Grandpa Ham – Grandpa Can do IT!

Spent the morning today reviewing the OASIS Customer Information Quality (CIQ) specification. Good work. CIQ is set of XML Schemas designed manage names, addresses, and locations related to organizations and individuals across the globe or in your back yard. For CIQ, at least, “flexible structure” is not an oxymoron. I am researching this for the OASIS Emergency management Technical Committee, but it has implications for the Virginia DMV as well. A basic structure for accessing the “360 view.” Good stuff. Here is the link to the OASIS download page.

Back to schema work for Christmas holiday.  Doing the formal schema to be part of the Emergency Management Technical Committee draft Resource Messaging Standard.

The DMV work continues to go well. It is truly a joy to work with the team that they have assembled for BPR activities. These folks are the cream of the crop. This is one project where the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth. For the vendors out there who might be reading this: These folks know what they are doing. You are advised to work with them honestly, directly, as true collaborative partners. This will not be a “pull the wool over their eyes” procurement. Be prepared to work with them and you will do well. Try the stereotypical contractor shenanigans and you will have no end of difficulty.  To paraphrase the old Oldsmobile commercial, this is not your father’s DMV!

A Reminder for our Committee and other SDO’s of all Kinds (with apologies to Ogden Nash)

OASIS creates
Standards of choice.
Standards design
Where we have a voice.

PLEASE keep it simple
For programmer use.
Complication’s no more
Than programmer abuse.

Too much hoo hah
And talk of what’s “critical”
Sounds to most programmers
Like BS political.

How do we build it?
We just want to know.
Make it seem easy.
Adoption will grow.

Use some big words
To describe simple things,
And watch us ignore you.
You won’t even get pings.

If we don’t understand
We will not comply,
And use of your standards
Will shrivel and die.

So, do not confuse us.
Be explicit, direct,
Or your “stuff” and ours
Will not intersect.

We’ll just ignore you
And be on our way.
We will build what WE need
And YOU can “have a nice day.”

I am now set up to put out the news in blog format. It was deceivingly simple, but full of glitches, too. I had planned to convert my original pages to blog pages as well. I may still do so, but there are formatting issues that are related to going from one CSS style to another, or even from one blog style to another. Once I finally decide on a good looking blog style, I may convert the rest of my site. For now, however, I will tolerate the two differing styles; one for the fixed site and one for the more dynamic interactive blog site. It is likely that the format for the blog side will change as I experiment with different templates. Lots of fun .

I am in the process of converting most of my web site to a blog format, so if you see a few minor screw-ups, there is good reason.

My current work definitely keeps me on my toes. The folks assigned to the BPR team were hand-picked across the DMV to NOT fit the stereotype we sometimes attribute to DMV employees. They learn, and they make me learn. They work hard, and they make me work hard. And I appreciate them. Here is a group picture on the DMV reengineering site. I am in in the middle row, toward the left side.

I am using the following text in my e-amil to friends and constacts letting them know of my change in situation:I have been a Battelle employee for 12 out of the last 13 years, but I am moving on. Battelle is a good organization to work for. I have enjoyed it, and will always value the experience that I gained.

For now, I am acting as an individual IT consultant. I am working full time on a contract with the Virginia DMV as an IT process consultant to a major cross-agency BPR effort. My primary function is helping the various BPR teams put together coherent scenario driven requirements within a model that will drive a future-state SOA and will provide full life cycle traceability from initial requirements through code and test. The process works. I get to see the evidence every day.

My part in this activity is as a mentor, trainer, and general enabler to the teams doing the actual BPR activity. I love the work, but it is not secure. It may last three months, or it may last three years. A lot depends on the vagaries of state budgets. My best guess is that I will be almost full time for a while, and gradually move toward occasional training and “reinforcement” visits.

You may ask what “almost” full time means. It means that I am separately maintaining my membership on the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee. It also means that I can take a week or so per month for other activities. For example, assuming that DM-OPEN survives as promised in the transition from Battelle to the DHS CIO (or some other provider), I can still help with connectivity. Similarly, if a company or government agency wants to put any of the experience I have gained over the years to work for them, I may be able to help. It would have to be limited hours initially, but could grow bigger over time, depending on the situation.

At any rate, you can find me, my resume, what I can do, and what I am currently doing at http://grandpaham.com

I am now officially independent. Retirement from my long tem employer is effective 30 September 2007 with mostly terminal leave in between. I am ready and able to serve. I will soon be updating the resume page and adding mentoring references as they occur. A new life chapter has officially begun. At this point, it feels good.

May was busy. The project I was counting on last month is finally coming in, but took a bit longer to get done that I expected. In the meantime I have been writing proposals for my long term employer, helping conduct a CMMI Readiness review, and preparing for transition at the same time. I have also been working on new, more detailed, capability descriptions. Thew first of these concerns DM-OPEN. DM-OPEN allows emergency systems to share information through a de-coupled web service interface. I can help get a working prototype in place in TWO DAYS! Check it out.