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 systems, rich web applications, e-commerce platforms and embedded software, most often based in the Java ecosystem (see my résumé for more details).

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.

I'm an avid writer and I'll publish an occasional blogpost about what's on my mind.

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've got a family with a wife, two kids (boy aged 4, girl aged 8), and two cats, all in a house south of Bonn, which is south of Cologne in the mid-west of Germany. Originally a half-Irish Norwegian, I'm living here since 2009.