Dan Steeves
home: Twin Cities, Minnesota
phone: 612-964-7738 mobile and sms
e-mail: dan*replace this with the “at” thingy*thesteeves.org
Summary
I want to lead teams creating great software. I’m a utility player who
has learned fast by spending time in several software company roles:
quality analyst, consultant, business analyst, and product capability
manager. I’ve been happiest leading development teams in the extreme
programming methodology. The job title of the role I want varies, but
is often called development manager or product manager.
Professional Experience
Accenture, Best Buy Technology Group, Minneapolis, January, 2004 to Present
(Note: I started at Best Buy in January, and was outsourced to Accenture in July.)
Product Capability Manager (January 2004 to Present)
- Manage team developing Best Buy’s next generation of in-store sales assistant tool.
- Led 15 person team of business analysts and software developers building custom application in Microsoft VB.Net.
- Manage group development process, using extreme programming methodology and, later, Accenture Delivery Methods.
- Owner of product relationship with business and other IS areas.
- Manage Best Buy’s strategic vendor relationship with Comergent, a company building Java-based e-business web products.
Retek Inc., Atlanta and Minneapolis, December, 1997 to January, 2004
Project Lead - Master Data Management (mid-2003 to January, 2004)
- Defined scope, product requirements, and specifications
for internally funded development project written in Java using Swing,
WebLogic, and a proprietary toolkit.
- Designed user interface for optimum usability and branding, consulting with external design firm.
- Researched customer configuration requirements and
tradeoffs of implementation patterns to meet them, attempting to define
an object-oriented java framework for retail transaction software.
Enterprise Functional Architect (2002 to mid-2003)
- Proposed unified business plan and technical
architecture for next generation of Retek’s systems. On team which
presented findings directly to the CEO and top executives, encouraged
an approach to allow configurable workflows using a wide range of
functional components.
- Advise senior management regarding systems
integration and functional responsibilities of Retek products. Working
to rationalize company development efforts which are spread across 10+
technical platforms, 20+ products, 5 locations, and several hundred
developers.
- Produced cloud-level use cases for all Retek products, for use as an analysis tool and roadmap for future development.
- Wrote functional requirements for integration of
forecasting, profiling, allocation, and merchandising systems in most
recent releases.
- Researched Retek’s requirements for single-source
content management solution across product management, development, and
documentation departments.
Extreme Programming Customer (BA) - Allocation and Replenishment (2000 to 2002)
- Led successful development of first release allocation
software for Family Dollar Stores, Inc., in one of Retek’s first uses
of extreme programming philosophy.
- As XP customer, analyzed problems, wrote stories,
and prioritized work for team of over a dozen Java developers; while
also serving as primary contact for Family Dollar representatives.
- Mentored colleagues on facets of “customer” role, including story writing and prioritizing development.
- Redesigned allocation system for implementation
using Java Server Pages instead of Swing applet. Incorporated
hard-earned domain knowledge to produce a much more intuitive user
interface, as attested by Retek’s partner Truworth's, a South African
clothing retailer.
- Facilitated numerous product demonstrations and
functional discussions with Retek’s signed and prospective customers
over the course of allocation development, to support sales process as
the functional expert.
Consultant - Forecasting and Replenishment (1998 to 2000)
- Implemented Retek’s forecasting system for three
customers. As the lead consultant working independently I ran gap
analysis meetings; wrote customization and configuration requirements,
designs, and code; installed software; taught user training courses;
ran optimization workshops for setting initial system parameters; and
oversaw go-live process.
- Supported sales presentations as a functional expert on automatic replenishment and sales forecasting.
- Successfully led and performed advanced configurations of the replenishment forecasting system for several customers.
- Designed and built custom forecasting procedures
using a mix of Korn shell, awk, and a proprietary database scripting
language, MSPL.
- Lead consultant, working with minimal Retek supervision, for Gander Mountain, Lids, and Payless Cashways.
- Participating consultant in areas of special
expertise (user training and parameter optimization) for C&A
(Germany), Sonae (Portugal), Family Dollar, Eckerd, AutoZone, Brooks
Brothers, and Ingram Micro.
Spur Shelving, Watford, England, 1997.
I lived in the London suburbs for a year, working for a manufacturer of
component shelving systems. I designed and used a database and
spreadsheet system to assist our wholesale suppliers with bid responses
to contractors and architects, ensuring that all tenders were met with
quotes.
Other Employers, Atlanta, Georgia, 1991 to 1996.
In another life, I was an environmental engineering consultant and then
environmental, health, and safety manager for a small aerosol filling
company. I have lots of dormant skills and knowledge in areas like
negotiating soil and groundwater cleanup requirements with the Georgia
EPD; managing the work of hired consultants and contractors; disposal
of listed hazardous wastes; environmental site assessments for real
estate transactions; and asbestos regulation, inspection, and abatement.
Education
I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech, who earned a Bachelor of Engineering Science and Mechanics degree in 1991.
Programs and Methodology
- Perform extreme programming customer role; analyzing
requirements, writing stories, organizing and prioritizing
functionality, leading the development team.
- Write requirements analysis documents using use cases to analyze end-user requirements before making assumptions about “how.”
- Use a UNIX shell for basic work like file
management, editing text and code with vi and awk, and writing scripts
in shell, awk, and Perl.
- Extensive use of Microsoft applications Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, Visio, and Outlook.
- Installed and used Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux for home computing.
- Worked with development teams and projects using
UNIX, Windows, Windows CE, C++, MFC for Windows, Acumate MSPL, Korn
shell, awk, and Perl.
References
- Debbie Dixson hired, and managed me at Best Buy until July, 2004.
- Mitch Major led Family Dollar Stores’ implementation of the allocation product I built at Retek.
- David Hussman mentored me in agile methodology at Retek and Best Buy.
- Molham Aref hired and managed me at Retek back in the day.
- Hatem Sellami was a colleague and manager when we worked together as consultants in the forecasting and replenishment area.
I’m a Geek
What do I love these days?
- Riding my bike in the Chequamegon 40 mile off-road race, and back and forth to work every day.
- Quicksilver, a super-slick launcher application for OS X, which I desparately want for Windows at work.
- See my ongoing bookmarks at http://del.icio.us/dansteeves68/
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