About David
David was working in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University in the 1970s, when he discovered that computers could deliver misleading answers, even when programmed by very clever people. His ongoing interest in getting computers to deliver useful automation culminated in his joining Bloor in 2007 and taking on the development brief.
Development here refers to developing automated business outcomes, not just coding. It also covers the processes behind automation and the people issues associated with implementing it. He sees organisational maturity as a prerequisite for implementing effective (measured) process automation and ITIL as a useful framework for automated service delivery.
He also looks after Collaboration and Business Process Management for Bloor, and takes a lively interest in the reinvention of the Mainframe as an Enterprise Server.
Professional Background
David has worked in database administration (DBA) and operations research for the Australian Public Service in Canberra. He then worked for Bank of America and Swiss Bank Corporation in the UK, holding positions in DBA, systems development method and standards, internal control, network management, technology risk and even PC support. He was instrumental in introducing a formal systems development process for the Bank of America Global Banking product in Croydon.
In 1992 he started a new career as a professional writer and analyst. He is a past co-editor/co-owner) of Application Development Advisor and was associate editor for the launch of Register Developer. He helped organise the first London CMMI Made Practical conference in 2005 and has written for most of the major computer industry publications.
He has the ability to extract the essence of significant technical developments and present it for general consumption, at various levels, without compromising the underlying technical truth.
Education
David has an honours degree in Chemistry, a graduate qualification in Computing, and is a Chartered IT Professional. He has a somewhat rusty NetWare 5 CNE certification and is a Member of the British Computer Society (he is on the committee of its Configuration Management Specialist Group).
CIO WaterCooler Contributor and Bloor Editor, David Norfolk, explores the Digital.ai Value Stream Management platform. The platform integrates existing tools such as Collabnet VersionOne, XebiaLabs and Arxan. VSM involves making an entire software pipeline transparent, with interoperable tools (including APIs for the integration of existing tools from other vendors in an organisation) and is about tracking, measuring and optimising value delivery.
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Bloor Editor David Norfolk explores KeeperHR, which aims at elucidating employee personalities and keeping a record of them in a Personality Profile. This one’s a Keeper!
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BMC has just acquired Compuware, which complements BMC’s mainframe management capabilities with Compuware’s mainframe DevOps capabilities.
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David Norfolk reviews “The Chaos Factory” by Adam Wasserman, an excellent historical guide to how IT got the way it is today.
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David Norfolk from Bloor Research provides some perspective on IBM’s Think Conference being hosted online this year. David also shares some of the key developments coming from IBM including advances in edge computing and 5G, with hybrid multi-cloud offerings that bring together Red Hat OpenShift.
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