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We're calling on Bob Aiello, consultant, editor-in-chief of the CM Crossroads website for developers and co-author of Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World. This week, he is the author of our developerWorks feature article The true value of agile process maturity.
What is the one action you have taken that has accounted for most of your success?
Early in my career I combined Industrial Psychology with hands-on technical skills. This has allowed me to engineer the process along with implementing the tools to support it. Most of all, being a hands-on process guy has helped me to stay relevant and focused.
Who is your hero?
I was born visually handicapped and used a combination of braille, large print and tapes when I was younger while lasers were developed that could fix my vision. I see perfectly now, but my role models were the many blind and disabled activists that I worked with to help pass the first laws for the handicapped, including the handicapped parking permits that are now everywhere.
If you could change your life in one way, what would you change?
I would have tried harder to serve in the military. I actually did try to enlist in the marines when I was in college but I was still using a white cane and braille back then.
Which standards are seen as important for the future?
I believe that we need to improve the software development standards and IT controls in place for regulatory and compliance purposes. I am on the management board of the IEEE software standard group and I help oversee standards working groups .
Why and how can agile and architecture co-exist?
Agile and architecture have a reciprocal and synergistic relationship. Architecture needs to handled in an agile, iterative way. Agile, itself, also needs to be architected, and mature agile process needs to embrace adequate structure.
When we asked Bob how he keeps up with changes in the industry, he responded, "I search the internet and use search engine alerts to find articles relevant to my interests. More than that, I enjoy hearing from my colleagues who read my articles, especially when they present a different perspective!"
In hindsight, we probably should have asked how he keeps up with his careers. Intertwined in his 25 years of dedication to configuration management practices and IEEE standards, Bob has also served for 20 years as a volunteer cop/EMT who helps patrol the NYC subway system in uniform.
To ask Bob a question about this week's article or anything related to his expertise, leave a comment here. You can also connect with him through LinkedIn.
