Object Orientation holds great promise--but also great challenges. Many organizations have adopted OO for its promise of greater maintainability and reusability of code. But these promises often fall flat. Instead of productivity gains, companies often find just the opposite, leading to unhappy clients and frustrated managers and developers. If your organization can benefit from a skilled OO software architect, I invite you to contact me. Getting started is often the hardest part of a project -- and the most crucial. Whether your organization's need is for the rearchitecture of an existing application, the blueprint for a new application, or a mentoring situation to teach specific OO skills for your development team, I can help. To explore how onsite consulting can propel your organization to success, contact me.

Can I Help?

An expert consultant can provide valuable insight and expertise not available within the organization. An outside consultant, drawing on their broad experience coupled with indepth specialized knowledge can jumpstart an organization's own capabilities. This help occurs in four areas:

1. Identify the Problem:
   "Developers working alone are being asked to do what they are neither skilled in nor passionate about. As a result, the overall level of development is mediocre."
   "The lack of a robust domain model is inhibiting your ability to more quickly add new applications or add features to existing ones."
   "There is not an effective library system in place that that promotes reuse."
   "The database is being underutilized, causing foundational logic to be rewritten in separate applications."
   Often organizations are dissatisfied with the results of their development efforts, but are unclear on what the exact problem. An experienced consultant can quickly get to the heart of the issues that are constraints on success.


2. Identify the Cause: Once problems have been identified, a seasoned consultant can be instrumental in finding the root causes. Too often, management is frustrated with developers; developers are frustrated with management and clients. Each complains about the other and both suffer as a result of failing to identify the real cause. As Edwards Deming, the consultant most associated with teaching quality to the Japanese, discovered years ago, recurring problems are always systemic ones. No amount of "motivational" programs or "cracking the whip" can fix such problems. The problem is neither the developers nor the managers. Rather a system will produce exactly the outcome it was designed for. The problem is that even the most well-meaning of teams often produce systems have unknowingly been designed to produce failure. The problems may lie in a lack of an effective process for getting the most out of developers' skills. One of the most common causes for failure is lack of expertise in discovering what end users -- the ultimate judges of success -- really want. An insightful consultant can pinpoint the problems that those involved in the system are too close to see.


3. Identify the Solution: Admittedly, identifying problems and causes is delicate work. Positions have been staked, feelings are involved. The skilled consultant helps his/her client move beyond these necessary steps to the productive work of building a system designed for success -- one in which all stakeholders' needs are met. A knowledgeable consultant can save you the cost and frustration of reinventing known solutions. This may involve implementing better development processes, the adoption of tools and techniques best suited to the development environment, training for developers, assistance with the architecture of a particular application or components of an application.


4. Implement the Solution: Perhaps the area in which consultants most often fail is in real-world implementations. Identifying problems and solutions is imperative, but insufficient. Likewise, training in the broad principles alone of object orientation seldom delivers the kind of help that transforms organizations into models of success. Successful OO development requires an integrated approach -- and the expertise to implement such as system. One of the greatest values a qualified consultant offers is the savings of time, money, and frustration that often accompany the move to OO. If, as many do, your organization struggles to overcome these issues, let me help. Working together, we will put together a plan for ensuring your company's successful adoption of object orientation. If you're frustrated with your present development efforts and feel there must be a better way, you're right. Contact me and let the consultant who helped such companies as eBay Motors, IBM, UPS, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, RegionsBank, Rooms To Go, and Fox Entertainment help you.

Companies I’ve Helped