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Objective

An increasingly responsible technical position in development and support, where innovating decision-making and system engineering abilities will be used for improving organizational productivity and contribute to new systems development implementing complete business solutions.

Summary

Bil Simser lives and works in Alberta, Canada, as an independent Solutions Architect Consultant. He has been in software development for over 15 years and has helped build many large-scale mission critical systems along the way. Working at Canadian Pacific Railway for almost 10 years with the development community there, he established best practices, development standards and guidelines, evaluated and recommended new tools and technologies, and helped teams and projects progress into the .NET world.


Bil has been involved with Microsoft's .NET platform since the early betas and has a deep passion for good Architecture and Software Design. He specializes in SharePoint, .NET, Agile, TDD, and Enterprise Application Development. Bil also runs several successful open-source projects.  He contributes to the software development community, taking the time to review and edit SharePoint and Agile publications, and speak at user groups, code camps, and conferences around the world, including TechEd, DevConnections, Professional Developers Conference, and DevTeach.


Bil has been working with SharePoint since the late 1990s and has been a Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server MVP since 2004.

Work History

FortisAlberta Inc.

Calgary, AB, Canada
Mar 2009 - Present
Senior IT Advisor - SharePoint Services 

Independent Consultant

Calgary, AB, Canada
Oct 2005 - Present
Enterprise Architect 

Strategic Consulting, Designing and building Enterprise Architecture and Solutions for business needs. Expert in SharePoint based solutions and Enterprise solutions development. Provide consulting and mentoring to groups on adopting Agile processes (Scrum, TDD, DDD, etc.) and integrating advanced .NET development practices.

Bantrel

Calgary, AB, Canada
Oct 2005 - Dec 2008
Lead Architect, Agile Mentor/Coach 

As a key lead in the IS&T Development group, I mentored and trained staff on Agile principles and practices and provided foundation architecture to all Enterprise projects. Leading the charge on building good software systems using the latest technologies, I introduced Scrum, TDD, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration, and Domain Driven Design to the group through project participation and bi-weekly lunch and learns. I also served as chief consultant on all new projects, introducing new tools to better serve the efficiency of the group and deliver projects in a more Agile manner that continue to easily adapt to business change to this day.

Canadian Pacific Railway

Calgary, AB, Canada
Apr 1996 - Sep 2005
Solution Architect 

As a key member of the Development Support Services team, I was responsible for architecting solutions for development teams, evaluation and decision recommendations on tools and technologies, and designing and implementing our on-going Enterprise strategies. My responsibilities are involved in the entire delivery process and include gathering customer requirements, identification of possible issues, architecture, design, and implementation of applications, alignment of solutions to Enterprise Wide Architecture, coordination of development efforts of internal and external sources, documentation, training, and mentorship. Delivered Enterprise Solutions using Microsoft SharePoint and .NET technologies. Mentored teams on best development practices and introduced Agile and Scrum methodologies in small groups to several project teams.

H&R Block Canada Inc.

Calgary, AB, Canada
Mar 1991 - Jun 1994
Lead Developer 

As the lead developer of the development team, I helped design and develop the corporate tax return software which included the design and creation of the first electronic filing system in Canada that provided online submissions to Revenue Canada from distributed locations for hundreds of thousands of tax customers.

References

Judy Obee

(Peer)
Solution Architect Canadian Pacific Railway

Bil is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about developer tools. He was my primary source for information on appropriate standards and guidelines for developers. He created and managed a newsletter for developers at CPR, loaded with cool information. Having written code for a safety-critical department, he strongly supported and advocated the best practices for quality code

development. He is friendly, and a good communicator.

Gary Stedman

(Peer)
Enterprise Architect Canadian Pacific Railway

Bil has an amazing ability to internalize and communicate the enterprise implications of vendor technology plans and releases. Because of this ability, He is able to quickly balance the short term project win and the overall corporate goals when making a design decision. I would recommend Bil to anyone looking for a strong solution architect who is not only able to make the tough design

decisions, but also to step outside of their specific issue to ensure that the full implications of decisions are understood.