Dr. Kevin Thompson received his B.S. in Physics from Santa Clara University and his Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University. During and after his years at Princeton, he conducted research at both Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA Ames Research Center’s Space Sciences Division, focusing primarily on astrophysics and computational fluid dynamics.
The Transition to Software & Agile
After his career in science, Dr. Thompson transitioned into software engineering, where he worked for a variety of companies before moving into software project management as PMO Manager for StarCite. There he discovered firsthand that traditional project-planning approaches, when applied to software development, often produced schedules that were more aspiration than reality.
When the company’s COO announced the need for a more Agile approach to software development, Dr. Thompson pioneered the adoption of Scrum and served as Scrum Master for three concurrent engineering teams. The results were striking: visibility into development status improved dramatically, and project slippages became visible early enough for teams to respond effectively.
After layoffs affected the company in 2008, Dr. Thompson deepened his focus on Agile methods and earned certifications as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute, as well as Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) certifications from the Scrum Alliance.
Expanding Agile Horizons
Dr. Thompson later became Chief Scientist at Cprime, an Agile consulting and training company, where he joined as the company’s first in-house Agile expert. His role was to provide the expertise and content that enabled the company’s expansion into Agile consulting and training.
Over the years, Dr. Thompson developed numerous classes covering practical Scrum for both software and hardware development, Kanban, Agile Program Management, Agile Portfolio Management, Advanced Product Owner, and PMI Agile Certified Practitioner exam preparation. In addition to developing training materials, he authored case studies, white papers, and blog articles, while also delivering consulting and training engagements to a wide range of clients.
In 2019, Dr. Thompson left Cprime to pursue independent consulting focused on improving execution and product development in complex hardware and software engineering organizations.