Grandpa Ham – Grandpa Can do IT!

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 mentoring a group Business Process Reengineering (BPR) teams, using a scenario-driven requirements development process that features business scenarios written by SME’s for SME’s. Formal requirements, consistent terminology, and agreed-to scenarios are captured real-time in the Enterprise Architect CASE tool. I am also mentoring formal software design for one of the process improvements that has come from the BPR activity. In other words, I am helping the actual development team formalize and implement a design process based on the ICONIX process that will make “requirements to code” a consistent, streamlined, and productive activity. It just does not get any better than that for an “ORF” like me.

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.

In the last month a lot has happened. The project I had been working on was being moved from research to production. Unfortunately, it also meant transition from my company to someone else. A lot of folks feared for their jobs. But, my company won a proposal that I wrote, and I am supposed to work on the project. Unfortunately for my company, “grandpa” has also earned a very good independent position and is now ready to leave the comfort of “regular employment,” and truly live according to grandpa’s creed.

I just returned to work after a week in San Diego working with fellow members of the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee. Lots to do to catch up. Proposals to write. Presentations to make. Very busy, yet planning for change.

The new OASIS Emergency Data Exchange Language Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM) Specification is being released for public comment this week. Since I am part of the development team for the specification, I can obviously be of assistance to those who wish to implement. I also have a complete understanding of the EDXL Distribution Element Specification and how it is used as a transport wrapper for EDXL-RM. The final kicker is FEMA’a new Integrated Pubic Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). It will use the EDXL-DE as its mechanism for message transport. I will be among the first to prototype its operational capability. The obvious project I would like to put first in my queue is to help a government agency at any level or a private company in the emergency management software space be IPAWS ready with both alerting and resource messaging capabilities.

I have a project that I am working for the next couple of months or so. It is interesting. It promotes interoperability between diverse systems, and it keeps my mind focused. I can still make myself available on a limited basis, but any extensive work offers cannot take place until mid-summer. Still, call or e-mail those interesting ideas.

You cannot have a “grandpa” or “grandma” site without pictures of the grandchildren, can you? I am blessed with a wife of 30+ years, three fine sons and three grandsons. Life is good.