David Norfolk

Practice Leader - Development
Bloor Research

David Norfolk coversautomated systems development. Not just technology (he is interested in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Integrated Development Environments (IDE), Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and similar acronym-driven tools; automated data analysis tools and metadata repositories; requirements modelling tools and the like) but also the Processes behind them and the People issues around implementing them (he sometimes inclines to the belief that it should be Politics, Process and Tools; not People, Process and Tools).

He is particularly interested in organisational maturity as a prerequisite for implementing effective (measured) process and in ITIL v3 as a framework for automated service delivery. He believes that Agile processes are just as important as traditional high-ceremony approaches (Dynamic Systems Development Method, DSDM, is an example of an Agile Process, as is eXtreme Programming); albeit Agile needs to be managed with a lighter hand.

Hefirst got interested in computers and programming quality in the 1970s, working in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University. Here he discovered that computers could deliver misleading answers, even when programmed by very clever people, and was taught to program in FORTRAN.

He then worked in DBA and Operations Research for the Australian Public Service in Canberra. Returning to his birthplace in 1982, he worked for Bank of America and Swiss Bank Corporation in the UK. Here he occupied positions at various times in DBA again, Systems Development Method and Standards; Internal Control; Network Management; Technology Risk and even PC Support. He was instrumental in introducing a formal Systems Development Process for the Bank of America Global Banking product in Croydon.

In 1992, he became disillusioned with the way people issues were being handled in City IT and decided to start a new career as a professional writer and analyst. Since then he has written for many of the major computer magazines and various specialist titles around the world. He helped plan, document and photograph the CMMI Made Practical conference at the IoD, London in 2005. and has written many industry white papers and research reports: IT Governance for Thorogood; Online Banking for FT Business Reports; Developing a Network Computing Strategy and Corporate Desktop Services (the latter co-authored with Rod Newing) for Business Intelligence; the Business Implications of Adopting Object Technology for Elan Publishing and so on.

He is past co-editor (and co-owner) of Application Development Advisor; he's currently Executive Editor for GEE's "IT Policies and Procedures" product; was Associate Editor for the launch of Register Developer; and was the author of the "IT Governance" report for Thorogood. He joined Bloor Research as a Senior Analyst for Development in 2007.

He has an honours degree in Chemistry and is a Chartered IT Professional, has a somewhat rusty NetWare 5 CNE certification and is a full Member of the British Computer Society (he is on the committee of the Configuration Management Specialist Group). He has his own company, David Rhys Enterprises Ltd, which he runs from his home in Chippenham, where his spare moments (if any) are spent on photography, sailing and listening to music.

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