About

I've been developing software professionally since 2004, working with a great variety of technologies, in small and large companies, early on as a consultant and later as a full timer.

As a an engineer, I've worked on publishing systems, ad-tech, ad-blockers, enterprise integration, rich web applications, e-commerce platforms and embedded software, most often based in the Java ecosystem. In later years I've switched to developing backend systems with Go.

I care deeply about how team members collaborate, and to that end I've practiced test-driven development and pair-programming as well as async code-review. I've worked a fair bit on continuous integration, build infrastructure and test automation. A particular passion of mine has been version control and Git in particular. I established the first and longest running Git podcast. 

In later years, I've ventured into coaching and organizational development. I occasionally swing between roles to keep a balanced skill-set, and I pride myself in being a good communicator and bridge builder between the business and tech side of things whenever there is a gap. Self-organizing, cross-functional teams with high-trust cultures are the best foundation for great outcomes.

On that note, I got interested in XP and agile methods early on. I'm a fan of, and well-versed in Scrum, Lean and DevOps literature, and I contributed back to that community through organizing meetups. I've worked in distributed teams, already years before COVID-19, where I learned and found new effective ways to practice agile ways of working remotely. 

While I don't get on the stage as often as I used to, I do enjoy presenting and speaking internally and in public.

On the private side, I'm living with my family in the mid-west of Germany since 2009.