Think Forth

Summary

CTO, independent consultant, and coach with over fifteen years experience with leading agile software development projects. Having a strong technical background covering almost everything from Oracle databases, programming, software architecture to networking, embedded systems, data security, e-commerce, and banking. One of a few managers in Czech Republic who is experimenting and exploring agile and project oriented management techniques and combining them with systemic coaching.

Experience

Independent Software development consultant

Last couple of years i have been doing consultancy work at various companies. I wanted to share my knowledge and work in different environments.

Present status:

CTO / Product Owner

Bitsafe.com

September 2018 – present • Prague, Czech Republic / Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Fully responsible for design and development of Bitsafe fintech project – an online banking application that provides personal banking accounts with IBAN. The service allows common banking operations, such as SEPA transfers, International wires, and support MasterCard payments cards for withdrawals and payments at merchants.

Deep understanding of banking operations, banking products, communication procedures and protocols (ISO20022, SWIFT, ISO8583).

Managing Director

TransVenture Software Development kft

September 2017 – present • Budapest, Hungary

Managing Director of a privately held outsourcing software development company.

Past Jobs:

Agile coach / Product Owner

AngelCam.com

March 2016 – August 2016  • Prague, Czech Republic

Contracted by a small yet cute start-up company to help them focus more on delivery of customer-oriented changes and improving communication between the development team and the business people. Changing roles based on the needs of the situation, currently being a product owner.

Agile coach

GoodData.com

November 2015 – December 2016 • Prague, Czech Republic

GoodData is the number one in the business intelligence area. I worked closely with the directory of the engineering and the scrummasters to find optimum performance, align business needs with the technical skills of the teams, and improve overal communication within the company.

Next to that, running internal workshops for scrummasters, product owners, and workshops about BDD and agile testing.

Agile coach / Data Security Consultant

DatingFactory

August 2014 – November 2015 • Doneck, Ukraine / Sofia, Bulgaria

Hired by one of the biggest dating white-label platforms to improve internal project management processes, communication, software development quality and prepare company for PCI (payment card industry) Level 1 security audit.

Skills: PCI compliance, BDD & TDD, agile, scrum, continuous integration, data security

CTO

Verotel Merchant Services

August 2004 – September 2015 • Prague, Czech Republic

Responsible for all technical operations at the e-commerce provider. CTO at well-known payment processing provider. Managing director of its daughter company Netsafe Solutions, based in Prague, Czech Republic. Facilitating the role of CSO (Chief Security Officer), PCI Level 1, cooperating with several acquiring banks (Wirecard, Payvision, Equens)

Created an environment of self-organized teams of software developers, continuously improving their skills and product by applying lean and cybernetic principles.

Skills: PCI compliance, test driven development, lean, agile, kanban, continuous integration, coaching of staff

IT and security consultant

September 2002 – August 2004 (2 years ) • Prague, Czech Republic

Running own IT consultancy office. Primary focus on the database administration, data model design, network security, and DDoS protection.

Skills: Oracle, Data security, Relational databases, Linux / Unix / network administration

Oracle DBA

Verza BV

August 2000 – August 2002 (2 years ) • Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Oracle DBA, fully responsible for management of the production databases of the payment system provider. Multi-master replica environment, Oracle RAC clusters.

Skills: Oracle administration, data model design, PL/SQL, Perl

C Software Developer

Datalink BV

August 1998 – August 2000 (2 years ) • Haarlem, The Netherlands

Programmer in C / embedded SQL / ODBC. Working on the project of resolving Y2K problem of a large EDI (electronic data interchange) system.

Skills: C, SQL, ODBC, Linux

Education

Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology

Small craft naval architecture and marine engineering

2007 – present

Educational program in small craft naval architecture and marine engineering. Active member of the Westlawn study group and RINA (The Royal Institute of Naval Architects)

Systemic Institute

Systemic coaching and management

2011 – 2012 (unfinished/interrupted)

training in management and systemic coaching of individuals, teams, and organizations.

SPŠST Panská 3, Prague

Telecommunication

1991 – 1995

Certification

Certified Scrum Master

Scrum Alliance

July 2009

Certified Product Owner

Scrum Alliance

August 2011

Agile Coaching Master Class

Scrum Alliance

July 2011

Lean Software Development

Tom and Mary Poppendieck

October 2011

Workshop about understanding lean principles and ideas behind lean and agile software development.

Specification by Example

Gojko Adzic

March 2014

Workshop on agile specification, user stories, and automated acceptance testing.

Kanban in action

Klaus Leopold

November 2012

Oracle 11g workshop

Oracle University

June 2010

Oracle APEX

Oracle University

June 2009

Oracle DBA / PL/SQL / HP Unix

Oracle Czech

1995

Personal profile

I am a solution oriented person, using lean principles for continuous improvement of products, services, and work processes in organizations. As I worked on projects I have identified number good and bad patterns that are common to the software development process. I have been always  trying to emphasize the good processes within the teams and find solutions to the problematic ones. As many problems were quite often present in communication between the business and software people I have focused on that area, bridging this communication gap and later making people more competent to carry out proper communication by themselves.

Hobbies

Boat building

I am a semi-amateur boat builder. Using the lean and project oriented work management made it possible for me to build several boats, from award winning composite seakayaks to 18m long alive-aboard barge.

Embedded devices

I am also a big fan of hardware design and software  development for embedded devices, especially in the area of electronic musical instruments. If you are interested, check my life-time project Electra MIDI Controller.