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Summary

Steve is a veteran software developer, experienced and comfortable in a variety of roles, from hands-on development in Java and Ruby on Rails to managing an entire development team. Steve is an accomplished mentor, with deep experience in applying agile development practices in a variety of environments.

Founder, Cogent Consulting Pty Ltd

May 2006 – now

You can find more about Cogent Consulting on the rest of the site, but the short version is that we develop software in Ruby on Rails, and provide consulting in agile development implementation and practices. We’re focussed on hiring the best people we can find, operating in a financially transparent way, and sharing as much of the profit as we can. We strive to be technically, financially, and operationally enlightened!

  • Initial design of a flexible, configurable workflow management system, using a rules engine for defining accessibility (Ruby and Java)
  • Three month assignment in Bangalore, supporting adoption of agile practices on a global project for Goldman Sachs (Java)
  • Technical lead on prototype of business search with social networking aspects (Ruby on Rails)
  • Technical lead on a major website integration project, based on directory services (Ruby on Rails)
  • Author of technical columns on Ruby for Builder.com

General Manager, Software Development, Internet Business Systems

May 2004 – April 2006

After working with IBS to manage the introduction of agile development practices, I took on the role of General Manager of Software Development,with with responsibility for all aspects of software development, including hiring. In the two years I was with IBS the company grew from 12 staff to over 60, and my direct reports grew from 8 to over 40. We successfully deployed agile techniques over a number of different projects.

  • Ongoing implementation and review of agile practices
  • Configuration and extension of continuous integration environment
  • Preparation of technical estimates for new projects
  • Mentoring in Java coding practices
  • Hiring, staff reviews and general management

Consultant, Khatovar Technology

August 2001 – April 2004

Returned from New York to increase awareness and use of agile development methods in Australia. This involved:

  • Many presentations to companies and software user groups
  • Partnering with Object Training, Software Engineering Australia and Software Education on agile training
  • Regular participation in the Software Engineering Agile Software Development conference
  • Working with Torus Games on their first agile development project
  • Transitioning Internet Business Systems to an agile development process
  • Providing test driven development training to Suncorp developers, and agile overviews to other Suncorp staff
  • Collaborating with Opcom staff, via training and consulting, to help Opcom establish agile development practices
  • Introducing agile development to University of Southern Queensland staff in a 3 day workshop
  • Consulting to a variety of other small companies and government departments, including Agentis, ATSIC, Eagle Datamation International, Insfin, Signature Software, and 80-20 Software.
  • Jointly founding the Melbourne XP Enthusiasts Group

Vice President, Global Credit Technology, Goldman, Sachs and Co.

June 1999 – February 2001

This position was responsible for the maintenance and extension of systems monitoring Goldman Sachs’ credit exposure. Information was drawn from over 200 upstream feeds and massaged into a consistent format for reporting. Credit professionals had access to a range of reporting tools, many of which were supplied by my group.

My major achievement was introducing XP practices and firmly establishing their use for new development. The maintenance of existing systems was outsourced so that the in-house team could focus on new development using XP. Prior to this experience XP had been something of an intellectual exercise for me – the practices seemed reasonable given my experience, but I hadn’t seen a real XP project in action. My experience at Goldman removed any lingering doubts. There were obvious improvements in our productivity and the quality of the software we produced after we switched to XP. The experience was so positive that one of the constraints on my replacement was that they keep XP in place.

Project Manager, Integral Development Corporation

November 1996 – June 1999

Hands-on project manager/architect responsible for all aspects of system design, implementation and delivery for a major financial framework provider. Expertise in object-oriented analysis, design and programming (both Smalltalk and Java), front office capital markets analytics, and risk management reporting.

  • Provided project management and technical leadership for a 10-person emerging market bonds development project at JP Morgan (New York).
    • Covered emerging market bond options (including baskets) and all hedging instruments.
    • Included front and back office functionality for both New York and London offices, including trade capture, risk management, workflow, accounting and interfaces to existing systems.
    • Fully responsible for the object-oriented architecture and for development of key components using VisualWorks Smalltalk and Sybase under Windows NT.
    • Worked closely with the business to interpret financial requirements.
    • Mentored team members in both software development and finance.
    • Integrated JPM curve building and pricing analytics.
    • Provided detailed progress reporting to Integral and JPM management.
    • Managed both Integral and JPM staff.
  • Project manager of core framework development for application infrastructure, finance and persistence (Palo Alto). Responsible for project planning and delivery, quality assurance and mentoring. Implementation depended on Smalltalk, Sybase, MS SQL and CORBA. Mentored staff in object-oriented development and design patterns.
  • Implemented system to provide aggregated risk management reporting and auditing for spreadsheet-based trades, using Smalltalk, Excel, MS SQL and DDE
  • Developed and presented customer training material for the Java version of the framework. Constructed working examples of three-tier applications using the new framework, using JHTML, servlets, BEA WebLogic Server, Enterprise JavaBeans and TopLink object/relational mapping

Consultant, Khatovar Technology

October 1995 – November 1996

Formed a small company to provide Smalltalk and object-oriented consulting services in Australia. Assignments included:
  • Management of internal training at Footprint Software Pty. Ltd (Sydney)
  • Mentoring and quality assurance in a large (25 developer) Smalltalk retail banking project
  • Development of an in-house Smalltalk testing framework
  • Project planning and estimation
  • Delivery of Smalltalk and object-oriented analysis and design training in Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and Bangkok.

Development Manager (Asia Pacific), Footprint Software

April 1994 – October 1995

Footprint was the supplier of Visual Banker, a framework for the development of retail banking applications. As the first Australian employee I was heavily involved in growing the team and maintaining customer satisfaction. Footprint is now a subsidiary of IBM Canada.

  • Developed and implemented new business model for Visual Banker.
  • Implemented successful pilot project for Thai Farmers Bank (Bangkok).
  • Technical lead on 15-person project to develop a loan presentation and application system for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Most of the developers on the project were new to object orientation, so there were extensive mentoring responsibilities in addition to development tasks. Staff members were drawn from Footprint, IBM and CBA.

Project Manager, Funds Management Division, Bankers Trust Australia Limited

December 1992 – April 1994

Managed the first BTAL object-oriented (Smalltalk) project. This was also a pilot of the BTAL client-server architecture. Provide settlement management for foreign exchange hedging transactions. Development was in Smalltalk/V on Windows 3.1 and Cobol on VAX/VMS with a Sybase relational database.

Software Architect, Bankers Trust Australia Limited

October 1991 – December 1992

Provided internal advice in project management, quality assurance and structured analysis and design techniques.

Consultant, Bankers Trust Company (London and New York)

March 1990 – September 1991

Designed and implemented a derivative products system used in the BT Co. trading rooms in New York and London. This included trade capture and risk management reporting for fx and interest rate options.

Mathematician/Programmer, Bankers Trust Australia Limited

July 1987 – March 1990

Was the first developer hired for the Bankers Trust Australia derivatives product team. The team grew to six people under my technical leadership.

  • Designed and implemented the BTAL derivatives product trading systems for fx options and caps/floors.
  • Implemented financial mathematics libraries for interest rate calculations in Fortran.
  • Converted BTCo pricing libraries from Pascal to Fortran.
  • Modified BTCo yield curve generation to use Australian market instruments.
  • Performed analysis and design of trade capture and risk management reporting using COBOL and DEC/Intact under VMS.

Programmer/Analyst, Shell Australia

January 1985 – July 1987

After university I entered Shell Australia as a programmer, supporting the Retail division. I worked with service station automation, credit card processing and pricing support. In 1986 I was one of the supervisors for the graduate training program.

Later in 1986 I transferred to the Electronic Retailing unit of the Retail division, becoming a member of my previous customer group! In Electronic Retailing I was responsible for coordinating Shell’s EFTPOS pilot and the subsequent installation of one thousand EFTPOS terminals in Shell service stations.