Neil Chalk

What I learned:

• Foundational abilities in applying ethical and legal frameworks for the data profession
• Practical approaches to data and analytics problems, including Big Data and Data Science and AI
• Applied data methods for ethical and legal work in Analytics and AI

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HBX CORe (Credential of Readiness) is a 120-150 hour certificate program on the fundamentals of business from Harvard Business School. CORe is comprised of three courses - Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting – developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning model.

Read more on my HBX blog post

An overview course on using impact mapping to drive changes in behaviour that have business benefit, run by Gojko Adzic and Dave Evans.

My main takeaways

Reporting to the Production Services Manager:

• Plan and manage client system upgrades, including analysis and QA.
• Establish, evolve and document formal upgrade and deployment processes.
• Act as a technical consultant to 15below, supporting all areas of the business.
• Build and maintain a catalogue of services and configuration information related to those services (Configuration Management Database).
• Building knowledge of product and configuration to assist with establishing baselines and feeding into customer’s SLAs and KPIs
• Act as part of Change Advisory Board.
• Own Technical Debt Register.
• Feed customer specific scenarios into QA processes / automated testing

Three courses that gave me a solid foundation into the business side of managing software development processes.

• M882 Managing the software enterprise (2008)
• T848 Managing technological innovation (2013)
• M883 Software requirements for business systems (2014)

• Secondment to the support team bringing technical and process experience as well as being an escalation point when the team leader is unavailable. I have helped automate some support tasks, improving team efficiency and reducing the support overhead. Another enjoyable aspect of my role has been in recruiting placement students and a permanent developer to the support team. Then mentoring them as they begin their careers.
• I also provided technical input on existing business functionality to both the design review committee and production change control board. In these responsibilities I aim to maximize the technical debt that can be repaid in new enhancements and to minimize the risk to production in roll out and project go live. This was where I started loving the process of Product Management.

Both roles allow me to look beyond an immediate task at hand to the wider business and then how we can increase business value. Highlights include:

• Co-ordinating with the Client Support Team Leader the update of the reservation system interface for a US client when their NewSkies system was upgraded to 3.2.
• Helping to deliver and co-ordinate the roll out of an enhanced voice solution, which supported processing through Sabre Reaccommodation Manager, for another US client.