Duncan George

Background

About Duncan George

Career focus has been the development of large scale, enterprise class IT systems, with sub-specialty on legacy system rehabilitation and re-design. Subsequently I worked on the business side understanding and translating requirements into artefacts with which a development team can productively work.(See recent experience at WSIB, below). It has been my experience that management of large-scale IT teams is invariably unsuccessful when not informed by an engineering education and practical design experience. The "big bite" approach taken with conventional large engineering projects, for example skyscraper construction, the Three Gorges Dam and the English Chunnel, does not extend to large IT development projects. Small teams working under a mandate of progressive ambition following a single corporate vision is a better guide. An important asset I bring to IT projects is the ability to explain to senior managers how business ambition and project schedules must be aligned with the reality of project productivity. Even with the technologies available in the second decade of the 21st century, organizing, structuring and processing complex information is still very challenging. Human nature being what it is, changing entrenched patterns of thought is always a demanding challenge. Recent experience in Ontario's and Toronto's public service has been particularly instructive. Careful analysis of program objectives and project issues, presented in a factual manner, can lead to surprising and productive results. There is a great deal of opportunity for creative professionals in the public sector as it transitions to web interaction with general society. Specialties: IT project design, planning and management Team building and design collaboration Certified coach-mentor, talent identification and development Master system design engineer and solution architect Recognized teacher, facilitator and educator