Thoughts, Ideas, and Musings

Quality by Being Careful

Tuesday, 25 September 2012 - 15:10

There seems to be a de-facto mentality throughout the industry within organizations that lack an established strategy to achieve and maintain quality. I call it quality by being careful and it is the simplistic comprehension that you can achieve quality and reduce defects simply by being careful enough. My concern is not that people use it as a principle, but rather that people use it as a base for the assumptions that guide their choice of process strategies. Although there is clear value in being mindful about your code, I will argue that this mentality in its pure form is incomplete, doesn’t scale, and can be downright counterproductive in the context of legacy systems or projects where inferior test coverage and lacking requirements is the norm.

The Evaluation of My Software Sabbatical

Tuesday, 14 August 2012 - 23:43

Inspired by Stefan Sagmesiter, Rick Hickey and Richard Hamming, I decided to try a software sabbatical and devote one full month of unpaid leave to simply ponder on the wider puzzles of our software industry. Even though the practical results were meager, it gave me an opportunity to concretize some of my visions and I learned a lot about my own needs for creativity. This article will be a summary of this way too short journey, along with some thoughts on the process of innovation itself and what attitude we should have towards it.

Software Sabbatical

Monday, 11 June 2012 - 14:07

Starting today, I’m taking one month of unpaid leave to do some studying, experimentation and personal research. The plan is to take a step back from the constraints of corporate software development and dedicate this one month to concentrate fully on the problems I’m passionate about. It will be a lifestyle experiment as well as an opportunity to learn new things.

Professional experience

Inera Test & utveckling ABTechnical Tester

Feb 2022 - ongoing

Contracted as a Technical Tester to help them test, verify, and evaluate public services related to the digitization of Swedish healthcare. I was also responsible for testing and quality assurance on the final stages of the development of the official Swedish framework for secure digital communication (SDK), but the main focus has been on developing the internal infrastructure and tools that enables secure and distributed load/performance testing of PKI/IAM.

TietoevrySoftware Developer

Feb 2019 - Jul 2021

Contracted to help them develop, automate and maintain test frameworks for the evaluation and certification of 3rd party provided hardware, to be used in a Software-Defined Infrastructure product in the context of large-scale data centers. I also focused on infrastructure and the team's CI solutions.

Comordo TechnologiesSoftware Developer

Feb 2017 - Feb 2019

Contracted on a variable basis in a startup environment to help them with product development and setting up internal routines for revision control, testing and continuous deployment with focus on stability and scalability. Comordo was specialized in the analytics and processing of large data sets for development and tuning of their recommendation systems, and I developed the infrastructure for their computing pipeline.

JeppesenSoftware Developer

Oct 2015 - Nov 2016

Contracted as an additional C++ developer in their platform team, helping them develop database/ORM middleware for their crew rostering optimization solutions.

Saab DynamicsSoftware Developer

Sep 2014 - Mar 2015

Contracted to help them implement and evaluate a proof-of-concept feature in a larger system as part of a feasibility study. I also worked as an advisor in regards of build systems and revision control, and helped them with setup and education of new tools and routines.

Saab DynamicsSoftware Developer

Nov 2013 - Mar 2014

Contracted to help them improve their software development processes in terms of revision control, documentation and automation with focus on long-term cost reduction and quality sustainability. Most of the development has been in the context of HMI frameworks.

Saab DynamicsSoftware Developer

Dec 2012 - May 2013

Contracted as an additional resource in the final stages of a project to help them port legacy HMI system to a new platform. Key factor for success was to dive into legacy code and get productive fast.

Opera SoftwareSystems Engineer

Jan 2009 - Oct 2012

As a developer on the Opera Mini team, I have thorough experience developing mobile software integrated on a multitude of platforms with high constraints on footprint, performance and usability. I was mostly developing frameworks for UI and testing, and as part of a very international environment where personal initiative and commitment was required and expected, I have learned from and been surrounded by extremely talented people from most parts of the world.

ENEA ServicesSystems Engineer / Consultant

Jan 2008 - Mar 2009

Software development consultant for various customers, mostly related to IMS and Connected Home. Assignments included software development and occasionally preparing educational material, but most work was related to managing build systems and porting projects to new hardware platforms.

University of UmeåAssistant Lecturer

Jun 2005 - Jun 2007 (25%)

My responsibilities included tutoring, supervising and grading student papers and conducting occasional lectures and group exercises. Courses covered Java programming, systems programming in C, operating systems, communication and network.

Formal Education

ENEA ServicesEmbedded Linux

2008

A 2-day course in device driver development and embedded Linux systems.

University of UmeåM.Sc. Computing Science and Engineering

Aug 2003 - Dec 2007

My Master's thesis covered Structured Data Extraction.

Swedish Armed ForcesSystem technician / Sergeant

Jan 2002 - Mar 2003

Swedish conscription service. Basic military training, leadership and telecommunication.