Alexander Day Chaffee

176 N. Union St.
Burlington, VT 05401 USA
Email: alexch@gmail.com
Web: AlexChaffee.com, Code Like This

SUMMARY

SKILLS

• Expert in Web application and mobile technologies: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, Java, etc.
• Coach in Agile development methodologies including Extreme Programming and Scrum, especially pair programming, test-driven development, continuous iteration, retrospectives, inceptions.
• Facilitator for Agile Retrospectives and Inceptions.
• Object-oriented programming and design.
• Strong teaching and mentoring skills.
• Project management and leadership.
• Fluent in Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Objective C.
• Systems programmer in Unix, MacOS, Windows.
• Creator of several widely-used software development tools including Pivotal Tracker, Rerun, and Erector.

EMPLOYMENT

2014-2015 Senior Developer and Mentor, Smart Resource Labs

• Instilled Agile project management and software development process at energy hardware/software startup.
• Led biweekly retrospectives, weekly demos, and various meetings with customers and internal stakeholders.
• Mentored and taught junior programmers.
• Designed and implemented core architecture for timeseries data gathering, visualization and analytics application platform.
• Wrote test-driven, pair-programmed code using Ruby on Rails, Twitter Bootstrap, HighCharts, Resque, Sidekiq, etc.

2014 Consultant, WeedMaps (via Carbon Five)

• Led team's first-ever full-day retrospective/retreat.
• Wrote test-driven, pair-programmed code using Ruby on Rails, Google Maps, PostgreSQL, Sidekiq, etc.
• Full-time remote pairing with team members in six geographical locations (using FlowDock, ScreenHero, Google Hangouts, etc.).
• Used stickies.io in weekly retrospectives.
• Improved stability, code quality, and development process for high-traffic web and mobile application.

2009-2011 Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Cohuman Inc.

• With two executive partners, founded a company building productivity software tools.
• Sold company to Mindjet in 2011.
• Built and ran engineering department and product development process.

2009-present Volunteer, RailsBridge

• Helped build an organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the coding community.
• Wrote and taught classes in programming to novices.
• Developed Content Management System for organizing diverse open source curricula with many contributors separated in space and time.

2008-present Technical Trainer and Speaker

• Designed and taught technical courses for adults on a variety of technical topics including Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Rails, Test-Driven Development. (Current courseware hosted at Code Like This.)
• Taught and wrote public and private-client classes for Blazing Cloud, Marakana, New Circle.
• Taught at workshops for RailsBridge and Girl Develop It.
• Presented "lightning talks" at a variety of user groups and conferences.
• QuickLeft: trained developers and project managers in Agile techniques including Inceptions and Retrospectives

2008-present Consultant and Coder

• Coached and coded for various software companies, including:
• IndieGoGo: supervised upgrade from Rails 2 to Rails 3; mentored and trained in test-driven development and Agile planning skills.
• NeedFeed: built internal research tool using Amazon Mechanical Turk.
• Discovery Mining: supervised several projects including transitioning codebase from Spring to custom Java framework, complete UI redesign, search clustering and scalability, team process overhaul.
• Smart Resource Institute (2014-2015): web application architecture, testing, and process improvement for energy monitoring .
• WeedMaps (partnered with Carbon Five): improved stability, code quality, and process for high-traffic web and mobile application.
• Groupiter: advisor, coder and architect for "500 Startups" startup, integrating with DropBox.
• 2U (2015-2016): technical lead for team developing tools for processing and searching student applications, integrating with OneLogin, using Python, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, etc.
• GameTheory (2016): designed and coded API and server for mobile multiplayer fitness game, integrating with FitBit.

2004-2008 Tech Lead and Principal, Pivotal Labs

• Developed software using Agile methodologies for many clients.
• Coached Agile projects at clients including Google and Planet Out.
• Led full-day retrospective retreat for team of 40.
• Creator and lead developer of Pivotal Tracker.

2003-2004 Senior Consultant, Pivotal Software

• Developed software using Agile methodologies.
• Coached Agile projects at clients including eBay.

1997-2003 Freelance Trainer and Consultant (Various clients)

• Developed and delivered on-site training in Java, XML, and related subjects.
• Architect and developer for several programming projects.
• Presented tutorials and talks at many technical conferences.
• Published articles in technical journals.
• Developed open-source software, contributing to several projects (Tomcat, JDOM, XPath Explorer, JUnit, and others)
• Organized and led Extreme Programming Bootstrap study group.
• Organized and led Calliope open-source community forum project.

1999-2002 Software Guru, Magelang Institute / jGuru

• Developed and delivered technical training courses.
• Contributed to development of jGuru.com Web site.
• Managed EJB, Servlets, Threads, Tomcat FAQ and Forum sections of jGuru.com Web site.

1997 Senior Product Architect, EarthWeb

• Investigated market opportunities for a variety of community-related products.
• Developed detailed strategic analyses and functional specifications.

1996 Director of Software Engineering, EarthWeb

• Supervised transition of Gamelan (see below) from simple resource directory to editorial site with full-fledged database backend.
• Designed content management system for creating dynamic web sites using Java. This system accessed SQL databases, maintained multiple database connections, and preserved user session state. This system was in use by several EarthWeb products including Gamelan, Gamelan Direct, and internal issues tracking database.
• Developed initial product strategy for EarthWeb Chat. The service was the first to provide free, hosted, advertising-supported chat service on the Internet.
• Supervised a team of two programmers on initial development of EarthWeb Chat, a Java-based client and server for web-based online chat. The program was the most widely licensed Java applet of its time.
• Supervised a team of three programmers on HyperTV. Used Java to display hyperlinks synchronized to a video broadcast. Uses a Netscape Client Plug-in to display video feed from local TV card.
• Created internal issues tracking database for engineers to track bugs and other issues.
• Created and enhanced Gamelan Channel using Castanet technology from Marimba, Inc. Worked with engineers at Marimba to design and implement program to view the Gamelan database offline.
• Responsible for evaluating technologies for use on specific projects, e.g. LiveWire, Illustra, Dynamo.
• Delivered numerous talks and tutorials at conferences and user groups.

1995 Senior Software Engineer, EarthWeb

• Created Gamelan, the Official Directory for Java. Displayed a catalog of resources related to the language Java using MySQL database and an HTML user interface. Administrative system allowed multiple editors to classify and review incoming submissions and updates. Responsible for editorial direction. Site was in the top 100 web sites since its third month of existence.
• Created WebLink DLL with a team of two programmers. Used Borland C++ and OWL to create a DLL to display HTML and GIF images.
• Created Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Catalog. (http://www5.metmuseum.org/) Displays a catalog of items for sale organized by category. Maintains system of user accounts and passwords. Keeps an online "shopping cart;" maintains state across user sessions. Encrypts orders for delivery to fulfillment center using public-key cryptography. Worked with graphic designers to create user interface elements.
• Administered and helped build several Web sites, including Rockwell Computers, Relief Net, Relief Rock, BMG Music.

PUBLICATIONS

2007 Chaffee, Alexander et al. Project Management System Patent application #11/676210

2002 Chaffee, Alexander and Pietri, William, Unit Testing with Mock Objects, IBM DeveloperWorks

2002 Chaffee, Alexander, Building with Ant, Developer.com

2000 Chaffee, Alexander, Using JSP and XML Together, JavaWorld

1999 Chaffee, Alexander, One, two, three or N Tiers?, JavaWorld

1998 Chaffee, Alexander, Servlets and the Web Site Design Process, ServletCentral

1998 Chaffee, Alexander, At Long Last... JDK 1.2, Developer.com

1998 Chaffee, Alexander, Unwrapping Java Packages, Developer.com

1997 Papageorge, John, The Dream of Internet Computing Made Easy (Interview), for Java Developer Connection Web Site. (http://developer.javasoft.com/developer/readAboutJava/jpg/chaffee.html)

1996 Spivack, et al., The Official Gamelan Directory, Ziff Davis

1996 State of the Art, column in Java Report, Vol. 1, Issues 1-2.

1996 Siegel, Eric V. and Chaffee, Alexander D., Genetically optimizing the speed of programs evolved to play Tetris, in Angeline, P. and Kinnear, K. eds., Advances in Genetic Programming, Vol. II, M.I.T. Press (http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/W.Langdon/aigp2.html)

1992 Honors Thesis, Reed College, Haven't I seen you before? A procedural analysis of implicit memory

TEACHING AND SPEAKING EXPERIENCE

1999-present presented many on-site training classes for a variety of clients, through work at jGuru, Magelang, Marakana, New Circle, and as a freelance trainer.

1997 Networking and Distributed Programming in Java, C++ World Conference, November 1997.

1997 Taught Advanced Java Programming at client sites as 24-hour course.

1997 Taught Introduction to Java Programming, at client sites and in classroom, as 24-hour and 40-hour course.

1997 Real World Java Panel, JavaOne (San Francisco).

1997 Taught 30-hour course, Introduction to Java Programming, in classroom at GITI (New York).

1996 Java Tutorial, Spring Internet World 1996.

1995 Taught 9-hour course, Introduction to Java Programming, at client sites.

EDUCATION

1992 Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Reed College