My name is John Ryan, and as my slack-line suggests, I like to code, design and play (with technology).

I also have an interest in security (mostly hacking to be honest - white hat) and I'm due to complete a Masters Degree in Security and Forensic Computing shortly.

Outside of tech - I'm a Dad, live in Dublin, Ireland and enjoy the rugby and a spot of scuba diving when ever I get the chance.

I've come to believe that Programming is not a skill, it's a meta-skill - it's a tool, a hammer, something that we use to create other things!

As we all are from time to time, I've been asked what do i do for a living. My stock answer was usually, "I'm a programmer!" - generally due to that fact that most peoples eyes glaze over when I try to describe the details of my work. On reflection, that's like a carpenter describing his life long mastery of wood as "I use a saw!".

So it seems to me that that writing code only becomes an art when used in conjunction your others skills like arts, crafts, cryptology, forensics, graphics - whatever they may be, you name it. But without the alternate skill, writing programs is only stringing together syntax in a manner described to you by someone else! That's why I find the best software engineers have skills outside of their day-to-day working-set, and are always up-skilling and playing with technology.

I classify myself as a 3-Factor-Architect. What's this you ask? Well, it's a phrase I coined to describe the role I like to take in any job - I architect Teams, Systems and Strategies.

A Team Architect is about creating an environment that allows developers to be innovative and produce high quality products quickly - removing blockers that stifle creativity and focusing goals on the metrics that are important to the business. I achieve this using the agile and engineering framework processes I’ve gathered over the years. These allow me to create a solid base from which to build strong development teams. I then guide these teams until they become self-motivating product delivery teams. The key to achieving this is simple, strong leadership that passes on skills/knowledge as the process develops - that way each team learns to self-manage and improve the process.

Architecting Systems - this for me is the real fun part, it's where I use my skills to code, design and lead teams to build state of the art applications and software. I take a very hands-on approach and believe that coding, scripting and testing is all part of an engineers job no matter their level in an organisation hierarchy.

Finally, Architecting Strategies comes from understanding the business, it's customers needs and key drivers. This makes it more of a long-play agenda and usually comes from experience in the company. However, I find that due to their proximity to the data, engineers can have a perspective that Project Manager may lack. So I encourage all team members to run with ideas they have that will Increase ROI, Reduce Expenditure or Improve Metrics.

Overall, I believe software engineers are multi-talented and multi-use. So when hiring us, we should be used in the same way. Skills are better when shared and engineers thrive when challenged and stimulated.