Dr. Gerald Schröder: A Life of Learning, (Re-)Searching, Teaching and Consulting

space GS 2007

Short version

1967born here in Harburg, Hamburg, Germany
1973 - 1986School in Hittfeld, Niedersachsen, Germany
1986Abitur at the Gymnasium Hittfeld
1986 - 1993University of Hamburg, Computer Science and Social Sciences
1993Master of Computer Science (Informatik-Diplom)
1993 - 1999Research Assistant at the Unversity of Hamburg and the Technical University of Hamburg, Software Systems Institute
1999Ph.D. (Promotion) in Computer Science
1999 - 2001Specialist for Software Engineering Methods and Tools at DAK (health insurance company)
2001Software Technology Consultant at itelligence
since 01/2002Senior Java Developer at InfoDesign-OSD

Long Version

My interest in computers started in school, beginning with Basic, Turbo-Pascal and Z80-Assembler on TRS-80 and several CP/M- computers. Digging deep into the machine and programming at the hardware and operating system level was my pleasure.

Studying at the University of Hamburg from 1986 till 1993 with the major computer science and the minor sociology, my special interests were operating systems, compilers, data bases, software ergonomics and new urban sociology (quite a strange mix, I know). My studies included the debugging and extension of the more or less famous Modula-2/DBPL-VAX-compiler. In my master's thesis the exploration of syntactic language extensions attracted me so that I introduced a syntax extension facility in the Tycoon system (now called Tycoon-1 since the even more famous Tycoon-2 system succeeded). While studying I worked part-time as operator at the computing centre of the department of computer science (where else do you get the opportunity to play around with such expensive toys?); and I embarrassed generations of students as tutor at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg and the University of Hamburg - they will never believe anyone again, I suspect; sorry for that.

Preparing a PhD thesis and working for a living and started October 1993 as research assistent at Hamburg University, department of Databases and Information Systems (DBIS). From January 1997 I was (once again) employed by the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Software Systems Institute (STS). My main responsibility lied in the management of analysis and programming teams, in the Tycoon project in the area of persistent programming language environments (R.I.P.), and in several projects in the Internet Information Systems and SAP area. In the context of my PhD thesis and of several projects I was involved in the supervision of about 20 student projects and master's theses ("my" students are now earning much more money than I am, such a pity). Beside this raising of young geniuses I prepared and gave several courses, mostly at the graduate level, in the area of software development (object-oriented languages, i.e, Java), database design (object-relational databases, i.e., Oracle), and analysis (object-oriented modelling, i.e., UML).

I defended successfully my PhD thesis about management and development of cooperating persistent object systems in April 1999.

From October 1999 till March 2001 I worked for the DAK, a health-insurance company (11,000 employees) in Hamburg, Germany, as a specialist for software engineering methods and tools. We were developing a new generation of the internal software using object-oriented client-server techniques, i.e., J2EE architecture, component modeling using UML. But when management heard that SAP would maybe, under certain circumstances, in several years ... develop an industry solution for health insurance, they quit the project. I love managers for these decisions, as you may guess.

So I moved on to itelligence, an IT consultancy company with about 1,500 consultants (at that time). From April 2001 till December 2001 I joined a team of 10 Java experts. We explored, exploited, and coached modern software technologies, i.e., Java J2EE, JMS, XML, JUnit, etc. Until itelligence concluded that SAP is a much more intesting area to gain money than Java. Now you know why I love SAP, also.

We felt that we had to move on to a new surrounding, because we were caught by Open Source. We believe that Open Source software in the Java community shows a maturity that enables commercial use. Our contribution (and means to gain a living) is offering consultancy and services for Open Source technologies and tools. Sure, we do not use Open Source software only, but together with successful commercial software components as, e.g., IBM DB2 or Oracle.

My focus lies on the development of Java application frameworks and persistence layers, especially at the server side and and for batch-oriented applications. I strongly recommend test-driven development using JUnit and integation testing using our framework iValidator. Beside that I am a non-believer in anything religious as CORBA, J2EE or other "standards", but a strong believer in well- crafted frameworks and their helpful creators.

Projects

since 04/2009 Planning and development of a prototype at Dakosy (BPE)
Keywords: SOA, ESB, Java, Portlets, Spring, JSF, JMS, MDA/MDD, EnterpriseArchitect, openArchitectureWare
Project size: >7 Person Years (up to 15 project members)
My focus: Senior Developer
06/2008-12/2008 Development of a component at HPC (TerminalStar)
Keywords: Java, Spring, JMS, JUnit, MDA/MDD, MagicDraw, openArchitectureWare
Project size: >150 Person Years (up to 50 project members)
My focus: Senior Developer
07/2004-04/2008 Persistence layer for J2EE application at Thales (GAST)
Keywords: Java, J2EE, JUnit, MDA, IBM WebSphere, TopLink, Oracle
Project size: >300 Person Years (up to 100 project members)
My focus: Architect and Senior Developer
01/2004-06/2004 Re-engineering of logistics application at BP/Aral (Frachtensystem)
Keywords: Java, JUnit, PL/1, IBM DB2, Oracle
Project size: ~6 Person Years (up to 6 project members)
My focus: Coach and Senior Developer
07/2003-12/2003 Application framework for batch-oriented Java applications at BP/Aral
Keywords: Java, JUnit, JMS, timer-driven beans, persistence layer, JORAM, Oracle
Project size: ~3 Person Months
My focus: Architect and Senior Developer
01/2003-06/2004 Support and maintenance of an EAI-platform in oil industry at BP/Aral (EMMA)
Keywords: Java, JMS, JORAM, Oracle
Project size: ~12 Person Months
My focus: Senior Developer
04/2002-12/2002 Development of an EAI-platform in oil industry at BP (EMMA)
Keywords: Java, JUnit, application framework, JMS, XML, Xerces, ECS, configurable file parsing and unparsing, Oracle
Project size: ~5 Person Years (up to 6 project members)
My focus: Architect and Senior Developer
10/2001-11/2001 Three-tiered Intranet banking application at Commerzbank
Keywords: HTML, JavaScript, ActiveX, Microsoft Transaction Server, VisualBasic, SQL-Server, Oracle
Project size: ~3 Person Months (2 project members)
My focus: Senior Developer
08/2001-09/2001 Embedded message converter between JMS and HTTP/XML at HPC
Keywords: Java, JMS, Tomcat, HTTP, JUnit, XML, Xerces, ECS
Project size: ~2 Person Months (2 project members)
My focus: Architect
01/2001-03/2001 Exploring directions for a strategic redirection of the computer department of the DAK
Keywords: SAP R/3 and mySAP.com, J2EE, .NET, XP, UML
Project size: ~3 Person Years (6 project members)
My focus: Evaluation of development environment and process
02/2000-12/2000 Defining a development environment for a >10,000-user J2EE application at S/E/E (architecture, modeling style guide, development process, tools, training)
Keywords: Components, J2EE, CORBA, UML, Unified Process/OEP, CMM, objectiF, PVCS Dimensions
Project size: ~15 Person Years (up to 25 project members); planned project size: >500 Person Years
My focus: Development and customization process, knowledge transfer
10/1999-01/2000 Development of a Java application for a rent management system at DAK (~20 users)
Keywords: Three-tier-architecture, Java, Swing, Servlets/JSPs, UML, JDBC, DB/2, TopLink, VisualAge, Innovator, JUnit
Project size: ~3 Person Years (up to 5 project members)
My focus: Analysis and design using UML, development of a UML-to-Java-generator, definition of an application frameworks
1999 Development of a Java application for a course management system at TUHH
Keywords: Java, Swing, Servlets, UML, JDBC, Oracle, Rational Rose
Project size: ~1 Person Year (up to 10 project members)
My focus: Architecture development, prototyping, configuration management, coaching
1998/1999 Development of a Java application for course evaluation at TUHH
Keywords: Java, Swing, Servlets, UML, JDBC, Oracle, Rational Rose
Project size: ~1 Person Year (up to 10 project members)
My focus: Architecture development, prototyping, configuration management, coaching
1998/1999 Gap analysis for SAP R/3 Public Sector at the finance department of Hamburg
Project size: ~5 Person Years (up to 15 project members)
My focus: Consulting, knowledge transfer, modeling
1992-1997 Development and maintenance of the polymorphic programming language Tycoon and a persistent virtual machine; development of frameworks, module libraries and applications in this environment
Keywords: Virtual machine, parametric polymorphism, persistence, reflection, C, Solaris, NSE/TeamWare
Project size: ~20 Person Years (up to 20 project members)
My focus: Compiler development, system programming, maintenance, development of frameworks and reusable module libraries, configuration management, coaching
1991-1992 Maintenance of compiler and runtime environment for the persistent programming language DBPL
Keywords: Modula-2, persistence, VAX/VMS
Project size: ~2 Person Years (2 project members)
My focus : Compiler development, system programming, bootstrapping

Publications

Talks

Teaching

Supervised Student Projects and Theses