JSON Experts in Germany

Working Environment

• Insurance / Claims Management (Property, Liability, Automotive)
• REST-based ClaimAPI with Guidewire ClaimCenter

Scope

• Further development of the internal REST-based ClaimAPI with Guidewire ClaimCenter as the backend and various portals/front-end offices as clients, and with the following objectives: + increased AI-supported claims processing outside of Guidewire ClaimCenter + and support for all lines (property, liability, automotive).
• Further development of automated claims processing

Activities

• Interfacing IT & Business
• Design activities with documentation in Confluence, Jira: + Requirements engineering (functional and non-functional) + Design of REST endpoints and coordination with interface partners (esp. AI-colleagues) + Identification, design and evaluation of alternative solutions (moving away from a monolithic approach toward fine-grained endpoints, with code reuse across all lines if possible) + Creation / refinement of product backlog items in Jira, i.e. epics, user stories and tasks, incl. alignment with developers & POs during (pre-)refinement sessions + Using AXA Secure GPT when creating / refining user stories (description, acceptance criteria) and designing REST endpoints + Estimation and prioritization of user stories and tasks during Sprint Planning sessions + Coordination and support during the implementation of Product Backlog items + Driving decision making with preparation and presentation of decision-making documents
• Quality assurance: + Test management, including test case creation using Xray in Jira + Test execution using Bruno as REST client and in Guidewire ClaimCenter + Submission of test artifacts for PO approval + Analysis of production bugs

Methods Big Room Planning (aka PI-Planning in SAFe), Scrum, BPMN, EPK, UML, ERM, DDD

Tools / Tech Stack Teams, Confluence, Jira with Xray, OpenAPI/Swagger, REST, JSON, XML, MS Office, Bruno, GitHub repository (reading), Guidewire ClaimCenter, AXA Secure GPT (AXA's in-house GenAI solution based on Azure OpenAI)

AI Readiness - Part 3: Creating an e-book on the use of AI in software testing

• Designed and created an e-book on the sensible and safe use of AI in software testing from the perspective of an experienced test expert.
• Used generative AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity Pro) as a sparring partner for structuring, wording suggestions and creating variations, with all content finally reviewed and approved using my own expertise.
• Developed practical insights into the opportunities and risks of AI in testing, with a special focus on collaboration between testers and AI instead of “tester vs. AI”.
• Title: “11 starke Gründe: Dream-Team statt Rivalen - Tester und KI sind gemeinsam unschlagbar”
• Subtitle: “Wie Mensch und Maschine im Softwaretest das perfekte Team bilden – und warum reines KI-Testing riskant ist.”
• Planned use of the e-book as a basis for workshops, customer meetings or internal training.
• Technology: Generative AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity Pro, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, many years of hands-on professional testing experience, common sense.

• Designed and developed a production-ready data platform based on Microsoft Fabric for an e-commerce company
• Built a scalable Medallion Architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold) with Lakehouse and Delta Lake as the foundation for analytics and AI applications
• Developed a metadata-driven ETL platform with PySpark and a generic Incremental Loading Framework (SQL Server → Bronze → Silver → Gold)
• Developed reusable components for Microsoft Fabric Notebooks to standardize data integration, transformation, and validation
• Implemented automated data pipelines including monitoring, logging, error handling, and Delta MERGE strategies for stable production operations
• Built a business layer architecture for reporting, data warehousing, and reusable data products
• Integrated heterogeneous data sources via SQL Server, REST APIs, Amazon SP API, and Google Analytics 4
• Worked closely with business departments to analyze business requirements and translate them into scalable data architectures

Technologies: Microsoft Fabric, PySpark, Python, SQL Server, Delta Lake, Lakehouse, OneLake, Data Factory, Data Warehouse, REST APIs, Amazon SP-API, Google Analytics 4

Design and implementation of a “unified-commerce” platform for SMEs to sell and deliver multi-product bundles

Achievements: Designed and delivered a fully functional, CPQ-based “buy flow” process for configuring and selling multi-product bundles on time, and secured customer approval within the specified 90-day timeframe. Successfully tested the integration of various interface services for customer search, customer data enrichment, address validation, service qualification, phone number validation, credit checks, appointment selection and quote-to-order transition.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic goal delivery: Translating strategic customer goals into action and delivering them (e.g. release content, business value).
• Backlog management: Creating and refining backlog items (Initiatives, Epics, User Stories, Defects) in close coordination with the project team and client.
• Prioritization & releases: Owning Product Backlog prioritization and delivery of defined release goals.
• Deliverable tracking: Tracking work completed by suppliers and the client.
• Roadmap & release planning: Developing and delivering roadmaps and release plans together with the client.
• Scope ownership: Owning the contractually agreed scope of work.
• Claim management: Proactive claim and change management with the client.
• Team coordination: Managing and coordinating the development team.
• Leveraging synergies: Using synergies between client projects and product development.
• Proposal preparation: Preparing proposals (with supervision) and presenting them in person to clients and partners.

Skills: Developing, communicating and delivering product visions; Product Backlog Management; Stakeholder Management; Regular reporting to management and steering committees; Requirements analysis & engineering; Planning and documenting workshops; Functional leadership and coordination of (distributed) project teams and external service providers; Epic Management; User Story specifications; Creating use cases, supporting software testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT); Release Management and sprint planning; TO-BE process design; Process optimization; Planning, designing and specifying interfaces to existing and new systems; Identifying, assessing and managing project risks; Proactive claim and change management; Facilitating sprint planning and reviews; Data migration; Scrum; Kanban; REST API; JSON; XML; BPMN; UML; Jira; Confluence

• Optimized the data architecture (Medallion) to better decouple processing steps and improve transparency and reproducibility

• Ensured the technical quality of data processing in Databricks by introducing schema enforcement, data quality checks, and a structured data architecture

• Pipeline orchestration with Azure Data Factory

• Improved and automated the development and deployment process by integrating Git and GitHub Actions

• Technical leadership of the Data Engineering team (3 employees)

• Led workshops to optimize and stabilize the data platform and development process

• Collected and prioritized new requests and maintained the product backlog

• Technologies: Microsoft Azure (Data Lake, Data Factory), Databricks, Apache Spark (PySpark), Python, SQL, Git, Confluence, Power BI, Power Apps, Dataverse, MS Sharepoint, Mural

• Analysis of existing microservice structures and integration into the event-driven architecture
• Design and implementation of prototypes
• Introduction of structured workflows and integration into a solid testing strategy
• Team: Small specialized team (3-5 people) from analysis through implementation readiness
• Documentation of architectural decisions and definition of interfaces
• Integration of the event-driven pipeline into the existing landscape
• Technologies: Kafka, Docker, Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture, Java, Liquibase

Overall business responsibility for a program-wide initiative to create a central, authoritative data foundation for business customer master data (contacts and locations) within an IT service management transformation program.

• Managed the Epic portfolio from exploration through launch; prioritization and quarterly planning in a SAFe environment
• Aligned business units, architecture, and IT delivery around a shared vision and clear rules for data ownership (Data Governance)
• Prepared and secured scope and key decisions with program leadership, including deliberate descoping
• Managed risks, dependencies, and escalations; reported to program leadership and the PMO
• Developed the 2027 roadmap as a basis for budget and portfolio planning

Result: a clear MVP scope, key decisions made, and a 2027 roadmap. The program continued after handover without any loss of knowledge.

• Built a scalable nearshore IT developer hub (Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland) as an independent company through a BOT model (Build – Operate – Transfer)
• Identified, selected, and managed full-service agencies; introduced management and control mechanisms, including KPIs, SLAs, and regular service reviews
• Prepared and reviewed data processing agreements and framework contracts in coordination with Legal & Compliance; integrated regulatory requirements (including KRITIS) into process design
• Advised on cloud vs. on-premise strategies, data storage, and authorization concepts; supported Procurement with tendering and service provider evaluations
• Managed change and process harmonization between internal teams and nearshore partners; reported to executive management, CFO, and CIO

Result: Scalable IT developer hub with an audit-ready governance model, reduced operating costs, and accelerated product development.

As a Council Member at GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group), the world’s leading expert network, I provide organizations, investment firms, and consulting companies with expert discussions on demand – wherever specialized knowledge in information security, IT governance, and regulatory compliance is needed.

My assessments are based on many years of practical experience in highly regulated industries: from building and implementing information security management systems (ISMS according to ISO 27001), IT risk and vulnerability management, and business continuity (ISO 22301) to the practical implementation of European regulations such as DORA, NIS2, BAIT, and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

The cooperation is project- and discussion-based. I provide decision-makers with a practical perspective gained from real-world experience on cyber risks, security governance, and operational resilience – exactly when it is needed.

Project overview: The use of “Generative Pretrained Transformer” (GPT) technologies will greatly change the world of work in the coming years. ITZBund is developing a basic service for this purpose, which can be used by its 200 customers. This basic service is offered both on-premises and in the cloud. Launched in 12/23, production systems (based on the MVP) had already been successfully rolled out and operated for several authorities and federal ministries by 05/24.

Project metrics:

• 2024 budget approx. 20 Mio €
• approx. 70 people directly involved in the project
• regular (indirect) contact with approx. 80 people in the wider project environment

My main responsibilities:

• Overall responsibility as external project manager
• Project definition phase/ Project setup and establishment of the project organization
• Strategic and operational project planning, as well as project design and ongoing adjustments
• Ongoing coordination with the project owner and stakeholders at ITZBund
• Ongoing coordination with sub-project managers, agile roles, and other project team members
• Responsibility for project controlling, quality management, risk management, and change management
• Responsibility for providing the basic service in on-premises and cloud environments and its ongoing development
• Planning and leading several hypercare phases
• Collaboration and ongoing coordination with a federal ministry partner project and delivery of an MVP
• Coordination with the agile teams
• Coordination with operations, release, and deployment
• Responsibility for delivering initial customer projects
• Responsibility for developing AI governance
• Ensuring accessibility (BITV)
• Responsibility for setting up a sub-project for marketing activities
• Support in setting up an efficient proposal process
• Stakeholder management

Approach:

• V-Modell XT ITZBund
• Scrum

Tools used:

• Microsoft Office, Skype, MS Project, Confluence, Jira, Sharepoint, Miro

Temporary employment

• System black-box integration tests (BBIT, IVVQ): Execution of regression, release, confirmation and conformity tests for safety-critical braking control units in the railway industry
• Software Test Application & Integration: Runtime configuration of software components and libraries, validation of interfaces, configuration dependencies and component interactions
• Test Automation (FEAT Framework): Co-development and further development of an automated test framework for test execution, reporting and result analysis
• Functional Safety (SiL4, FuSi): Ensuring compliance with safety requirements, traceability and coverage as well as conformity with EN50126/28/29
• Test Automation for Communication Components: Configuration and validation of fieldbus (CAN) and Ethernet-based TCMS data communication interfaces (TRDP and CIP)
• Requirements Analysis & Shift-Left (PTC Windchill ALM): Analysis of software and system artifacts to identify gaps, ambiguities and redundancies early in the SDLC
• Test Design & Test Case Development: Derivation of test conditions and coverage strategies and implementation of data-driven test cases (DDT) including reusable test data fixtures
• CI/CD & Automation (Python, PowerShell, Jenkins, SVN): Automation of build, test and HIL deployment processes as well as integration into CI/CD pipelines
• Test Data & Configuration Management (XML): Maintenance and adjustment of XML test vectors and system configurations with automated integration into test environments
• Non-Functional Testing: Execution of performance and load tests to assess stability and system behavior
• Agile Development & Defect Management (JIRA, Confluence): Work in Scrum teams, test coordination, review of test artifacts as well as defect tracking and root-cause analysis
• Error Analysis & Debugging (CANoe, CANalyzer): Analysis of errors and message flows across multiple system levels (application to bus)
• Model-Based Analysis (UML, Enterprise Architect): Specification of SUT/SOW and support for systematic test control
• Process & Test Documentation: Creation of integration and test documentation according to internal quality and certification requirements

Built an international e-commerce platform for a multi-vendor marketplace for digital assets from scratch. Designed and operated cloud native architectures at enterprise scale.

• Designed and operated a highly scalable microservice and serverless architecture
• Built the complete cloud infrastructure with Terraform + AWS CDK in AWS
• Provisioned ECS/EKS clusters (Fargate), Application Load Balancers (reverse proxy), and Lambda functions
• Observability & tracing with CloudWatch, DataDog, Prometheus, and Grafana
• End-to-end setup with DataDog (formerly AWS CloudWatch), Prometheus, and custom Grafana dashboards
• Integration of advanced metrics (including ORM mapper) and distributed tracing with Jaeger
• Robust backup and disaster recovery strategies
• RDS Postgres backups and hourly snapshots
• Read-only, asynchronously synchronized replicas with automated master failover in emergencies
• Minute-level rollback capability through versioned Docker images on ECS and Git-based CI/CD pipelines
• Created CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions for automated multi-stage deployments (Dev, Testing, Prod)
• Integrated Stripe for international payment processing
• Built a marketplace payment system with multiple parties and payout routines
• Used Algolia for high-performance real-time search of digital assets on the platform
• Federation of services with GraphQL and Hasura
• Later migration to GraphQL Mesh
• Test Driven Development (TDD) - unit, integration, and E2E testing with Jest, Vitest, and Playwright
• Used Next.js / React for modern frontend applications in the nx monorepo
• Enterprise security architecture & access control
• Integration of JWT tokens with Auth0, OAuth, OIDC, IP guards, BOLA protection, and secret vaults
• Authorization concepts with RBAC, ABAC, and native Postgres Row-Level Security (RLS)
• Built internal microfrontends with Retool for fast prototyping and operational business processes

Technologies: ABAC, AWS CDK, AWS CloudWatch, AWS ECS, AWS EKS, AWS Fargate, AWS RDS, AWS S3, Algolia, Auth0, DataDog, Docker, GitHub Actions, Grafana, GraphQL, GraphQL Mesh, Hasura, JWT, Jaeger, Java, JavaScript, Jest, Kotlin, Kubernetes, Monorepo, Next.js, OIDC, Playwright, Postgres, Postgres RLS, Prometheus, RBAC, Redis, Retool, Serverless, Stripe, Terraform, TypeScript, Vitest

Project: Introduction of statutory-compliant electronic invoicing (outbound, Germany) in SAP for an international technology group.

• Project management: Planning, steering and reporting of the E-Invoicing outbound rollout across all affected business areas, including budget and resource coordination.
• UAT: Structured user acceptance test with key users per business area, test cases per invoice scenario, and consolidated test results for decision making.
• Defect management: Handover and tracking of defects in Jira, including validation of the generated invoices against the statutory schemas.
• Cutover, go-live and hypercare: Readiness checks and cutover planning aligned with the statutory deadlines, coordination of go-live and stabilization during hypercare.
• Stakeholder management and reporting: Alignment with Finance, Tax, business departments and IT, preparation of status reports and decision papers, and consistent follow-up of open items.
• Change management and documentation: Communicated process changes to the business departments, enabled key users, and created process and compliance documentation to ensure traceability and audit readiness.

• Analyzed, structured, and documented business requirements for digital investment solutions, such as robo-advisors.
• Designed applications for new retirement products, including user flows, UX requirements, and functional specifications.
• Modeled and optimized business processes and coordinated with stakeholders while taking regulatory requirements in the financial sector into account.