Ravi is an experienced Manager, Leader, Coach, Trainer, Scrum Master, and Lean/Kanban expert. His expertise ranges from assisting multiple teams to large-scale business transformation; by conducting hands-on training and coaching on adopting Agile/Scrum or Lean/Kanban process frameworks, with XP and DevOps practices.

Ravi has been working in major Silicon Valley companies in US & SF bay area for over 20 years. Prior to HCL-Axon, he worked at eBay, Infosys, Western Digital, Cisco, PayPal & Symantec for last 10 years, coaching at all levels of agile adoption- individuals, teams, management and executives, specifically on servant leadership, software craftsmanship, agile software/hardware/firmware development & DevOps. During 8 years prior to that, Ravi worked as Development Manager in a startup. During 4 years during Dot Com era, hands-on Software Developer & Architect. Prior to US (SF Bay Area), Ravi spent 3 years consulting on software engineering with offshore software development centers including C-DAC Pune and Telecom NZ in Auckland NZ. Ravi contributed to UML 0.8 draft for IEEE task force, during that time. In summary, Ravi has grown through progressive ranks from Developer to Scrum Master to DevOps Consultant to Lean-Agile Coach to Manager.

Ravi believes in community giving, actively working the Lean-Agile communities in USA, India and beyond. Ravi was co-founder of agilecamp.org in SF bay area, organizer of SV-ALN, and co-founder of Cisco’s internal coaches network. Ravi has been working closely with Lean Kanban India and Agile Network India communities.

Infra Transformation – Lean for Business Agility with Continuous Improvement & Innovation

Infrastructure groups within IT/Engineering organizations tend to go to DevOps route rather unprepared. This is a case-study style talk about implementing a model of Continuous Improvement and Innovation (CI&I), based on Lean implementation journey within the context of Infrastructure groups within O&G vertical/domain. Organizations go thru' a journey with Lean practitioners, change agents and OCM (Org Change Management) experts, through phases such as Prep->Design->Accelerate->Enable->Sustain.

• During Prep phase, we map CI&I model to strategic imperatives that are part of execution plan for IT strategy. We use Design Thinking exercises and Lean Change Canvas to reinforce CI&I model.
• During Design phase, we use CI&I model to prioritize & establish value streams that matter for business agility.
• During Accelerate phase, we operationalize a Kanban system (- not just a visual board -) to run Lean Startup style 'experiments' for continuous improvement & innovation.
• During Enable phase, we get into teaching and training focused on the gaps found in VSMs (value stream mapping). This could be, for example, how to use Kanban for Infra ITIL/ITSM type of work, or it could also be introducing IoT or machine learning for a specific vertical/domain.
• During Sustain phase, we talk about skills matrix and growth, in terms of both leadership development and future state competency roadmaps that those leaders want to focus on, in terms of developing their people. In summary, this talk is about implementing a model of Continuous Improvement and Innovation, in any vertical/domain, products or services.

• Experience Report from the Oil & Gas vertical (Utilities domain)
• Case-study style talk from Lean implementation journey for gaining and sustaining Business Agility, within the context of Infrastructure groups within O&G vertical/domain
• Demonstrates why Business Agility requires implementing a model of Continuous Improvement and Innovation, in any vertical/domain, products or services
• Understanding how to use Lean tools like VSM in conjunction with Lean Startup method's Build-Measure-Learn loop
• How to visualize Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop with Kanban, to implement Continuous Improvement & Innovation Model by Leveraging Design Thinking, Lean Change Canvas, Lean and Kanban.