I recently got certified in Microsoft Azure Fundamentals and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. Hoping to help others who plan to do the same, I wrote an article on LinkedIn on how to get certified in two weeks. Your feedback is welcome!
Why I stopped using Facebook
A few of you noticed that I disappeared from Facebook, and asked me if everything is fine with me. Let me start by reassuring that everything is fine with my loved ones and me, both in Norway and Italy. That said, the reason why I deleted my Facebook account is that I cannot stand the disinformation and divisiveness on my feed anymore.
Three actions to achieve digital workplaces in the new normal
A digital workplace requires a comprehensive approach to delivering a consumer-oriented IT environment, where the technology is continuously improved, and the workforce is frequently upskilled.
This approach is ambitious, and is going to cost—but it may be the most forward-looking investment you can make in the Covid-19 crisis.
I wrote an article (in English and Norwegian) on the PwC website, were I suggest three actions to achieve digital workplaces in the new normal. Your feedback is welcome!
A shorter version of this article was published in Norwegian in Teknisk Ukeblad on May 2020.
Five actions for academia and industry to bridge the gap and co-create innovation
Many potentially breakthrough ideas fall into the so-called technological “valley of death” due to a gap between academic research and industrial commercialization.
This is a missed opportunity for economic and social progress, so I decided to write about it.
After just three months with PwC, here is my first contribution to our website: five actions for academia and industry to bridge the gap and co-create innovation.
A shorter version of this article was published in Norwegian in Teknisk Ukeblad on February 2019.
Opinion: Why is model-driven engineering unpopular in industry, and what can we do about it?
Model-driven engineering (MDE)1 is a branch of software engineering that aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of software development by shifting the paradigm from code-centric to model-centric.
I have been in the MDE community on and off for about 15 years. My supervisor at the University of L’Aquila, Alfonso Pierantonio, introduced me to MDE in 2003. Back then, the approach was still in its infancy and was not even called model-driven engineering. I wrote my Bachelor thesis in 2003 on code generation based on Unified Modeling Language (UML), and my Master thesis in 2006 on model versioning.
During my four years as a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen, I researched formal aspects of model versioning and multi-level modeling, and successfully defended my PhD thesis in 2011. During my following four+ years as a researcher at SINTEF, I conducted applied research on domain-specific languages and models@run-time for automating cloud management platforms. I also compared two-level and multi-level techniques for modeling cloud application topologies. My work has led to several publications in journals and conference proceedings.
Eventually, I decided to come back to the business world, with the aim of transferring these research results to industry. As an advisor and manager at Norway’s largest IT organizations, I have worked with architectures and solutions as well as trained colleagues and clients. While I did not expect MDE to be widespread, I did expect UML and domain-specific languages (DSLs) to be an integral part of these activities. Unfortunately, I have been disappointed.
Footnotes
- Some researchers in the field would argue that this approach is not an engineering discipline and that it should be called model-driven development (MDD) instead. The Oxford English Dictionary defines engineering as “the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures.” Considering that software and data are in fact structures, I am perfectly comfortable with the term model-driven engineering, and I will not distinguish between MDE and MDD. ↩