David Hitchman

At the time of moving to Redmond, California, the Microsoft smartphone and Pocket PC implementations had no signing or encryption on email. The importance of delivering this program was understood as high, as Steve Bulmer and Bill Gates took an interest in it.

The program required working across the messaging team in Microsoft Mobile, the synchronization team, the Windows CE operating system, the exchange server, and both Outlook and Outlook Express teams. The requirement was driven, in part, by requirements of the United States Department of Defense and large contractors such as Boeing. This meant presenting the plans and designs of the program to representatives of those groups and various security-concerned organizations throughout NATO.

Having designed the product with the relevant stakeholders, I went on to develop the business case, including cost and time estimates; gain buy-in from the teams affected to do the work; and articulate the product benefits. Once the program was authorized, I guided the development, ensured all teams delivered, triaged the defects, prepared for Bill Gates to demonstrate it, and, ultimately, delivered the product.

I project managed the teams involved in the development at Broadcom. Broadcom delivered the silicon and the software for handling the 41 MP camera at the heart of Nokia’s PureView concept. I guided the team during development, testing, and defect fixing, including the automated build and testing. This involved triaging and prioritizing with the customer (Nokia); negotiating with Broadcom for the resources needed, as the 808 was the last Symbian phone and resources were needed for Android development; and keeping the team motivated during what is often seen as the least exciting phase of development. The team also had to support the previous 10 or so Symbian devices shipped with Broadcom silicon (2727 as against the 2763 of the 808).

I also analyzed defect reports and conducted technical investigations to report the technical progress and status accurately to Nokia and other parts of Broadcom. In the end, the product was delivered on time and shipped to shops with no delay.

In a BMW, there is a box that allows emergency calls, web browsing, and other connected services. This box contains a modem that was initially a 2G smart modem, meaning that the modem ran code itself. The 2G service in the United States was being closed, so a hard deadline existed for the replacement of the modem.

When I joined the project, the new modem board was prepared, but the porting of the code from the smart modem to the replacement processor had not made significant progress. I secured new, experienced resources; rearranged the working environment; relocated the team to where they were not distracted; split the team into smaller, more focused teams; resolved some issues with people who were working in areas they weren’t comfortable with; and helped resolve the very deep, technical issues such as endianness and timing issues in the communication and startup phases.

While guiding the team through technical issues, I also managed the customer and their increasing nervousness. In the end, we delivered on time, which involved motivating the team to work some very long hours. I even bought things like a LEGO Big Ben model to allow some downtime and relieve stress, discussed issues, and set priorities in morning meetings.

I am a teacher—at least by qualification—and have done some private tuition on various subjects, but mainly maths and physics.

I taught The Open University’s master’s degree course “Managing The Software Enterprise” for several years as an associate lecturer. This was entirely online, using some tools that frankly could have been done with some polish.