I'm a CEO, a software development manager, a software engineer, a consultant on the design of enterprise class software and software development process. I love to program, so when I get a chance (nowadays not too often) I'm also a first line developer.

The Man's History

I was to be a jet pilot ... but things went the other way. My professional history begun when I was around 9 and my parents bought a XT computer by EPSON. So my first contact was a cool game in the text mode called U-boot. Then the next stage was when I was about 12 and I saw my sister's (yes I have an eight years older sister, and a six years younger brother) boyfriend who was a student of computer sciences. From his looks you could tell he's an IT guy. He talked to me about different processor architectures and he gave me a look at the famous Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs by Niklaus Wirth. Next step was choosing a math & physics profiled high school. Afterwards I went to study computer sciences at the Technical University of Wroclaw , boy, it's the best school ever, would gladly spend there 10 more years... when the time came to choose I chose the specialization in software engineering. During the studies after the first year I begun parallel studies of classical philosoply at the Wroclaw University. At the third year I looked for a summer job at a software company (Contium formerly Internet Designers ) and afterwards stayed there for the rest of the studies learning and practicing the construction of enterprise-class webapps in Java, XML and other cool at that time stuff. Soon I had to let go of the second faculty at the University. Sad but true. It was a life-changing experience and I wouldn't be myself doing what I do if it wasn't for those yearly years at those classes.

Around the beginning of the third year of studies I co-founded e-Informatyka.pl, an electronic journal platform. This was an idea of dr Leszek Madeyski, now my dear friend but at that time the lecturer in the Java class I signed up for. As of technology we chose to build it upon Apache Cocoon and a strong usage of the SoC pattern. By the way Cocoon is an excellent application framework, XML-based, highly flexible and well factored. At first we tried the project with 60+ people on-board and the Rational Unified Process in use. This was a disaster. Then we tried it with a team of 6 people and some of the practices of eXtreme Programming. Soon we found that this was a way to go. This experience changed my professional life forever. In the middle of the fifth year I received an invitation for an interview from ExOrigo, a company from Warsaw. I went there and few weeks later I was living in Bialystok, a city 550km away from Wroclaw, where ExOrigo has one of it's outposts. There I coached a team of 8 brave programmers doing various projects for different customers simultaneously.

In 2006 I moved to Warsaw to ExOrigo headquarters. I advocated for the use of agile methods, or at least test-driven development. I monitored and change the architectural details of the software being developed. I coached teams in best programming practices (in particular those object-oriented and/or agile ones). I also consulted and introduced modern software engineering and the whole process of developing software from the customer's thought to a product he's happy about. The times in Bialystok and Warsaw at ExOrigo were crucial for my education, the teams there are really great, I love those people. They specialize in applications for the Internet (webapps). I had a chance to help them methodically and technically and in return I was able to see really big software products being developed and maintained. We learned plenty from each other.

This ends the subject of ancient history ...

Nowadays

As of May 2008 I was sent by ExOrigo to EMPIK, the biggest Polish brick & mortar multimedia stores. It's a big company, with a lot ot tradition in selling books and entertainment. There I took the role of the software development manager of their new ecommerce platform. The platform was successfully launched in May 2010. At that time I decided to start something of my own ...

... and this is how Istima came to life. Together with two of my colleagues we founded a company called Istima, which stands for "having knowledge" (in the Quenya language). At Istima we focus on serving our clients in three major interconnecting fields:

• IT consulting
• Software development and maintenance
• Trainings for IT professionals

We specialize in Internet platforms, especially e-commerce systems. Please check us out at www.istima.pl (sorry, the site's in Polish for the time being) 

I also try to make my way in the academic part of the computer sciences universe. Together with Leszek Madeyski I search for fields which are interesting to explore and that I may explore at my work at the moment. Then I try to reflect on them in the form of more or less scientific papers.

After Hours

Sports: After hours I love to climb. Climbing is my way of setting myself completely loose and free. Nowadays I have less time for that but I also just love alpinism. I had a chance to get to the top of Mont Blanc (Alps), Matterhorn (Alps), Elbrus (Caucasus) and that certainly isn't the last of me out there. In the winter I sometimes ski, it's a very nice alternative.

In the summertime, apart from rock climbing, this year I tried surfing. One could clearly see that I'm not the man born to harness water and the wind but next summer you'll see I'll do better ...

After hours I also like to play the guitar and/or a blues harmonica ... it's a sport I just can't let go of ;)

Books: Apart from the books by Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham, Ron Jeffries, Tom DeMarco and others... I simply love the world created and described by JRR Tolkien. No more words are to be said. It just leaves me speechless anytime I grab a book, see the movie or otherwise dive into this world with an open mind. I also enjoy the writings by Terry Goodkind, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, and others like.

Music: To tell the truth - anything that sounds good. I love Sting, no. 1 voice and style, though I prefer the older String from the times of La Belle Dame Sans Regrets. The same applies to Eric Clapton. I also like Massive Attack (again I prefer the older ones), my not so recent discoveries are Don Ross, Ani DiFranco, Belle and Sebastian. Fantastic music. Oh and often I like to revert to classics like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or even as far into ancient history as Django Reinhardt.

Contact

Feel free to contact me by email at wojtek[(a.t.)]biela.pl or by Skype under the nick "ilfrin".