Experience

Scrum master / Project manager – Colruyt Group Collect & Go / Xtra

Colruyt Group IT – Digital Factory
From October 2025 (Current role) – Freelance

Collect & Go is the leading online grocery shopping service in Belgium, operated by Colruyt Group. Customers can reserve products online for pickup at over 240+ locations or for home delivery. Within this organization, I am the scrum master for 2 distributed agile teams that focus on developing new and supporting existing functionalities on the Collect & Go website. The agile teams consist of IT architects, functional analysts, frontend (ReactJS, VueJS) and backend (Java) developers as well as test engineers.

Next to this, I also pick up the role as project manager for Xtra Professional. The goal of the projects is to improve CRM by implementing a new SaaS package as well as optimizing the online sales of Xtra gift cards for B2B customers.

Colruyt Group IT – Digital Factory
From August 2023 to September 2025 – Freelance

Prior to the SAFe agile release train being launched, multiple mobile apps (Collect & Go app, My Colruyt app, Xtra app) existed within Colruyt Group. Initially, the focus of the Xtra agile release train was to merge these apps into a single mobile app. Additional functionalities are continuously being added to offer a personalized shopping experience to the users via the Xtra app and Xtra website (.NET development). The Xtra agile release train consists of about 10 distributed agile teams partly located in Belgium and partly in India. As a release train engineer, my tasks include:

• Facilitate ART events such as Inspect & Adapt, PI Planning, System demo, ART sync… and continuously improve these events
• Follow up on PI execution and ensure alignment of agile teams & stakeholders on objectives (e.g. during ART sync, system demo)
• Address impediments and manage ART risks to enable efficient product development
• Set up and track agile metrics in Azure Devops and PowerBI to measure delivery, flow, quality…
• Present the delivery progress and related metrics (e.g. planned features vs completed features) during leadership meetings
• Regularly meet with scrum masters one-to-one to understand their perspectives, to discover opportunities to improve the flow in the value stream and to make good relationships even better
• Collaborate closely with product management and system architect during the ongoing PI and in preparation of the next PI
• Foster an innovation mindset and continuous improvement in the agile teams
• Coach scrum masters / product owners / agile teams and conduct workshops on various topics such as definition of done, PI objectives, agile metrics, scrum events and kanban practices, user story writing and splitting, estimation techniques, agile tools…
• Lead the community of practice (CoP) for scrum masters to share best practices and establish cross-team agreements
• Interview scrum masters during the hiring process and mentor newly joined scrum masters in getting to know the business context and product, understanding the way of working and roles within the Xtra ART, how to use agile tools and read agile metrics...
• Assess agile maturity in the Xtra ART and increase SAFe adoption in the organization by coaching agile and non-agile teams to better understand the SAFe framework, its benefits and best practices to achieve business agility

Colruyt Group IT – Digital Factory
From August 2021 to July 2023 - Freelance

To be able to offer functionalities in the Xtra app and Xtra website, data needs to be retrieved from and provided to various capabilities within Colruyt Group. To enable this, 2 complicated subsystem teams were formed which act as integration layers between feature teams and Colruyt Group capabilities. Both agile teams are partly located in Belgium and partly in India. The teams focus on developing new and supporting existing webservices (REST API) and ETL flows (batch integrations) as well as developing web applications (Java development). As a scrum master for these 2 agile teams within a SAFe agile release train, my tasks were to:

• Embed the scrum / SAFe framework in the way of working and improve flow in the team using kanban practices
• Facilitate scrum ceremonies such as iteration planning, team sync, iteration review & retrospective, team backlog refinement… and ensure these events are conducted in a productive and time boxed manner
• Guide the scrum teams in preparation of / during PI planning and contribute towards PI planning, for example by calculating team capacity and velocity to plan the different iterations in the PI, by guiding the teams to refine the priorities for next PI and determine PI objectives, by identifying and handshaking on cross-team dependencies which are key due to the nature of the integration teams…
• Collaborate with the product owner for effective team backlog management and ordering to maximize value
• Align with other teams within and outside the Xtra agile release train on cross-team dependencies throughout the PI (e.g. in ART sync)
• Coach the agile teams to become more self-organizing and to apply best practices to improve the agile maturity, for example by guiding the teams to create clear and concise user stories during team backlog refinement sessions, teaching the teams how to craft iteration goals and plan an iteration, showing how to use agile tools such as the kanban board, team backlog and dashboards in Azure Devops…
• Resolve impediments that prevent the agile team from accomplishing their goals and shield the team from external interferences
• Identify, together with the agile team, team and ART risks and follow up on team risks and their mitigation plans during the PI
• Foster a positive environment where the team is motivated, feels safe to experiment and learn through empiricism
• Track and report agile metrics such as velocity, sprint burn down, cumulative flow diagram, quality metrics… and use the empirical data to identify gaps and implement improvements for the overall effectiveness of the agile team
• Onboard new team members to the agile team and create a training plan so they understand the business context and product, the events and roles within the ART, the way of working in the agile team, how to use the agile tools…
• Participate in the community of practice for scrum masters and share best practices (e.g. retrospective techniques)

• Align with feature teams in the agile release train on which data is needed so new functionalities can be offered to Xtra app / web users
• Determine which Colruyt Group capability is owner of the data / in which capability the data can be retrieved
• Analyze functional and non-functional system requirements and describe these in (UML) deliverables such as sequence flow diagrams, service specifications for web services (REST API) and batch services… to convey system requirements to the agile team
• Support the testing team during system testing and system integration testing, for example by identifying test scenarios, by reviewing test cases, by creating test data in the underlying capabilities, by executing test cases via Postman…
• Coordinate E2E testing between various teams, both within and outside the Xtra agile release train
• Present the solution to stakeholders during the bi-weekly system demo
• Create permanent documentation
• Participate in the community of practice for analysts

• Embed the scrum / SAFe framework in the team and improve the agile maturity
• Facilitate scrum ceremonies such as iteration planning, team backlog refinement, iteration review & retrospective, team sync…
• Guide the scrum team in preparation of / during PI planning and contribute towards PI planning, for example by calculating team capacity and velocity to plan the different iterations in the PI, by guiding the team to refine the priorities for next PI, by identifying and handshaking on cross-team dependencies…
• Ensure alignment between teams within the agile release train on dependencies throughout the PI
• Coach the scrum team in understanding and applying agile values and best practices to become more self-organizing, cross-functional and high performing in developing new and supporting existing applications, for example by guiding the team to create clear and concise user stories that fit within one iteration, by teaching the team how to organize effective and time boxed scrum events…
• Resolve impediments for the agile team and protect the team from outside distractions to maintain focus on the iteration goals
• Capture metrics such as velocity, amount of bugs... in Azure Devops and use the empirical data to identify improvements
• Take care of the new resource onboarding, train them and get them ready to contribute to the iteration goals
• Participate in the community of practice for scrum masters and share best practices (e.g. growing a T-shaped team…)

• Gather requirements from several departments and propose solutions to meet the business needs
• Describe functional and non-functional requirements in (UML) deliverables such as context & scope diagram, use case diagrams and use cases, sequence flow diagrams, state diagrams, integration / API specifications, data lineage documents, canonical data model… to convey system requirements to the agile team
• Align with UX/UI designer on screen designs for web applications
• Collaborate with the test engineer, for example by identifying test scenarios and creating test cases for integration testing or regression testing, by providing test data, by executing test cases (e.g. testing an API via Postman, testing web applications via the front end)
• Coordinate E2E testing between various teams and user acceptance testing with business key users
• Present the solution to stakeholders during the bi-weekly system demo
• Participate in the community of practice for analysts

• Align with stakeholders (e.g. Colruyt Group, KU Leuven…) to determine a product roadmap and identify product backlog items
• Manage and order the product backlog in Jira to maximize value / to allow the agile team to focus on creating high value increments
• Refine features together with the agile team by slicing into concise user stories that fit within one sprint, by clarifying and adding details, estimates and acceptance criteria to the user stories
• Craft sprint goals together with the agile team and plan the sprint
• Facilitate the sprint review to show the increment to stakeholders, share the progress and update the backlog based on their feedback

Typical tasks and deliverables as an analyst were to:

• Analyze functional and non-functional system requirements and describe these in (UML) deliverables such as context & scope diagram, use case diagrams and use cases, state diagrams, class diagrams… to convey system requirements to the agile team
• Align with UX/UI designer on screen designs for the web application
• Support the test engineer, for example by identifying test scenarios, by reviewing test cases, by creating test data...
• Create documentation and train business users / key users
• Coordinate user acceptance testing with key users

• Coach and support test engineers in techniques for test case creation, test planning for different test levels…
• Optimize the methodology for system and system integration testing, E2E testing, user acceptance testing...
• Provide training in HP ALM as a test management tool

• Collaborate with program key users and other capabilities in the organization to align on business requirements

• Analyze functional and non-functional system requirements and describe these in different types of (UML) deliverables:

  • For MDM package implementation & mainframe applications:
    Context & scope diagram, use case diagrams and use cases, state diagrams, class diagrams, user interface designs
  • For web & batch services:
    Service specifications (REST & SOAP API), sequence flow diagrams
  • For integrations:
    Data lineage documents, data transformation rules
• Demo the solution to stakeholders in the course of the project to share progress and get feedback
• Support the testing team during system testing, system integration testing, E2E testing... For example by identifying test scenarios, by reviewing test cases, by creating test data, by executing test cases via the user interface or via Postman / SoapUI
• Coordinate user acceptance testing with key users
• Create training documentation, provide training to business users and roll-out the solution to different operating units
• Offer support to business users after go live and implement improvements
• Participate in the community of practice for analysts

• Analyze the as is process and document this in business process models
• Gather business requirements by aligning with key users from different production departments and determine the to be process
• Translate the business requirements into functional and non-functional system requirements
• Align with the MES package consultants on possibilities to meet the business needs
• Configure the MES package to support business processes
• Define master data for different processes, set up a costing system and create costing reports
• Identify test scenarios, create and execute test cases in HP ALM for system testing, E2E testing, regression testing...
• Demo the solution to stakeholders in the course of the project to share progress and get feedback
• Create permanent documentation and increase knowledge of coaches and key users through trainings
• Coordinate user acceptance testing with business key users
• Roll-out the solution, provide operational support after go live and implement improvements
• Participate in the community of practice for analysts

• Analyze the as is process and document this in business process models
• Gather business requirements by aligning with key users and determine the to be process
• Translate business requirements into functional and non-functional system requirements and describe these in (UML) deliverables such as context & scope diagram, use case diagrams and use cases, state diagrams, integration / API specifications…
• Align with the ERP package (CERM) consultants on possibilities to meet the business needs
• Configure the ERP system to support business processes
• Identify test scenarios, create and execute test cases in HP ALM for system testing, E2E testing, user acceptance testing...
• Create training documentation / troubleshooters and provide training to business users / 1st line support team
• Roll-out the solution, provide operational support after go live and implement improvements
• Manage ERP application upgrades, create and execute test scenarios to detect regression
• Create reports for operational performance indicators such as cycle time, throughput...

• Get an overview of the as is process is by modeling business processes and documenting work methods
• Identify bottlenecks and determine, together with stakeholders, solutions to these bottlenecks to reduce waste
• Define the to be process and facilitate the process change in the organization
• Introduce a number of quality management methodologies such as PDCA, ishikawa diagrams, root cause analysis...
• Determine and follow-up on performance indicators such as delivery on time in full, cost of non-quality...
• Perform 1st party process and department audits and facilitate 3rd party ISO 9001 audits

• Determine the most efficient production method and make tenders
• Technical preparation and follow-up of orders from creation to invoicing
• Manage the production planning for the digital printing department

• Coordination between design agencies, printing providers and direct mail suppliers for printed media
• Content management and SEO for online media such as website and online newsletters
• Optimize customer / prospect database and determine the target group for marketing campaigns
• Analyze and report about campaign results / return on investment

• In-house packaging design & follow-up of externally supplied artwork
• Coordination between internal operations, customers and suppliers including quality assurance during the printing process
• Safeguard that the packaging holds the right information in respect to legislation, technical specifications, corporate identity…