Dr. Dobb's | Developer Diaries

Developer Diaries

Profiles of programmers, descriptions of developers.

November 06, 2007
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/developer-diaries/202802991

A Life Outside of Work

Win Heagy

Employer: MITRE Corporation

Job: Lead software systems engineer and project team manager

DDJ: Where do you work?

WH: I work at MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, one of three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers managed by MITRE. The MITRE Corporation is a not-for-profit organization chartered to work solely in the public interest.

DDJ: What do you do there?

WH: I'm a lead software systems engineer and project team manager. I work with a team that develops air-traffic management systems (concepts, requirements, and prototypes) for the FAA and other aviation organizations.

DDJ: What do you like about your job?

WH: MITRE is a great place to work. The projects are interesting, challenging, and often unique. The work environment is friendly and flexible, so it makes having a life outside of work possible.

DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job?

WH: The work we do is mostly in areas that have not been researched before. The projects often involve future safety-critical systems, so that provides extra incentive to do good work. Every project offers the opportunity to learn something new.

DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier?

WH: Without a doubt, the people at MITRE. We have an unusual mix of talent and some of the best people in the industry. I can always find the expertise here to address any problem. The teams I work with always make me look good.

Kenneth's List

Kenneth Kasajian

Employer: Wonderware/Invensys

Job: Director, Platform Development

DDJ: What do you like best about your job?

KK: That my job allows me to be innovative with regard to software development practices in an environment that's highly pragmatic and business focused. We're in an environment where no one has to negotiate whether we should use the best tools that money can buy, where managers are incentivized to take calculated risks and push the envelope on what can be achieved, and not settle for second-best at any level. We have a lot of programmers and testers. It's a constant challenge to ensure that we get the best ROI from our resources that they are working on the most important projects, [which] will give us the highest return from the market, and do so using the most efficient manner possible.

DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier?

KK: Here are a few things that I found that make my job easier:

Great source-control systems such as ClearCase.
VMWare's LabManager. Being able to create new images, for any OS, any configuration, within minutes. Use the fresh image, and then recycle.
A formal "Development Integration" phase where software is formally delivered from Development to QA. It's a three-day phase that requires a group outside of both Dev and QA to run through the software with the Use Case at hand. Only once the basic functionality is working is software formally delivered to QA for testing.
NUnit.
SAFS.
WinDbg training from Microsoft.
Remote Desktop.
Sharepoint.

Building Better Health Care

Shawn Garbett

Employer: Centerstone

Job: Systems Architect

DDJ: Where do you work?

SG: Centerstone.

DDJ: What's your job there?

SG: Systems Architect.

DDJ: What do you like about your job?

SG: The community-building attitude of the company, coupled with a community-building project aimed at improving the quality of care and lower health care costs.

DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier?

SG: Open-source tools and ideas on the Internet. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I can hit Google and usually find something close to what we need. When it doesn't exist we create it and share with others.

DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job?

SG: Dealing with insurance companies.