Bio
In short, I'm a Christian, a very proud father of three and a software developer. About work more specifically, I manage the software development operations at Allure Global Solutions. All the teams follow an agile development process and about half of the developers follow eXtreme Programming. I'm also excited to be the Sunday School Director at Atlanta Street Baptist Church.
I was previously employed by Internet Security Systems in Atlanta where I worked on assorted security management applications. The Common Policy Editor (CPE) was my favorite project there and the one I'm most proud of. The CPE is a really cool data-driven policy editor. It infers and renders a nice GUI from an XML schema. It can produce a nice GUI for editing any xml document given a schema and a properties file for externalized strings. I was responsible for the heart, head and belly of this project: I developed the corporate vision and strategy for this new product, sold the company on the idea, gathered requirements and handled the day-to-day project management and the development of people. In eXtreme Programming (XP) parlance, I was the Customer and Coach for this project. I also strongly influenced code design and quality.
Before ISS, I did a 10-year stint at IBM in Research Triangle Park (NC) as a programmer, manager and a Product Line Manager. I spent most of that time in the networking hardware division building data comm equipment, routers, and network management software. Just before leaving IBM, I spent a little time working on VisualAge TeamConnection.
My experience at IBM is surprisingly diverse. I've been involved with five culturally and behaviorally different organizations – They are literally as different as separate companies. They used different programming languages, processes, practices, and management styles. Here is a brief overview of those projects, from 1989 through 1999:
• Multi-processor microcode development for a communications controller: Hundreds of developers. Very much a Fred Brooks style surgical team with workbooks, formal inspections and all. Used many best practices. Experienced schedule slips from time to time. Culturally, what you would expect in IBM in the '80s.
• Router protocol software development: Culturally very different than the previous organization. Started out as a much smaller group. Each team used a different process, which usually amounted to a little informal design then straight to code, sometimes including a formal functional spec. We had schedule slips all the time. And much higher schedule pressure. It is not clear which was the cause and which was the effect. I believe they fed on each other.
• GUI router configuration tool software development: A single department of up to 23 engineers supporting different tools for several routers. Lots of common code. This was a critical-path project with excessive schedule pressure. The process was iterative and this team produced consistent, high-quality code due to the strong team-lead and an architect with excellent design skills. I managed this team.
• Network management software development: probably around 50 engineers. Cross-platform. Similar in many ways to life at ISS.
• Source-code management system software development: This project was largely in maintenance mode – only a few new features were being developed. The team used several best practices.
My experience in retail came through many years of working with my father at his service station and occasionally keeping that business' books.
Although I grew up in Smyrna, Georgia, I consider Union Springs, Alabama my home-town. I spent lots of time just south of Union Springs on my parent's tree farm. My ancestors have held this property in a little community called Sardis since the area was settled in the 1800's. I'm quite proud of it.
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A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week. -- General George Patton |
If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. -- King Solomon |