Andy Flower

Experience

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  Swiss Life

  Jun 1995 - Jul 2004

  Completed a number of successful projects that gave me the opportunity to take the position of project manager, as I was best suited either for business or technical reasons to ensure the success of the given task. Requiring the strict planning of not only my own areas but also of those reporting to me for the duration of the project. This planning could take the form of project plans, various specifications (business briefs, requirements & technical documents, etc), process modelling and any other beneficial tool, enabling us to complete the assigned task within the defined project boundaries of cost, resource, quality and user acceptance. Show less Took ownership of a number of document streams which required meta versions to be created over the next 6 months. However I was able to conclude this task far quicker than anticipated which led to me automating their image software solution to provide compliance auditing and secure storage of sensitive customer documents.Both of these projects were successfully completed several months ahead of schedule, due to my use of alternative techniques, prioritisation and time management, saving time, money and also reducing pressure on other colleagues. Show less

  • Senior Analyst Programmer

    Jul 2002 - Jul 2004

  • Analyst Programmer

    Apr 2002 - Jul 2002

  • Systems Analyst

    Jun 1995 - Apr 2002
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  Moneysupermarket.com

  Aug 2004 - Jun 2012

  Responsible for leading a large number of teams and individuals within the .Net Development community. This has peaked at 70+ team members all working together to deliver value to the whole of the Moneysupermarket.com estate. Each of these teams has been built with multiple skillsets to ensure they can be as self sufficient as possible, enabling them to remove barriers where possible and truly work as a team in delivering business benefit to our commercial partners. Again this is using an Agile approach to achieve delivery and specifically using Kanban as the mechanism for realising benefit as soon as possible through smaller, more rapid releases. Show less Initially headed up a small team of cross skilled individuals (BA, QA's, Developers, DBA's, etc) to deliver rapid changes to the Insurance channels using a SCRUM approach. As the company and role developed this led to me leading multiple teams including 20+ people as we delivered consistent benefit across the majority of sites within Moneysupermarket.com. As the teams advanced their adoption of Agile we progressed onto a Kanban pull system and found it to be very pragmatic in delivering web change quickly enabling benefit realisation far quicker than other approaches. Show less Key member of a team providing new and inventive developments to thousands of brokers using our mortgage sourcing software. Continuously proven track record as both a resourceful and organised individual but also as a key contributor to a team in terms of support and as technical input. This position required the full project life cycle be adhered to no matter the size and scope with responsibility falling to the lead programmer to produce and audit all required documents from the earliest of project briefs through to the final post project analysis. Show less

  • Applications Delivery Manager (Seconded to replace previous Head of Delivery)

    May 2011 - Jun 2012

  • Iteration Manager

    Sept 2008 - May 2011

  • Lead Analyst Programmer

    Aug 2006 - Sept 2008

  • Analyst Programmer

    Aug 2004 - Jul 2006
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  AMEC

  Jun 2012 - May 2015

  Leading, coordinating and supervising all activities related to the; strategy, technical design, development, and maintenance of AMEC’s Application Portfolio. Demonstrating leadership, communication skills, problem-solving skills, and knowledge of best practices to guide the development managers, leads and staff on all issues related to the design and development of mission-critical information and software systems. Working with the Business facing teams to ensure application needs, delivery priorities and deliverables are clearly understood for effective planning and execution of the application portfolio deliverables. Responsible for managing multiple teams spread globally, covering a number of skills, roles and technology platforms. Additionally, providing day to day guidance to a team of development leaders to ensure we continually meet our customers’ needs and expectations. Show less A senior manager responsible for development against, what will be, the largest global implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX. I joined the company shortly prior to the first implementation of the platform within Amec but quickly established myself as a leader within the department by stepping up as needed during a high intensity period and with a new, challenging and diverse customer base. My teams comprise of various cross functional staff including analysis, reporting, BI, DMS (including Warehousing), architecture and testing. With the demands ranging from simple defect fixes to enhancements and also further migrations, progressing us to a truly global function. Show less

  • Senior Development Manager (Head of Global Development)

    Oct 2013 - May 2015

  • Global Business Systems MDAX Development Manager

    Jun 2012 - Dec 2013
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  Progressive Development Services Limited

  Aug 2015 - now

  Principal Consultant and Director

  Progressive Development Services specialises in assisting organisations to overcome their Development challenges. These may be based on technologies, methodologies (waterfall, agile, etc) or people (new roles, lack of specialist knowledge, inexperience, etc). To date I have assisted companies with roadmaps and strategies to further mature their IT functions whilst strengthening their leadership in the Software Development field. This has been accomplished through performing short term 'health checks' and providing recommendations as well as helping to close some of the behavioural gaps identified as part of the study.I have also assisted with problematic project deliveries, providing both technical and behavioural advice leading to successful delivery.Whatever problems you face, we are more than happy to discuss and agree a way to overcome them through a true partnership. Show less

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  The HiveMind Network

  May 2016 - now

  Expert Practitioner

  HiveMind provides the insight, expertise and delivery capabilities to help medium and large enterprises solve their problems and execute on their plans. What sets us apart from traditional professional services organisations is that we're truly values driven and we operate within a highly interconnected organisational structure. Our 'Expert Practitioners'​ and our structure adapts and responds to the needs of our clients.The traditional business models of research, consulting and resourcing are struggling to adapt to the opportunities afforded in the new ‘digital’ economy. Yet the need for business leaders and executives to have access to expertise, insight and experience to innovate and optimise their business capabilities has never been greater Show less

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  MoneySavingExpert.com

  Sept 2016 - Mar 2018

  Delivery Lead - Contract (4 Extensions)

  Originally brought in to replace a permanent team with a fully contract team whilst proving out the viability of the product. Quickly up to speed with the tools and processes whilst identifying a number of areas where improvements could be made and efficiencies realized. In particular around the way we managed our activities (implemented SDLC with supporting tools and processes) and our use of a third party to provide Development resource (took ownership of managing their workload and activities whilst also aligning them to our new SDLC. By providing this level of standardisation and transparency it became apparent very quickly to me that I could increase the teams’ throughput significantly and reduce costs by employing on site contract developers instead of relying on the external third party. This led to me replacing them with on site developers which in turn enabled me to build one of the highest output teams in the MSM group, consistently delivering a high rate of change and quality to meet the needs of our customers.Working with external partners such as Experian and HD we delivered a significant number of major features and changes such as providing a full Credit Report, a brand new rules logic based feature called Wallet Workout and a CRM platform migration from StrongView to Selligent. Show less

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  Department of Work and Pensions

  Aug 2018 - Apr 2019

  Senior Agile Delivery Manager/Agile Coach (contract)

  I was tasked to standardise the adoption of Scrum across all teams with the Fraud, Error & Debt (FED) teams whilst producing an SDLC roadmap to set direction and monitor progress over time. This was very well received by senior management and the teams and is still used as a benchmark over 12 months since my departure. Working with teams & individuals we were able to make good progress in establishing our baseline and progressing to greater levels of maturity. Although a relatively short period, sound progress was made and continues today. Show less

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  Solutioneers Ltd

  Apr 2019 - now

  Principal Agile Coach

  At Solutioneers we work with private and public organisations from FTSE100 to SME’s. Our passion is to help you build, advance, and improve your technology delivery capabilities. As a team we work hard to continually study the rapidly changing landscape of the technology delivery so we are ready to help you evolve your organisation.During my time with Solutioneers, I have engaged with a large number of teams & departments to assist with becoming more effective in what they do. These teams have been a mixture of technical, product & business and all have benefited from my guidance with adoption and maturity in agile ways of working. I have enjoyed a high level of success within these engagements predominantly because of my dual approach, people & metrics. By researching and utilising the data whilst building strong relationships I have found this combination to be invaluable in creating an enjoyable but factually accurate environment for continuous improvement. Show less