Prologue

Since I have worked on and contributed to a large number of projects which exceed the scope of a CV by a huge margin, I have decided to create this portfolio. This is a living document which I will actively maintain whenever I have time. My intention is to provide a better overview, and a concise description of my tasks and projects.

Over the past two decades I was able to acquire quite a unique skill set and specialized expertise: I developed agile software that was used by several hundred users in five countries. The implementation of which permeated all hierarchical levels of a global organization. My applications met the needs of operations staff as well as upper management while collecting, sanitizing, and processing operational data. In many ways I provided an interface that enabled business processes across many departments of the organization to take place.

Most recently as a developer of an ERP system that has been on the German-speaking market for over 20 years and before that as an individual developer in a medium-sized company in the electrical industry with locations worldwide, I developed numerous applications (see below) from scratch according to the needs and recommendations of the users and in some cases connected them with other SQL-based applications. The design of the workflow, user interface and interoperability throughout the entire process was of major importance. Training and optimization rounded off the spectrum. When the need for a company-wide reporting system based on the generated data came up, I planned, developed, and implemented such a system.

Focus of my work

Due to the highly specialized nature of my projects and the fact that I received no other support, I was forced to work alone in the IT aspects, even though I am a team-oriented person. This means that when I mention creating a project in this document, I planned and executed every single step from the drawing board to the finished project myself. I have experience in a wide range of subjects: System administrator, database and process design, data structures, UI, web forms, Excel, reporting (MS PowerBI), user-support, and -training (worldwide).

Database development with FILEMAKER

FileMaker has been my tool of choice for more than two decades. It is an incredibly flexible tool, practically the Swiss army knife of middleware databases. With its built-in functions it has enabled me to connect Excel, SAP, the web, and other (SQL) databases while applying agile methods and rapid prototyping.

My typical projects started with a colleague approaching me with a problem. The colleagues from the specialist departments were usually completely inexperienced in data structures, processes and system design, as this understanding was not part of their core competencies. This also led to great reluctance to discuss regular IT solutions. We discussed the problem and I looked at all the data involved and structured it. I then outlined a workflow and a process that needed to be established so that the solution would fit perfectly into the company. The development of a prototype in Filemaker often only took 2-3 days, depending on the complexity of the task. As a rule, an iterative development process began after the presentation of the first prototype, in the course of which the customer (the colleagues in the specialist department) often identified and wanted to implement additional functions. These then had to be evaluated and, if necessary, moved to a later phase.

Reporting

Based on the data collected in the databases, I then created various reports for our QA department. These reports included backlog of customer orders, disposition and delivery situation of the supplier network, quality of the product maturation process, and maturity level of the company-wide process landscape worldwide. In the company's KPI dashboard, the quality area then included rejects, blocked stocks, PPM rates, technical- and logistical-error events such as customer- and internal-complaints and error messages as well as quality costs.

The content of the reports was based on both the company's requirements and the company's own suggestions. The data was evaluated according to product portfolio, organizational, market and defect structures.

Initially, data provision and report creation were largely carried out manually. In addition, each division received a report created and designed according to its own requirements. Comparing key figures was therefore difficult or hardly possible.

After I was given the task, I revised the entire reporting mechanism with the input of my colleagues. The data should come automatically from one source, be evaluated and presented according to the same definitions and there should only be one report on the same topic for everyone. In addition, the working method for the QA reports was set up so that you can actively view your own reports on the server and they no longer have to be sent to everyone by email.

The databases then automatically supplied the raw data, which I displayed in Excel with pivot tables/charts and separation of data and visualization levels. Each area was able to configure its view in the report menu with a click of a button, drastically reducing the time and effort required to create the report.

Due to the rapidly increasing file size (>130MB), the practicability for multi-user operation was increasingly suboptimal. It was also almost impossible to manage access rights at file system level.

In the meantime, various BI software suites had become much more widespread and functional, so I concentrated on Microsoft PowerBI, which was also selected by Controlling as their new BI software. The multi-user operation, the pre-configuration for the users, the use of uniform, standardized data sources, the merging of data from different sources (Excel, web, databases, ...) and their preparation offered enormous potential. Access via PDF, Excel, PowerPoint and browser as well as the option to subscribe to parts of reports and have them sent to you when they are updated were substantial improvements compared to Excel.