Independent consultant in Lean and Agile Software and Systems Development.I coached fully distributed product development teams in effective use of Lean and Agile practices. These teams design, build, deploy and support native mobile apps in Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Andriod, which are the end-user element of an IoT solution relating to the client's most successful products. This included working with Product Owners and Designers, Product Managers, Architects, Developers and Testers. Practices that I coach range from User Story Mapping to TDD, trunk-based development to Monte Carlo forecasting, pair programming, mob programming and the full range of Scrum, Kanban, and eXtreme Programming practices. I work within the context of a enterprise change programme intended to transform the IT function away from running projects to deliver features and towards running streams of work to optimise the creation of value through evolution of product lines.Previous engagements include consulting to Private Equity investors to assess potential acquisition targets in the purchased service software and product development markets.

To recruit a new full-stack development team in Salford to replace the organisation closing down in London. Also provided input and guidance to the creation of a new technology strategy for Online sales.

Board level Director with P&L responsibility for all of Zuhlke's work for clients in UK, including financial modelling, planning, and tracking of multi-year customer engagements with budgets approaching 10 million pounds.Identified, recruited, and managed three Solution Centre Directors. Coached them in creating Solution strategies comprising business plans, reusable assets, and supporting marketing material.Signed off on all project proposals with significant commercial risk to the UK company. Supervised and coached all Engagement Managers in Zuhlke UK. Liaised with senior and C--level staff in client organisation, was the escalation point for project and programme issues.Engaged with Directors of Customer Solutions in other Group companies around the world to guide the commercial strategy of the Group as a whole.Recruited and managed one Project Support Administrator as part of the Group's PMO function. Took part in recruiting and selecting the Finance Assistants, Financial Controllers, and HR Managers for the UK company.

Introduced Agile Development, particularly eXtreme Programming, Scrum, and Kanban to Zuhlke's UK and Swiss companies, and to their clients.In some cases created order-of-magnitude improvements in delivery of features, with near complete elimination of unplanned re-work from defects.Provided training and consultancy to clients' executives, managers, and development teams in Lean and Agile techniques to improve technical and business agility, including:- Process improvement through effective Retrospectives- Specification by Example- Domain Driven Design - Iterative Product Development with Story Mapping- Effort and duration estimation with PERT and Wideband Delphi- Effective Scrum- Managing work with Kanban and Single Piece Flow- TDD (Test Driven Development)- Automated testing: functional, integration, and performance- Exploratory TestingProvided consultancy services to clients including:- Requirements Engineering- Technical Architecture - Internal and External quality, including design metrics and Fagan Inspection of code - Development Processes- Automation of Development Pipelines- Buy-side assistanceFor clients engaging with other suppliers, Keith provided assistance to their buying centres by:- Constructing qualification checklists- Assessing suppliers' proposals, presentations- Scoring responses- Providing decision support for buyersDeployed tools and techniques including the Cynefin Framework, IDEF0 business process modelling, GE and Boston Consulting Group style multi-factor analysis matrix. Represented Zuhlke Engineering Ltd on Group-wide technical decision making bodies. On the Programme Committee of the Group's bi-annual internal technical conferences. Speaker on behalf of Zuhlke at numerous technical conferences in UK and Europe.

Led the exercise to select a location for the second Zuhlke office in UK. Having identified Manchester, led the exploration and development of local markets, found and negotiated terms for office space. Relocated to the North West to begin identifying and hiring staff, and also to identify and engage with prospective clients.

Built, managed and lead a team of 12 consultants and engineers at Zuhlke in London. win, deliver and support bespoke software development projects using Agile techniques. P&L responsibility for consultancy and development projects. Project managed multi-million pound engagements with blue-chip customers.Held combined P&L, commercial and line-management responsibilities.BULs selected, hired, coached, and managed engineers and consultants. BULs also worked alongside Business Development to identify new business, and had responsibility for closing deals. On my deals, as BUL, I was engagement manager, and in the more complex or higher-risk cases, also project manager. In this role he also performed market analysis, creating and implementing technical and go-to-market strategies for his BU.My Business Unit was responsible for the majority of the company's growth in annual gross profit over the period, from less than £100,000 to more than £600,000.Commercial responsibilities as a BUL included: - Identifying, qualifying leads - Writing fully costed proposals - Presenting proposals, negotiating terms, closing deals - Planning, managing, and delivering projects - Securing extensions, up-selling, cross-sellingAssessed the capabilities of potential off-shore development partners in Eastern Europe for Zuhlke, including site visits and interviews with management and staff.Assisted the senior Group management in identifying Singapore as the preferred location of the Group's first location outside Europe, and also in establishing the operating company in Singapore, through application of local knowledge gained while working there for a previous employer.

A Guest Lecturer on the “Commercial Programming'’ module of the Software Engineering MSc. Occasionally set and marked exam questions.

Just a member.

Led a small team of developers to explore new service and product ideas through the development of prototypes in Java, Ruby and Smalltalk on Windows. Used the Soft Systems Methodology to identify and develop new product ideas and opportunities.Dramatically improved the company's agility in responding to client's feedback, Service Delivery Managers' market needs and Product Managers' vision through fast feedback on early realisation of vision.Coached Service Delivery Managers and Product Managers in effective working with an eXtreme Programming/Agile delivery capability, including planning for iterative, incremental development.

Recruited, managed, and trained Software Developers in the Singapore office to work in close collaboration with APAC clients.With UK and US peers, created a follow--the--Sun 24x5 globally distributed eXtreme Programming team---perhaps the first of its kind in the world.Retrained existing development team in Australia.Worked with clients in Australia, peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, providing requirements engineering and technical delivery management.Recruited the Head of Development and initial engineering team for new development location in Kirkland, Washington State, USA

Selected staff from the existing UK development team who would remain as part of the new distributed eXtreme Programming structure. Retrained those who were selected in eXtreme Programming practices. Led by example as a programmer in a Pair Programming environment using TDD with intensive refactoring, continuous integration, continuous test and other practices.Interviewed and selected new staff to join the UK team. Worked in self-organising cross-functional teams to implement new services and products in Java and Prolog on Windows and Linux.

Reported to the MD, first software engineer hired.Selected, recruited, trained, and coached the subsequently hired engineering staff.Performed on-site interviews with staff of a major investor in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh, India to identify individuals who could be seconded to Penrillian in UK.Worked in self-organising, cross-functional teams to develop end-user and industrial mobile applications in C++ and Java 2 MicroEdition on WindowsCE and Symbian platforms for clients around the world including Nokia, T-Mobile, Ericsson. Used eXtreme Programming and Test Driven Development.

Provided technical oversight and leadership of e-business development projects

Joined a predecessor company, Parallax Ltd. Team and technical lead on a range of development projects, in the automative and retail finance sectors.

Joined a predecessor company, Talus Solutions (aka DFI-Aeronomics). Worked as a developer on a air freight revenue management system

Lead developer on a radio propagation simulation tool, part of a cellular telephone network planning product.

Designing, developing and testing mobile network planning software in C++