I am a fulltime independent consultant and I am available to engage remotely or on-site anywhere in the world. My experience extends from small ISV startups to multi-national Fortune 500s and I enjoy engaging with clients that are anywhere on that spectrum.
The following is a sample of the services I provide to clients:
Software Development Process Improvement
- Coaching for Agile process evaluation, adoption or improvement, including Scrum, Lean, Kanban and Extreme Programming (XP)
- Definition, refinement and documentation of team processes and practices
- Definition of Quality Assurance and Quality Control standards
- Integration of defect tracking systems with other tools and processes
- Engagement with customers and requirements elicitation
Software Development Team Management
- Job Description authoring
- Salary range and benefits package definition
- New candidate acquisition and screening
- Team workspace design and office space evaluation
- Skills assessment of existing resources
- Collaboration strategies for teams
Vendor Management
- New vendor discovery and screening
- Vendor proposal reviews
- Offshore vendor management, including onsite visits and reviews
- One throat to choke multiple vendor management
Software Configuration Management (SCM)
- Introduction of an SCM system to teams not already using one (Subversion, Git, CVS etc)
- Subversion and CVS training
- Subversion and CVS server installation and configuration
- SCM process definition and documentation, including branching and merging processes
- SCM system migration, particularly CVS to Subversion
Build Management
- Implementation of Apache Maven and Apache Ant based build systems
- Automation of builds, particularly in relation to a Continuous Integration system like CruiseControl or Hudson
- Management and versioning of produced code artifacts, particularly in relation to an Artifact Repository like Nexus or Artifactory
- Release numbering strategies and Alpha and Beta customer release programs
Software Architecture & Design
- Enterprise-level system architecture definition, existing architecture reviews
- New database design and existing database design review
- Formal UML based architecture definition
Enterprise Java Development
- Specialist in full-stack JavaEE development
- Public API design and documentation for ISVs
- Web service development and integration
- Code reviews and performance tuning
- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) design and implementation
Web Development
- HTML, JavaScript and CSS development
- Integration of AJAX style JavaScript libraries including GWT, JQuery and ExtJS
- Integration of Adobe Flash and Flex components
Automated Testing Strategies
- Introduction of tools like JUnit and Sellenium to teams that currently do not do any automated testing
- Integration of tests into automated build scripts and generation of metrics
- Static analysis of codebase quality
Mobile Development
- iPhone application design and development, specializing in integration to JavaEE based back ends
- Web based mobile development
Social Media Strategy
- Specializing in small to medium business that do not have dedicated in house Social Media resources
- Evaluation of current Social Media presence
- Recommendations for Social Media platforms based on particular business needs and goals
- Evaluation of Location based services in relation to business needs and goals
To discuss your needs and the possibility of engaging with me, please contact me on +1.650.336.5877, however please keep in mind that I am usually onsite with clients during regular working hours, so I will return your call at the earliest possible moment. Alternatively, consider sending an email to craig AT craigsdickson.com, or simply use this Contact Me form, either of which will give me the possibility of responding after hours.
