Andreas van der Gugten


​I am an Agile practitioner with a strong technical background and experience in both project and change management. I have worked across Education, Finance, Logistics, Government and Software Development industries throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the USA.  
I am passionate about training and facilitating others to lead, creating high-performing, self-managing teams and leveraging an iterative, reflective delivery cycle to create the maximum amount of value in the shortest amount of time.​
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Being both Swiss and American, I blend together a detailed, precision work ethic, creative can-do attitude, with outside the box thinking, and a dynamic people-focused approach. 
AGILESWISS LLC / AUG 2021 - Current
CEO, AGILE COACH & FACILITATOR  - SWITZERLAND/NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA/SINGAPORE/USA
SOFTWARE EDUCATION HOLDINGS LTD / JUL 2018 - JUL 2021
GROUP CIO, AGILE COACH & FACILITATOR  - NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA/SINGAPORE/USA
SoftEd is among the world leaders in delivering IC Agile accredited training and is passionate about partnering with organisations during their journey towards agility. 

​I am passionate about Agile methods and creating highly functional and efficient teams, in every area of business. In my role as Agile coach and facilitator, I coach, train and mentor both technical and non-technical teams and individuals from many different organisations in various Agile disciplines and practices. 
My strong technical background means I can also coach highly technical teams in DevOps practices including planning for and implementing CI/CD pipelines across various technologies.

Additionally, my role as Group CIO has involved all facets including budgeting, planning for and managing the day to day technical needs of the company across all geographies. This has included rapidly adapting to the needs of the company to transition most of its training delivery to liveonline due to COVID, and deploying large scale changes to our delivery methods, technology and adapting to the new requirements of our clients. 

Here are some of the organisation I had the privilege of working with throughout the years. ​
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RADFORD SOFTWARE LTD. / SEP 2014 - JUL 2018
​DEVOPS MANAGER & AGILE COACH TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND
​​Radford Software is a software development company with 40 employees based in Tauranga who create inventory and supply chain software for the horticulture industry. They have clients in Oceania, Europe and Asia. All of Zespri's New Zealand Kiwifruit inventory is initially created using Radford software.
https://www.radfords.co.nz

​​I was hired as Client Services Manager but quickly moved into a varied role as Agile Coach and DevOps Manager. I was responsible for the Agile processes across the company and also looked after a team of people who managed internal systems, CI/CD, training & documentation and mobile apps.

Achievements
  • Facilitated the Agile Journey for the three development teams at Radfords
  • Setup company wide Agile portfolio planning and management / defined the Agile processes at Radfords
  • Working closely with CEO, General Manager and Financial Manager to tackle agile estimation, time tracking, agile portfolio and value management
  • Implemented JIRA and Confluence to manage work across all teams as well as internal processes i.e. PO system for finance approval.
  • Set up automation for quoting to customers
  • Created a Virtual Training Environment in Azure so that anyone can access a central training system and run through training modules for the entire suite of Radfords applications. Since the discontinuation of Azure Remote App, we moved to the Fra.me platform which can run in Azure or AWS
  • Moved all source code from TFS to VSTS and set up CI/CD pipelines
  • Introduced nightly builds with code quality checks using Sonar Qube
  • Set up deployment and testing automation using Microsoft App Center (ex. Hockeyapp) for Xamarin applications
  • Encouraging Dev teams towards TDD and test automation and providing the infrastructure to do so​
ISO LTD. / SEP 2013 - SEP 2014
APPLICATION SPECIALIST & DEPLOYMENT & DELIVERY TEAM LEAD IN TAURANGA, NZ
ISO Ltd. is one of the largest stevedoring and marshalling operations in New Zealand. 
http://iso.co.nz/

​I first was hired as an application specialist for the in-house developed Resource Management System for which I acted as Product Owner, trainer and roll-out project manager. After completing the roll-out across NZ, I was moved to the role of Deployment & Delivery Team leader. In this position, I looked after the support team and was responsible for service delivery, IT procurement and application deployment.

Achievements
  • Documentation, training & deployment for the in-house Resource Management System 
  • Functioned as product owner including internal stakeholder management
  • Managed a team of 5 responsible for service delivery
  • IT procurement for the entire company (700+ employees at the time)
  • Implemented managed print service, significantly cutting down on printing costs across the country
  • Worked on implementing a digital PO system with the accounting department
  • Improvement to software and hardware deployment processes
DB SCHENKER SCHWEIZ AG / JUN 2010 - SEP 2013
PROJECT AND APPLICATION MANAGER IN ZURICH, CH ​​
DB Schenker is one of the largest logistics companies in the world with 95000 employees globally. 
​https://www.dbschenker.com/global
​
​In my role as project manager and application specialist, I was responsible for the roll-out of a third-party warehouse management system to all Swiss branches of DB Schenker. This included training internal staff, working closely with the Contract Logistics team to customize the software for each existing and new customer as well as managing all enhancement requests with the vendor of the software.   ​

Achievements
  • Project & Change management replacing an old warehouse management system with a new one
  • Business analysis tasks to configure the system to specific customer requirements including feed, food, pharma, narcotics, dangerous- and high-value goods.
  • Documentation and training for internal staff
  • Budget responsibility for all enhancements made to the product by the external vendor
  • Implemented bonded warehouse compliant with Swiss Customs regulations
  • Configuration of invoicing application to comply with Swiss standards and integration with DB Schenkers SAP
  • Configuration of interfaces to DB Schenkers SEDI servers for EDI messaging to other systems and clients
  • Implemented Mobile Device Management system (XEN Mobile Device Manager) to manage and provision all Windows CE and Windows Mobile 6.5 devices across the country
SELF EMPLOYED / JUL 2008 - JUN 2010
​TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION & PROCESS ENGINEERING IN ST. GALLEN, CH
I ran my own small business - VDG Solutions and worked together with my brother-in-law providing technical documentation services to the machine building industry across Switzerland.

Achievements
  • Optimization and digitization of technical documentation creation process for various large machine building companies across Switzerland
  • Shortened the creation process for technical documentation from weeks to several days
  • Integration of technical documentation systems with internal ERP systems (e.g. SAP) and CAD systems (AutoCAD, ProE, Alibre)
CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES  / JAN 2005 - JUN 2008
INVESTMENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST II IN GENEVA, CH ​​​
Capital Group Companies ranks among the oldest and largest privately held financial management companies in the world. 
https://www.capitalgroup.com/
​
In this role I was providing direct 2nd level support to the Legal, Funds Management, Funds Services and Sales departments at Capital Groups Geneva office and was responsible for the roll out of several software projects locally in Switzerland and across Europe. 
​
Achievements
  • Local lead for hardware life-cycle management including the secure destruction of data storage devices in compliance with Swiss and international financial privacy laws.
  • EU lead for Blackberry Enterprise Server
  • Local lead for various global IT projects
  • Global lead for BlackBerry software roll-out projec
HONDA SUISSE SA / SEP 2004 - DEC 2004
​DEPLOYMENT SPECIALIST CONTRACTOR IN GENEVA, CH: ​​​
I worked as a contractor to roll out Windows XP on all Honda Suisse computers located in their branches across Switzerland. I travelled the branches and upgraded all of their computers to Windows XP. I also took support calls from German-speaking branches and upgraded their parts management software at the same time.
UNIVERSITY OF THE NATIONS / MARCH 2002 - SEP 2004
​IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION IN VAUD, CH
Role of IT Administrator for the local University campus in Burtigny, Switzerland and was supported the International Provost office and Deans around the world for all their IT needs . 

​During this time I also freelanced with a local training company facilitating courses on presentation / public speaking and negotiation skills across Switzerland. ​
Vertical Divider
Agile (coach / Product owner / scrum master)
Be it as a Product Owner, Scrum Master or Agile Coach, I love working with high-performance Agile teams. It combines my strong technical background with my passion for building great teams.

I can help facilitate the process of iterative value delivery for technical as well as non-technical teams. The principles of Agile are quite simple and easy to understand - however implementing a good agile process and creating self-managing, autonomous teams who take ownership of the value they deliver, takes time and effort as well as good facilitation, coaching and teaching skills.

​Leading others towards self-leadership, creating a safe environment for people to make mistakes are all necessary to stay competitive and innovative in today's fast paced environment.
Project / program & portfolio management
I have worked on many IT projects in sectors across Education, Finance, Logistics and Software Development in large multinational organisations, government agencies as well as small owner-operated businesses. I started my career working in more traditional project management frameworks like PMI & Prince2 but now exclusively teach and coach Agile and Lean approaches to Project / Program & Portfolio management. 

Having high performing teams is no good if they are sprinting in the wrong direction! Good program and portfolio management ensure everyone is aligned and working towards the most valuable organisational goals.
Development practices
Although the years of calling myself a web developer are long gone, I have a good understanding of TDD / BDD and these days mostly use those skills to facilitate good coding practices with the use of technology for Linting / Code Quality, gated check-ins, code-review etc.
Being able to communicate at a technical level has made me more efficient as an Agile Coach especially when working directly with software development teams. 
Devops
I would call myself a DevOps evangelist rather than an Engineer. I can jump in and set up a Ci/CD pipeline and test automation, but prefer to leave the real work to more skilled and faster engineers who will deliver infrastructure as code across cloud platforms. My skills are around understanding what's available and moving the organisation towards a solution that leverages DevOps practices across development and operational teams. Ensuring team maximise the left to right flow of value, the right to left flow of information and adopting a continuous improvement mindset. 

If you need to know which tools I have worked with in the past click the image below. 
Aplication lifecycle management
I have set up and administered ALM environments using Axosoft's Ontime, Atlassian Jira Server and Cloud, Target Process and the precursors to Azure DevOps. To enable fast and confident delivery of value into production, it is crucial to have traceability throughout your DevOps pipeline - a good ALM tool is just the beginning of visualising and tracking your teams work and the changes throughout your software delivery process. 
who i am
Here is a list of words various peers and managers have used to describe me in the past:
  • Achiever - Always aiming for the best results.
  • Analytical - Excellent Critical Thinking skills
  • Creative Thinker
  • Systems and Process Oriented
  • Calm under pressure
  • Patient
  • Self-motivated
  • Problem Solving
  • Reliable
  • Punctual (or Swiss)
  • Detail Oriented 
  • Always learning and improving my knowledge
what i bring
  • Leadership & facilitation skills for large and small groups
  • Public speaking experience - regularly leading meetings for management, trainees, clients and stakeholders in person and via zoom
  • Can quickly analyse a situation and get an overview of areas for improvement and find the best way forward
  • Diplomatic communicator 
  • Good conflict resolution skills
  • Excellent Teamwork Skills
  • Avid Networker - I always make connections within the company and network with other professionals in the areas of interest. 
  • Developer of both teams' strengths and operational systems
ic agile certified professional - 02/06/2016
Agile Fundamentals
The ICP's learning objectives focus on the agile mindset, values, principles and foundational concepts. They are grounded in what it means to be agile and achieve organizational agility without specific focus on any single agile methodology or framework (i.e. Scrum, XP, DSDM, SAFe, etc.)
​​
icp - agile team facilitation - 29/08/2016
  • The Agile Team Facilitator Mindset
  • Facilitation & the Facilitator Stance
  • Setting the Facilitation Context
  • Facilitating Meetings / Collaboration
  • Chartering Activities
icp - agile coaching - 16/12/2016
  • ​The Coaching Mindset & Stance
  • Coaching Skills
  • Mentoring Roles & Transitions
  • Team Development
  • Coaching toward High Performance
  • Conflict Management
​ICP - Enterprise Product ownership - 02/09/2017
  • Enterprise Product Ownership
  • Value Management
  • Value Leadership
  • Defining Enterprise Value
  • Value Context around Initiatives
  • Building for Discovery vs. Building for Delivery​
icp - Delivery at Scale - 02/09/2017
This certification focuses on applying agile management principles beyond projects to programs, portfolios, and broader organizational contexts.
ICP - Agile Product Ownership - 25/07/2018
This certification focuses on value-driven software delivery, the accompanying mindset, and key agile practices designed to emphasize customer value. It also looks at creating organizational and team environments conducive to frequent and transparent collaboration between the business and development teams.
IC Agile Certified Instructor - 17/08/2018
IC Agile Certified Instructor for the following courses: 
  • AFD
  • FDO
  • IDO
  • APO
ICP - Foundations of DevOps - 02/02/2018
This certification provides an overview of core concepts for DevOps and is geared towards a broad audience of professionals, both technical and non-technical.
ICP - IMPLEMENTING DEVOPS - 03/02/2019
This certification takes a hands-on approach to planning, building, monitoring, and maturing a DevOps pipeline.
ATA - Agile Test Automation - 09/07/2020
Students will learn how to set up an overall test automation strategy, including determining which types of tests are better suited for automated versus manual execution.
My IC Agile Certifications - see full transcript here. 
CPRE Certification - 22/05/2012
Certified Professional Requirements engineer Foundation level
A person with a CPRE FL certificate
  • is familiar with the terminology of Requirements Engineering/Business Analysis and Requirements Management
  • understands the basic techniques and methods of Requirements Engineering and their application,
  • is familiar with the most established notations for requirements.​
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE - 2006
​Niveau a2 - intermediate
PostGraduate Certificate in Management Studies  
ONGOING
University of Waikato, NZ
Completed the following papers: 
EXED501 - Leading High Performance Teams
EXED505 - Strategic Human Resources Practice
EXED503 - Managerial Economics and the Global Business Environment
EXED509 - Financial and Managerial Accounting
​EXED504 - Organisational Behaviour
german diploma / 1997 - 2000
Eduard spranger schule, DE
Majored in
  • Political and Industrial Economics
  • Business Accountancy
  • English
Meetups
I actively participate in various Agile and DevOps themed Meetups
agile alliance Member
I'm a member of the Agile Alliance
Past involvements
Agile Tauranga Meetup Co-Founder
Agile Welly Meetup Facilitator
Agile Alliance New Zealand Board Member
IT Professionals New Zealand
Other community activites
I've gotten involved in community activities like Hour of Code & Codebright run by Venture Centre in Tauranga and have also mentored at the last Startup Weekend. ​
English - Mother tongue
German - Mother tongue
Swiss-German - Fluent
​French - Confident business spoken level, intermediate written. 
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