Industry Experience
In this role, I develop and/or review solution architecture. The core responsibility is to ensure that the set the technologies and tools selected match the projects constraints and can be delivered within the resource and budget available. The project portfolio is very diverse but the focus is on medium-large scale software systems (in terms of user volume).
I continued as a consultant at Thomson Reuters after the acquisition of cvMail (where I was the IT Director). In this role I collaborated in the development of the short-term and long-term technology strategy, provided advise on software architecture, project management, and hiring of new staff. I also lead the technology review of another division within the organisation and developed a short-term roadmap. Another key contribution during my time was the development of the business case, high-level requirements, interaction model and the solution architecture for the next generation product line (development was in .NET)
I started work with cvMail as a technology consultant, moving on to help in solution architecture and eventually joined them as their IT Director. The key accomplishments in this role were (i) successful merger with Thomson Reuters, (ii) leading the development of the next generation of the flag-ship product line, (iii) Reorganised the software development methods around agile practices, (iv) Improved the product operations and support practices by automating routine tasks and introduced metrics for tracking and improving the processes, and (v) Helped refocus a project that was outsourced.
I helped improve the solution architecture (focus was on performance and user interaction consistency). I also work with the development manager assisting in refining the software development methods used in the construction of a large J2EE based web application. The new development model introduced a number of agile practices.
I was responsible for general contract negotiations, staffing, and IT budget and staffing in this role. I was assisted by full-time development manager and technical leads allowing me to work part-time.
Apart from the standard technical role (strategy, development, and architecture) I was also responsible for some aspects of running the business including negotiating business deals, working with lawyers to finalise the contracts and managing project financials. I sold the company in late 2004 to focus on pursuing a PhD.
I provided management consulting and training for staff in local governments. The project was funded by United Nations Education program and involved working with people from a number of different cities in China.
The primary focus of my role was to help clients make effective use of ORM (TopLink Object Relational Mapping Toolkit) and J2EE Development tools from Webgain. I was based in US and traveled into many countries (Canada, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia) working with the sales team during the final negotiations and collaborated on developing the client-specific training programs. I also helped the clients define/refine the workflow of the developers to ensure the new tools were used effectively. A secondary aspect in this role was to provide regular feedback from clients to the product managers and software architects to tune the features in pipeline for next release.
I had line-management and budget responsibilities in this role.
The project involved building a J2EE based web application that allowed clients to design and place a work order for packages (e.g. corrugated boxes, food containers and cans) that Amcor produced.
This project involved developing a solution that involved:
- Building algorithms that determined the least amount of raw material to build a package,
- Identifying strategies and then developing software to determine the most efficient way to ship the packages, and
- Finding simple, yet effective test strategies to verify correctness of the solution.
The designed and developed one of the first push-technology clients (early-generation RSS feed readers) in Australia.
I worked on two key projects. The first one was a B2B e-Commerce solution, the second was Telstra Message Bank.
I worked on software that monitored and controlled the PC and Server manufacturing processes. I developed a natural language query interface for the reporting engine -- this system allowed managers to obtain much more information about the current status of the process without learning SQL.
