Indian Oil and Gas Canada (IOGC), a special operating agency under Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, is responsible for managing oil and gas resources on First Nations lands. A major part of that mandate includes managing royalties — from production tracking and data validation to compliance reviews and financial reconciliation.

IOGC’s existing royalty management processes were spread across disconnected systems, manual Excel sheets, and legacy data sources, making it difficult to:

• Track and manage the full lifecycle of royalty files and case assessments
• Enforce compliance through structured workflows
• Maintain accurate, auditable records
• Collaborate effectively across teams
• Support future scaling, automation, and reporting requirements

They needed a secure, scalable, and auditable system to modernize how royalty cases were managed, reviewed, and resolved — all within a Dynamics 365 framework that could evolve with their needs.

I was brought in as Scrum Master, Developer, and Functional Consultant, responsible for designing and delivering the Royalty Case Management System (RCMS) from the ground up — with the added goal of embedding Agile and DevOps processes into how the solution would be delivered and maintained.

Key parts of my approach included:

• Functional Consulting & Scoping: Led early project scoping and authored the Statement of Work (SoW), helping define timelines, user stories, technical scope, and estimates for the Dynamics-based solution
• Agile Delivery Leadership: Facilitated all Scrum ceremonies, coached the internal team and stakeholders on Agile best practices, and used Azure DevOps to establish structured Product Backlogs, Burndown Charts, and iterative delivery pipelines
• Architecture & DevOps Design: Designed and implemented a fully automated CI/CD lifecycle using Azure DevOps, integrating multiple services and ensuring structured deployments across dev, test, and production environments
• Solution Design & Development: Designed and configured complex case workflows within Dynamics 365 CE, incorporating logic for case assignment, escalation, financial reconciliation, and audit history. Created custom plugins, workflow automations (via Power Automate), and integrations with SQL Server and external reporting systems
• Training & Documentation: Authored technical documentation including the Admin Runbook, Train-the-Trainer Manual, and user-facing guides. Ensured IOGC had the tools to support, evolve, and sustain the system long after handoff

The Royalty Case Management System (RCMS) provided IOGC with a secure, transparent, and auditable platform for end-to-end royalty file handling.

The solution included:

• Structured Case Lifecycle Management: Intake, review, approval, and closure of royalty files — with tracking, escalation, and accountability throughout
• Integrated Financial Validation: Royalty amounts, production values, and interest charges managed directly within Dynamics 365 workflows and validated against external data sources
• Automated Workflows & Notifications: Task creation, alerts, and escalation routing via Power Automate
• Document Management: Integrated with SharePoint for secure document storage, retrieval, and tracking
• Custom Outlook Plugin: Allowing case details to be updated directly from user inboxes
• Agile DevOps Pipeline: Fully automated deployments, artifact versioning, and board-based work management through Azure DevOps
• Comprehensive Training Package: Including visual walkthroughs, system admin guides, testing scripts, and stakeholder presentations

While the Royalty Case Management System delivered real operational improvements, the true success of this project came from how we worked — not just what we built.

Midway through the larger project, cracks were forming. Misalignment between the technical team and the client created frustration and uncertainty. Requirements weren’t clear. Expectations weren’t always shared. Trust was at risk.

“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” ~Alan Greenspan

That’s where methodology mattered. We leaned into Agile practices, structured communication, and DevOps transparency to turn things around.

• Every sprint was mapped and visible in Azure DevOps
• Each backlog item was groomed with stakeholders in the room
• Workflows and design decisions were documented, validated, and refined
• Progress was no longer a mystery — it was a shared conversation

By being deliberate about shared understanding, we avoided what NASA faced during the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope: a $2 billion mirror built slightly off-spec, which took another $1 billion to correct in orbit — all because two teams never compared measurements.

We didn’t want our project to become a “Hubble moment.”

Instead, the team and client moved toward alignment, clarity, and trust. By the end of my tenure:

• IOGC had a working system that reflected their needs — and they understood how it worked
• Communication had shifted from reactive to proactive
• Teams were empowered by documentation, training, and repeatable delivery processes
• The client relationship was not only intact — it was stronger

We didn’t just solve that problem — we built the processes to keep solving it, sprint after sprint, together.

Need a project turnaround — or a system that matches the way your teams *really* work?

Let’s build a solution that brings clarity, collaboration, and lasting value.