Chris Sims is a trainer, coach, facilitator, scrum master, consultant, coder, agile evangelist, and all-around geek. He is the founder of the Technical Management Institute, facilitator of the Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group, chair of the IEEE Technical Management Council of Silicon Valley, and is on the board of BayAPLN, the Bay Area chapter of the Agile Project Leadership Network.
In the past, Chris has made a living in roles such as: Engineering Manager, Project Manager, C++ Developer, Band Leader, Bass Player, and Auto Mechanic. Now, he enjoys teaching software teams better ways to build better software.
In the eighties I was an aspiring rock star, playing bass in a series of Chicago
area bands. Without intending it, I often found myself the leader.
I scheduled rehearsals, found gigs, booked the sound and light crews,
did promotion, and mediated conflicts.
My bands enjoyed ever-greater success and eventually I gave up my job as an
auto mechanic to pursue music full-time.
While leading a band was a lot like herding cats, I loved facilitating
the creative process.
Eventually, I realized that superstardom wasn't in my future and sold my music gear to fund a college education. I got involved in student organizations, including two years as chairman of a technical group and a year as president of the student government. During this time I met a mentor who helped me grow as a leader, and ignited my passion for helping others learn and grow as well. Together, we created and delivered workshops on communication and leadership skills.
I graduated from the University of Illinois in 1998 with a degree in computer science and mathematics. It was the height of the technology boom and the Silicon Valley was at the epicenter; I didn't bother looking anywhere else. Turning down offers from IBM, Marimba, and others, I became a software engineer at FactSet, a small financial software company.
Again, a mentor played an important role, helping me get up to speed on VMS, Windows, MFC, COM, and the existing code base. For several years I lived and breathed C++, building software that kept FactSet's client base and profits growing.
The engineering team needed to grow, but the competition for graduates at top engineering schools was fierce. I put together some presentations on tech topics that would interest the hard-core geeks that we wanted to attract. The lectures were a hit and FactSet gained an on-campus reputation for being a cool and exciting company.
FactSet recognized that today's engineers were tomorrow's leaders and so hired a training firm that specialized in teaching management skills to engineers. The training made a huge difference. New managers came up to speed quickly. Meetings were more productive. Projects succeeded more often. The training was even good for employee retention, as people felt much more invested in the company that had invested in them.
The first team that I led created an application for the investment banking industry. During this project I introduced agile development methods, creating a process that borrowed heavily from Extreme Programming. To ensure that the product would meet the high standards of the investment banks, I introduced formal QA processes including automated unit and regression tests, manual white-box and black-box testing, as well as a structured alpha and beta release process. The result was a string of releases that delivered valuable functionality to the market, on-time, and with high quality. The product was adopted by most of the major investment banks and today generates tens of millions of dollars a year.
In 2005 I became Assistant Director of Software Engineering. I was responsible for multiple development teams, cross-departmental communication, planning, recruiting, training, and personnel management. Inspired by the success of the management training, I put one of my best engineers in charge of creating training classes for new hires. I worked closely with him and other engineers to create presentations, class notes, and hands-on exercises. The classes were a resounding success; new hires were making bigger contributions, and making them sooner.
While I had learned much at FactSet, it was time for new adventures. I spent the better part of a year traveling, including some time in India. During my travels I started to think about what I wanted to do next.
For years, I had been doing freelance consulting work under the banner of Humble Consulting. Most of the work I took on was software development, though I also offered facilitation and coaching services. Basically, I was Humble Consulting, and the business offered up those things that I enjoyed and did well.
Helping people grow their skill sets was what I found most satisfying. Coaching was good, but creating classes and seminars would give me the opportunity to reach more people. The Technical Management Institute was born!
