workshops on the data migration approach for business partner and materials incl the full project plan definition and the pricing and logistics cockpits
- Coaching of one development and one data migration team consisting of 5 developers, SAP consultants and several business key user by adapting Scrum and Kanban frameworks
- Managing three external services provider consisting of different SAP consultants and developer incl budget and ressource allocation management
Engineering Project Manager
Fresenius Medical Care
Part of a company-wide cloud migration program including 6 development teams developing a cloud-based patient and clinic management platform for dialysis treatment. Managing of one project team to implement cloud-based patient dialysis management. Conducting scoping workshops with business owner, POs, requirements engineers and business analysts. Setting up release and deployment plans. Conducting stakeholder management and management reporting. Setting up the full project structure in Azure DevOps.
Key Contributions:
- Conducting two scoping workshops for one business and development team each to define business, vision, deliverables and features, backlog, architecture, deployment plan, dependencies and risks
- Managing of one project team of 10 team members consisting of software engineers, PO, BA, and QA
- Setting up the overall project framework for the whole platform in Azure DevOps including a general feature deployment plan, 6 team paths and iterations, risk register and resource planning
- Stakeholder management with executive management on budget consumption, risk mitigation, resources staffing, and removing structural impediments from the project teams
Project Manager
Cariad
Part of a company-wide software-development program including more than 3000 developers developing and providing the software components for level-4 autonomous driving. Managing of two project teams to implement AI based emergency pilots. Setting up release and deployment plans. Conducting stakeholder management and management reporting. Setting up of team project structure in Azure DevOps.
Key Contributions:
- Managing of two project teams of 12 team members consisting of software engineers, data scientists, and QAs in implementing AI based emergency pilots
- Conducting several topic specific workshops to define product deliverables for upcoming quarters, features, backlog, architecture, deployment plan, dependencies and risks
- Managing executive stakeholders on budget consumption, risk mitigation, resources staffing, and removing structural impediments from the project teams
Project Lead
Uniper
Part of a company-wide software-development program including 18 development teams to digitise asset management and facility handling of power plants using Azure DevOps. Conducting workshops on backlog creation, and user stories. Connecting software development cycles with waterfall planned facility cycles using Azure DevOps.
Key Contributions:
- Managing of two project teams of 8 team members each consisting of software engineers, business stakeholders, and QAs in implementing power plant management and maintenance software
- Designing a deployment framework together with management to coordinate deployments and dependencies between the development and business teams with SAFE and LeSS approaches
Project Manager and Agile Coach
Gamdom
Setting up the software development organisation, coaching and forming of a development team consisting of 9 junior and senior developers, QA, PO. Designing the product vision together with the PO in building MVPs and establishing a structured and prioritised backlog using Jira. Conducting scoping workshops.
Key Contributions:
- Enhancing market understanding by introducing A/B test, persona creation, and relative goals leading to a customer retention increase of 27% and establishing a business priority matrix for IT support
- Managing of one project teams consisting of 7 developers, 2 QAs, and 1 PO
- Opening communications channels between business and development team to provide mutual market feedback and with that enhancing the value creation for customers
- Growing the team from 3 to 9 full-stack developers, 2 QAs, 1 PO and setting up of the development framework using Scrum leading to a reduction of bug and production incidents by 33% by setting quality standards (DoDs) and introducing peer-reviews, and automated testing
Project Manager
British e-commerce tech company
Facilitating of client workshops on the definition of product vision, business targets, and product features, facilitating of backlog workshops (customer and user story mapping), Scrum Master role and coaching of one development team and the client's management team using Azure DevOps.
Key Contributions:
- Managing one development team of 8 developers and 1 PO on MVP building, incremental development and release approach, release plan creating, and customer stakeholder management
- Client executive coaching for CEO and head of product on iterative product development, A/B testing, leadership roles, and scaling agile frameworks
Project Lead and Agile Transformation Coach
Juniper
Defining targets, scopes, and milestones of the project together with several POs and supporting them in creating product backlogs. Serving the role of a Scrum Master for two teams. Coaching the teams in defining their individual Scrum approach using Azure DevOps.
Key Contributions:
- Coaching of two development teams including 10 developers and a PO in adapting to MVP building, small increment deployments, implementing Scrum framework and its role modelling for refactoring of two of their core revenue products
- Adapting a Scrum of Scrum approach and introducing PO and Proxy POs for the whole product suite of 4 different products
- Management coaching of 1 CTO and 3 dev managers on roadmap planning, feature prioritisation and servant leadership to developers
Project Manager
Lufthansa
Defining and scoping relevant targets and deliverables of the project and supporting POs in breaking them down into epics and user stories. Staffing of all five scrum teams. Managing of two project teams and creating the project structure using Jira.
Key Contributions:
- Managing a budget of €9.6M and an international on- and off-shore project team of 35 people
- Designing the overall Scrum project setup including staffing of POs, Scrum Master, and data scientists
- Managing three international service providers from India, Germany, and Switzerland
- Stakeholder management toward level-one management together with the IT project manager
Project Lead and Lead Agile Coach
Eurowings
Introduced a project management office to allow a company-wide portfolio management of all projects for the executive board on the one hand and agile project enablement of the project managers on the other. Led a project team of 8 people using teamwork.
Key Contributions:
- Managing a budget of €0.9M and a project team of 8 people
- Designing the PMO structure including a reporting structure for the executive board and a setup of a prioritisation matrix on the staffing of project resources
- Designing and holding more than 15 agile Scrum and Kanban trainings for project managers
Lead Agile Coach
ZeroG
Introduced Holocracy as a self-management practice for the whole internal organisation of ZeroG including the creation of roles, circles, and practices like integrative decision making
Key Contributions:
- Full organisational transformation of a hierarchy-driven organisation into a self-managed one consisting of more than 50 employees
- Coaching of the CEO to seize power into the organisation and defining his new role
- Coaching of all employees on self-management (including the new role and circle model)
Project Lead
Lufthansa
Deployed an external lounge-tracking software solution for more than 60 airport lounges world-wide. Scoped the project including the setting of targets, KPIs, milestones and a project plan using Jira. Setting up agile project structure using Kansan.
Key Contributions:
- Software rollout within seven months and managing a budget of €1.1M and a project team of 6 people
- Managing two international service providers located in Canada and India
Project Manager
2b AHEAD ThinkTank
Designed and launched the trend and innovations software as B2B trend scouting software, market launch and lead generation, set up of 1st level support, held customer workshops using Jira
Key Contributions:
- Creating feature and backlog using user story mapping, and early user testing with Design Sprints
- Successful software rollout within four months of the MVP development
- Leading project team of 8 people including one German service provider working with Scrum
- Creating and closing of business leads in the German speaking market worth of €1.3M
Project Lead
Wholesale electrical supply company
Held innovation and business model workshops to design a new digital business model including a go-to-market approach, channel selection, initial organisational setup with Scrum and the scaled-up agile approach with LeSS and SAFE using Azure DevOps.
Key Contributions:
- Managing an initial budget of €0.5M and 10 team members
- Managing a budget of €10M after proving the business model
- Setting up the initial Scrum team and coached the team member on the job
- Scaling up the initial agile setup with to LeSS and SAFE for up to 450 employees
Head of Agile Project Management
2b AHEAD ThinkTank
Introduced Kanban as a self-management practice for the internal services team of CRM, Sales, Back Office of 2b AHEAD to build up an internal service factory based on customer centricity, usage of digital office technologies and pro-active problem-solving using Trello.
Key Contributions:
- Leading a team of 12 mostly young people
- Increasing incoming sales leads by 30% and customer-satisfaction
- Introducing a KPI-driven cockpit to enable people to measure customer and client satisfaction and test efficiency of new methods, channels, and ideas
Co-Founder and Project Lead
RS Schlossresidenz
Acquisition of the 17th century chateau including the preparation of a business model canvas, negotiations with venture partners and market placement
Key Contributions:
- Project management of the chateau restoration with a budget volume of €1.5M
- Market placement within the event and hotel industry generating revenuers of €500k during the first year
- Horizontal agile project management together with 3 employees
Co-Founder
RS Schlossresidenz
Initiated the real estate company and performed various real estate projects (including the delivery of several projects and the internal company build-up with Kanban). Developed and sustained strategic partnerships with vendors for business expansion.
Key Contributions:
- Capturing new business opportunities and attaining real estate projects worth of €3M
- Scaling the business up to yearly revenues of €5M and 12 employees
- Agile setup of the business organisation with Kanban frameworks
Project Manager
GIZ
Developed a new business model to offer management and language training course for Saudi managers for the technical trainers' college a project managed by the German governmental development aid
Key Contributions:
- Managing the comprehensive business planning, roll out, and business development including leadership for an international team of 4 people
- Streamlining complete business operations, while remaining within €500k budget
- Securing business deals with the Saudi government worth €1.5M and directed a team of four international and Saudi employees
Co-Founder
Eventmarkt.de
Founded a start-up bringing together event agencies and private customers on a market platform. Designed the business plan together with the founder. Built up the sales and marketing funnel. Set up of operations and the internal organisation with Kanban.
Key Contributions:
- Scaling the business by creating yearly revenue streams of €3.5M and creating user traffic of more than 10k visits per month
- Designing the business organisation with Kanban frameworks leading a team of 12 employees
Co-Founder and Product Owner
Eventmarkt.de
Definition of key platform features and the MVP with user journey maps, design of a first product backlog including user stories, introducing the Scrum framework for platform software development using Jira.
Key Contributions:
- Conducting several design sprints to test prototypes and discover around 80% of platform-specific user patterns and behaviour
- Designing and prioritising the MVP and product backlog within the Scrum framework
- Market entry, customer testing and continuous iterative development of the MVP after 3 months of initial development work
Industries Experience
See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time. Longer bars indicate deeper hands-on experience, while shorter ones reflect targeted or project-based work.
Experienced in Information Technology (5 years), Aerospace and Defense (2.5 years), Food and Beverage (2 years), Real Estate (2 years), Automotive (1 year), and Retail (1 year).
Business Areas Experience
The graph below provides a cumulative view of the freelancer's experience across multiple business areas, calculated from completed and active engagements. It highlights the areas where the freelancer has most frequently contributed to planning, execution, and delivery of business outcomes.
Experienced in Project Management (15.5 years), Information Technology (6 years), Product Development (5.5 years), Strategy (3.5 years), Marketing (3.5 years), and Operations (3.5 years).
Summary
I'm a performance-driven professional with thirteen years of experience in all aspects of managing, executing, and leading (agile) projects in delivering digital products in software and IT environments. Strongly believing in shaping the project execution from a market- and customer-centred perspective I have a proven record of planning, leading, and delivering projects on designing and roll out of digital products and platforms, on data-driven process automatisation, AI-based software development and migration of cloud-based software. Having faced dozens of different business and organisational environments I know about the advantages of waterfall, hybrid and agile methodologies of project management approaches. I’m a bilingual communicator with fluency in German and English.
Languages
Education
Martin-Luther University of Halle/Saale
Master in Business & Political Sciences · Business & Political Sciences · Halle (Saale), Germany · 1.2
Profile
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