PORTFOLIO

M.B.

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Hi, I am M.B. and this is my non-pretentious portfolio.

Ethics

Doing ethical work has become very important to me.

I built my first website in 1995. When I graduated from Computer Science a decade later, I swore an oath to only build technology for the good of mankind. Working for Big Tech in the following half-decade opened my eyes to what it's like to develop software for the good of the shareholders.

The silver lining was the valuable experience of working at CMMI-L5 organizations. I brought that with me to medium and small corporations in the years after that - trying to help them build a solid foundation to grow on. However, most of them seemed more interested in following the bad traits of Big Tech: money above everything, loads of technical debt, office politics over employee retention, etc. Having minored in Business Management, I experimented with startups and entrepreneurship - until 2020 messed everything up.

I considered myself lucky to find a full-time position, despite the grim climate, in an organization that was doing the right thing. Over time, I discovered that the workplace culture is not a good fit for me, and (along with other reasons) I am now looking for a change. Striving to stay true to my graduation oath, I'm seeking ethically-conscious organizations whose values align with mine.

Roles, Tech and Skills

Here is a bit of what I've done throughout my career (in order of what I find the most interesting and would like to do again):

  • Software Quality
    • Quality Assurance (Audits, Planning)
    • Quality Control (Management, Development, Execution)
    • Process Assessment and Improvement (CMMI, ISO/IEC 11207, ISO 9001)
    • Quality certifications (expired): CSTE, ISTQB
  • Data
    • Data Integration (ETL, Talend, Zapier)
    • Data Architecture
    • Data Modeling and Design
    • Data Governance
    • Data Management Maturity Assessment and Improvement using SEI's DMMM
    • Duplicate Management
  • Project Management
    • Managing teams of 2-15 people spread across multiple timezones
    • Multiple SDLCs (Waterfall, Agile, V-Model, TSP)
    • Writing SOWs (Statement of Work) and Project Plans
    • Risk Management using RAIDs (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies)
    • Meeting facilitation (saving several hours of staff by keeping meetings short and on-track)
    • Planning, estimation and team scheduling using WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and Gantt Charts
  • Maintenance and Support Management
    • L3 Support Management (global teams spread across all timezones worldwide)
    • Requirements and Change Request Management
    • Issue Management
  • Engineering
    • Architecture
    • Design (UML)
    • Requirements Analysis (Eliciting, Recording, Analising)
    • Requirements Management (building and maintaining RTMs - Requirements Traceability Matrix)
  • Development
    • PHP (Wordpress plugins)
    • Databases (DB design, Writing queries in MySQL, MS SQL Server and Oracle)
    • Java web apps (J2EE, Apache Struts, Tomcat, Weblogic, JBOSS - yes, I know these are ancient!)
    • Website building (HTML, CSS, Wordpress plugins)
    • Having a degree in CS qualifies me to create new languages and technologies. Therefore, learning new ones is usually a piece of cake.
  • Web / E-Commerce
    • Build and setup Wordpress e-commerce sites (including WooCommerce and other plugins)
    • Build static sites (HTML, CSS, JS-Free like this one)
    • E-commerce product management
  • Business Management

    Roles taken in small businesses and startups:

    • COO: program management (2-3 concurrent projects)
    • CMO: networking, event organizing and hosting
    • CHRO: recruiting, hiring, managing contracts
    • CFO: liason with accountant, contract negotiation with clients

Interests

IT Areas

Besides the stuff I've already worked with, here are some other IT areas I'm interested in

  • Privacy
  • AI (ethically-trained only)
  • Security

Industries

I've worked in a lot of industries, but now I'm seeking to contribute to the ones that specifically align with my values, such as

  • Data Sovereignty
  • Other Sovereignty (including Financial, Communications, Food, Business, Transportation)
  • Computer Freedom (Right to Repair, FOSS, Open-Source Hardware)
  • Natural and Sustainability (specifically: natural foods, pollution prevention and removal, natural household products and cosmetics, ethical fashion, circular economy)
  • Independent Publishing
  • Astronomy

Workplace Culture

In the Competing Values Framework, my ideal culture is a mix of Bureaucratic and Entrepreneurial - a place where there is structure, but it lends itself to flexibility, creativity and innovation. I love the quote from the ISO 9001 manual: the process should work for the people, not the people work for the process. See the Details below of what my ideal workplace culture looks like.

Details
  • Slow-Tech: I am only willing to work with Linux/Unix and other non-Big Tech tools.
  • Scheduling: I highly value the ability to define my own working hours and days (for example, take a few hours or a day off if I feel I'm not being productive).
  • Clarity: I am only able to work in a culture where there are clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
  • Workload: I want to be given deadlines that are proportional to the workload to which I am assigned.
  • Advisory: I'd like to work in an environment where my technical advice is valued, heard and acted upon.
  • Collaboration: I enjoy a culture where departments work together, where problem investigation focuses on root cause and resolution, and where occasional mistakes are forgiven.
  • Engagement: I value leaders who ask for my opinion on how to improve my own productivity.
  • Compensation: I don't mind being on call occasionally, or working overtime occasionally, if I am properly compensated (financially) for it.
  • Quality: I get motivated by leadership who understands that investing in quality does bring profit.
  • Performance: I like the idea of setting my own KPIs, while also being accountable for them.
  • Knowledge Sharing: I prefer to work in an organization where information (about how to perform the work, but also about the software/project itself) is documented, shared and maintained.
  • Technical Leaders: I find that it is always easier to be managed by someone who has previous technical experience in doing the work that I am doing.

Logistics

If any of the above resonates with you, or you know an organization that fits the above, I'd love to hear from you.
Details of my availability (in order of preference)

Location
  • Remote (US EST 8AM-7PM)
  • Hybrid (Niagara Region only, on-location up to 2x/week)
  • Full on-location (Niagara Region only)
Hours
  • Part-time (20h/week)
  • Relaxed full-time (30-35h/week)
Structure
  • Contract
  • Employee
  • Existing business acquisition

Contact

Here's how to contact me

  1. Talk to me in person!
  2. email: mb.works71 [at] protonmail [dot] com
  3. Simplex: chat link
  4. Signal link upon request