About Me

Hello, I'm Chris, a UK-based technologist specialising in building business software; primarily web applications and cross-platform apps.

Professionally, my interests and experience are quite broad. I have quite a multidisciplinary approach and depending on the needs of the project can inhabit a number of roles:

• Technology consultant
• Systems architect
• Software developer
• UI/UX designer
• Devops engineer

I sometimes describe myself as a Full-Stack Plus developer, blending software development with business strategy, design, and creative problem-solving.

You might say that I'm the very definition of a "jack of all trades", except by this point I think I've managed to almost master a few of them! But there is always more to learn. When it comes to working in the software industry, the humbling reality is that everyone is really just a perpetual beginner.

In my spare time I attempt to be an electronic musician. I'm slightly obsessed with electronic dance music. I also spend a lot of time thinking about reading, meditating and exercising.

Building Useful Things

I've led software development teams and helped shape technology strategy at board level, but my core passion is simply building solutions that tackle real problems. Whether it's for clients or personal projects, I find great satisfaction in building useful things. In other words, I am lucky enough to still enjoy what I do even when I'm not being paid!

When approaching problems, I try to take quite a strategic approach, starting with trying to gain a deep understanding of the problem in its non-technical context. Technology is a means to an end - in business at least - and the most important thing is to have a clear picture of the business problem that need to be solved before getting drawn into technical details. This line of thinking sometimes reveals that the solution might not be a technological one at all!

I believe this is a good approach to using technology effectively - because the core business problem remains front and center.

Who I work with

I've worked with a large variety of organisations. I tend to work well with business leaders. I'm pretty good at communicating about technology at a high level, in the language of business rather than "ones and zeros" - though I can do those too!

I can help to bridge the gap between business objectives and finding - or creating - the right software/technology needed to meet those objectives.

What I do

As outlined above, I work across a range of disciplines, from high-level technology strategy and planning, product development and prototyping, UI/UX design, branding, systems architecture, devops, testing, operations, security, and yes... writing lines of code.

For those who have a software architecture background; I favour a clean code approach and increasingly a lot of architecture principles from Domain Driven Design, though I'm never dogmatic about these things.

I'm a big proponent of automated tests, and continuous integration/delivery. I usually setup automated unit and UI/integration test suites early on in a project, as well as a completely automated end-to-end CI/CD pipeline. I that find getting this out of the way early on allows you start to deploy quickly and regularly, with a high degree of quality and minimal risk. This also supports my quite iterative approach of software development - though I hesitate to say agile due to that term's baggage. I've experienced projects managed in every type of manner, and nothing seems to beat short focused phases of work, kept simple and delivered quickly, repeated as necessary.

Where I'm based

In meatspace I generally work from my home office in the beautiful South West of England. I've worked (remotely) with people and organisations in many different countries. I can be a bit of a night owl so I'm quite suited to working across timezones!

Why "Supertron"?

I don't know... I needed a domain name. It sounded cool. I learnt to program on an Acorn Electron (see below). I've got the imagination of a five year old boy. Take your pick!