About me

During my time at Ricardo, I have delivered many projects ranging from research and development, advanced engineering  and creating new technologies through to production vehicle programmes.  I was exposed to development of some of the earliest electronic automotive  systems with 8-bit microprocessors, programmed in  assembler and my career tracked their evolution over time to multi-core microcontrollers programmed in C and/or autocoded from Simulink.  During that time, I have gained insights into how different companies work and what is effective (and also ineffective) in the delivery of quality engineering projects.

My main skills are in

• Technical leadership, managing and recruiting engineering teams

• Simulation and modelling of automotive systems

• Engineering of complex electronic control systems

• Managing the development of electronic control units

• Production software development following ASPICE (and other) processes

• Functional safety following ISO26262 and similar standards

​

Since leaving Ricardo, I have set myself up as an independent consultant who helps clients streamline their engineering processes.

 

KISS, DRY and the Magic Number 7

​

I am a firm believer in the KISS principle (Keep it Simple Stupid!) and think that this applies to both the design itself and the processes used.  I also subscribe to the DRY principle (Don't Repeat Yourself), particularly  with respect to software and documentation.  Both of these principles were also used in the development of ASPICE-Lite by AJB.

 

During my time managing people, projects and engineering development, I also have come to appreciate The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two which I think is a good rule of thumb as it encourages people to focus on keeping complexity (of both organizations and designs) to a manageable number.  This rule is often interpreted as the number of unrelated chunks of data that most people are able to maintain in their short term memory. I use it when decomposing, for example, systems into 7+/-2 subsystems, software into modules, and Simulink into subsystems and have also used it for people management (into teams of 5 to 9 people).  It seems to produce good results in my experience, is easy to remember, so I generally try to abide by it, but I always remind myself that is just a 'rule of thumb'.​

​

My final two mantras are "It is easier to ask for forgiveness than seek permission" which is a mis-quote from Grace Hopper (an early computer pioneer in the US navy) and "Rules are for the protection of fools and the guidance of wise men" which is another mis-quote but this time from Douglas Bader  (a world war two Spitfire pilot).  These need some context as it they could be easily misunderstood.  I take the first to mean that if you are reasonably sure that a course of action is correct, just do it and don't ask permission first.  I interpret the second mantra to mean that you should strive to understand and then follow the true intention of a rule, and not just blindly follow it without thinking.  

​

And Finally ...

I have seen many things in my career including a interviewee for a graduate engineering position who said that, if they knew that I was going to ask technical questions, they would have revised.  But the most mind-bending comment that I have ever seen in software was "The following 3 lines have been deleted".  I hope that this was meant to be a joke but, knowing the person that wrote it, I doubt it!