Resume of James S. Irwin
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299
Where I have been: Nearly 30 years of applying technical and cultural change to the
inception initiation, development, sales, and delivery of client-centered strategies and solutions
as products, consulting services, or C-Level advisory functions.
Where I'd like to be: To apply that experience in a leadership role for a growing
company building products and organizations that incorporate innovative technologies to
provide client-driven solutions that are constructed based on open principles such as Agile,
open source, technical and domain standards, and open architectures.
Accomplishments:






Innovative development of new solutions leveraging existing company assets and industry
trends resulting in new portfolio, products and intellectual property (patents).
Application of all phases of Software Development Lifecycle including strategic planning,
development, test, delivery, sales, pre-sales, and marketing
Technical transitions from mainframes, networking, object-oriented, client-server, web
applications, service-oriented architecture, and disruptive trends such as cloud/XaaS
Cultural transitions of development approaches evolving from ad hoc, Rational Unified
Process (RUP), Rapid Application Development (RAD) through Agile and open approaches
Creation of solutions for general computing, commercial, retail, and government agencies
Application of emerging technologies such as Speech, Natural Language Processing (NLP),
SOA, and analytics.
Professional Experience:
Varied Consulting and Independent Development
Over my career, I’ve driven numerous entrepreneurial initiatives including development and
marketing of PASA (a spousal support calculator for PA lawyers), development for
doctor/patient heuristics (NLP analysis of patient interaction transcripts), web-site human
factors for an e-commerce startup, setup and hand-coded development of www.IrwinArts.com
(my wife’s freelance art business), and currently, development of Wordpress-based www.extraolives.com (a family-run bricks and mortar gift store)
Unisys Corporation (since January, 1985)
Chief Architect USPTO Account, Unisys Federal Systems
Accomplishments: Set strategy, completed proposal, and gave winning orals presentation to win
$535 Million IDIQ contract. Established vision, team, and processes to respond to individual
task orders. As TO wins accumulated, set up delivery organization including O&M, feature
enhancements, and Next Generation (development and integration); this continues to scale.
Now leveraging Unisys’ newly established position and relationships to compete for additional
contracts in this account.
Details: initiated strategy to win USPTO contract (where Unisys had minimal position) and
after study of client, supporting development of a team of partners and vendors, drove proposal
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 1 of 7
Resume of James S. Irwin
jsirwin@ptd.net
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
(717) 380-5299
completion and lead Orals presentation. After win of this SDI contract, established task order
response process, reacting to client changes and ramping up both response and delivery teams.
Continuous role to ensure quality in responses, delivery, and to leverage these positions for
additional business development. Engaged in delivery as architect or other roles as needed to
ensure success. Provide limited “consulting” support to existing or target accounts with similar
profiles and challenges.
Solutions Architect, Federal Systems
Accomplishments: Produced technical strategy and proposals for variety of Federal Agencies,
introducing open solutions and innovative delivery and contracting processes
Details: Creating and defining innovative Enterprise-scope solutions for proposals for numerous
government entities including GSA, USPTO, USDA, NOAA/NWS, and FAA. Working
directly with a variety of governmental processes and frameworks (e.g. FEAF, DODAF, FSAM,
numerous agency SDLCs) as well as their non-governmental counterparts (e.g. ITIL, CMMI,
TOGAF). Delivery of SOA transition at GSA focusing on Enterprise Architecture definition,
planning, and transition which added SOA governance to Unisys' portfolio.
Chief Architect, Strategic Program Office
Accomplishments: Defined portfolio for CTO office for Open Source that span all business
units and geographies helping to close $500 million in new net revenue over a two-year period.
Details: Corporate level position developing strategy around open architectures, open
standards, and open source. Focus areas include J2EE, SOA, and open source solutions for
application servers, CRM, ETL and Data Transformations, Reporting, CMS, and many other
solution areas. I was responsible for strategic planning, marketing, delivery, training, and
development of technical alliances. I routinely presented Open Source and SOA strategies to
CxO and Senior IT staff to clients in numerous industries. As an early architect for SOA, I
focused maturity and adoption trends, following standards such as JBI, SCA, frameworks such
as TOGAF, business modeling tools, commercial and open source development environments,
and impending paradigm shifts in business, development, and enterprise IT. With a highly
collaborative team, I developed market-driven approach across many corporate entities
including CTO, Sales, Marketing, Delivery, and 12-15 active Open Source Partners.
Development of the portfolio required heavy involvement with our information management
solutions to communicate solutions in a variety of forms including technical solution, value
proposition, general and targeted marketing plans. These activities included development of
prototypes of integration of various open source solutions, benchmarking, and other marketing
support.
Solution Architect
Accomplishments: Led, as chief architect, highly complex, distributed, spoken and natural
language systems engagements consulting with clients in the development of their multi-year
technical and business strategies. Solutions were driven by $1B revenue from telecomm
industry clients.
Details: Design of “enterprise class solutions” for client engagements, typically with a complex
multimodal user interface presentation layer, implemented and deployed as multilayered J2EE
application suites. I developed reference architectures to create repeatable patterns and facilitate
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 2 of 7
2
Resume of James S. Irwin
jsirwin@ptd.net
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
(717) 380-5299
integration with existing customer assets. These architectures integrated many vendors of niche
solutions in an emerging technology area with the extremely high enterprise attributes
demanded by the telecomm industry (e.g. 99,999 availability, highly scalable, rapid service
deployment). These designs and implementations were reused across multiple properties within
each client account, across multiple accounts, and as a foundation for future sales in this area.
Product/Engineering Manager
Accomplishments: Conceived of, designed, and delivered a model-based dialog-flow
application IDE and runtime, leading the team responsible for complete product lifecycle. The
product supported the world-wide telco LOB by enabling development of multimodal User
Interface (speech, text, web) services assets (see patents below).
Details: Product Development Architect and Manager supervising 15-20 engineers and writers
defining requirements, design, implementation, testing, documentation, packaging, and support
of a variety of product streams. The integrated suite of tools captures abstract design of speech
and natural language applications then generate, package, deploy, test, and manage J2EE
applications that render those specifications. My role included presales, marketing programs,
full documentation, alliance management, and involvement in standards communities (W3C
working groups). The IDE is constructed using Visual Basic, C/C++, COM, ActiveX, and
extensive SQL and relational database support. It generates, tests, packages, and deploys a
model expressed as XML with a runtime renders this model in interface markup such as
VoiceXML, xHTML, mpXHTML. This program generated a number of significant patents.
Software Support Engineer
Accomplishments: While exceeding my support requirements, I conceived of, prototyped, and
promoted a solution that seamlessly exposed mainframe assets to the emerging
desktop/windows environment. This initiative established technical direction for a suite of
products adding longevity to the mainframe LOB (see patent below).
Details: I was responsible to provide support for a variety of software products closing
significantly higher number of trouble tickets than required. I developed a lab by recycling PCs
which had been discarded for newer versions. I used this lab for testing and extending
numerous support processes to respond to changing product lines and customer requests.
While performing my support duties, I also used this lab to reverse engineer Microsoft client
and then identified the standards the industry was pursuing in this area, I developed a prototype
of a product that enabled PCs in emerging Microsoft networks to access mainframe resources
(files, printers, pipes, etc.). The solution included PC booting from the mainframe creating a
class of “diskless” workstations for which I was awarded a patent. This prototype became the
basis for a product line that significantly extended the sales life of the mainframe LOB as PCs
emerged as the "window" to mainframe systems.
Software Engineer (Networking)
Accomplishments: As an intern I developed a configuration tool, contributed to a multiple
layers in the mainframe network solution and then was asked to become permanent prior to
graduation to support an complimentary Intel-based networking product.
Details: I was initially hired to support development of a mainframe-based tool for
configuration of a complex and adaptable OSI model networking solution that included
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 3 of 7
3
Resume of James S. Irwin
jsirwin@ptd.net
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
(717) 380-5299
numerous terminal and networking protocols. I created a build utility that generated code to be
included into that tool that enabled engineers to declare attributes from which a UI would be
produced. This reduced time and tedious alignment while increasing the fidelity of the
implementation. I later moved to implementation of the networking software for the
mainframe. Here there was a tight coupling of libraries included in the solution that were
developed by different facilities. This made version control of a released product extremely
complex and often resulted in systems with mismatched components. I decoupled the libraries
by developing a message exchange protocol to replace the tight linkage that was common
practice at the time. This messaging approach enabled releases to occur on the schedule driven
by each facility with a feature set that was determined by the combination of the libraries.
Finally, I was asked to work on the Intel-based systems which involved development of a multitasking Operating Systems which hosted various networking protocols and physical interfaces.
Development at this level involved high level languages (Pascal) as well as In Circuit
Emulators.
Community Residential Rehabilitation Inc. (June 1981 to October 1984)
Assistant Program Manager/Senior Advisor
Accomplishments: Initiated pilot programs for highly customized private sector services in the
mental health system, developing funding process with county agencies, streamlining services
for clients through targeted needs. Results included reduced cost to county, higher quality
services to clients, and increased revenue to the company.
Details: Mental Health Professional leading to position of Assistant Program Manager. Primary
experiences included Direct Intervention and Counseling as well as supervision of 15+ staff across
four residential facilities and a base office. Responsibilities included Interpretation of Government
Regulations, Personnel Management, Facilities Management, Coordination with Outside Agencies,
Crisis Management, and Program Expansion.
Additional Work Experiences (Prior to 1981)
Prior to and throughout college, I worked in all roles in the hospitality industry from bell hop, front
desk, dishwasher, short order cook, bus boy, waiter, and banquet manager. I worked in a variety of
manufacturing environments and supplemented my income playing in bands and tutoring students.
Management and Business Support Skills
Identifying need-driven solutions, development of the market for those solutions, and driving
creation of the products and services that fills those needs
.
Strategic Planning
Business Development
Product Development
Portfolio Development
Market Development
Product and Portfoliodriven Services
Market Trends and
Client Development
SDLC - Agile, RUP, RAD
Research
Technical Trends and
Presales Support
Business Alignment
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 4 of 7
4
Resume of James S. Irwin
Adoption
Product Concept and
Launch
Strategic Alliance
Development
Staff Planning
Open Source Business
Model
Product/Company
Evaluations
jsirwin@ptd.net
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
(717) 380-5299
(Product Owner proxy)
Bid Response and
Team Building (Certified
Proposal Development
Scrum Master)
Trusted Advisor role
Staff Selection and
Development
Customer-facing C-Level
Sizing and Pricing
Presentations
Orals Presentations
User Help, Rollout, and
Training
Development of
Service Personnel Training
Marketing Materials
Abstract Technical Skills
Applying experience from years of Information Technology evolution that now represent
industry best practices.
SDLC
Principles of Agile
Manifesto
Requirements
Gathering,
Decomposition,
Backlog Management
Non-functional
Requirements and
SLAs
Multi-perspective
Design Documentation
Code Development,
Quality and Code
Sifting
Continuous Build and
Test
Requirements-driven
Testing, Op Readiness
Source Control &
Configuration
Management
Deployment Best
Practices
Architecture
Business Requirements
Alignment
Enterprise Architecture
and Frameworks (e.g.
FEAF, TOGAF, DODAF)
Adoption
Business Transformation &
incremental change
User Centered Approaches
(UxD)
Enterprise Integration
(EIPs) and Design
Patterns
SOA and Principles of
SOA Manifesto
Leveraging Open Source
SOA Adoption and
Governance
Human Interfaces and
Design Principles
Leveraging and Applying
Standards
Management and
Monitoring
Documentation / Training
Environment and
Compatibility
Management
Operations and
Management Support
Business and Technical
Service Taxonomies
Participation on Standards
Bodies
Leveraging disruptive
trends (Cloud, "as a
service", analytics)
Separation of Concerns
Technologies and Product Skills
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 5 of 7
5
Resume of James S. Irwin
jsirwin@ptd.net
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
(717) 380-5299
I deeply enjoy direct participation in product development and experience provides me with a
broad foundation to do so. My hands-on experience varies, but I can quickly get up to speed at
a depth necessary to accomplish any task.
User Story, Use Case
development
Workflow and Modeling
(Provision)
Externalization of
Properties, Rules (e.g.
Drools) and Workflow
(BPEL)
Unit and Integration
Testing (e.g. JUnit,
DBUnit)
Function, Performance
Test (e.g. JMeter, Grinder,
SOAPUI)
Continuous Build/Test
(Maven, Hudson, ANT)
Power User Word,
Powerpoint
Requirements Mngmt
Tools (home-grown,
Req Pro, Rally)
Eclipse-based IDEs,
Java/JEE (JBoss,
Tomcat)
Microsoft
(VB6/C++/COM)
User Centered Design
Principles
Web Services (SOAP,
REST, standards W3C, OASIS, WS-I)
Messaging, ESB,
Registry and Service
Taxonomies
Working Knowledge
LAMP (Perl, PHP)
Wordpress, CMS
solutions and standards
(e.g. CMIS)
GUI Frameworks (JSP,
JSF, Struts, other MVCbased, portals)
Open Source Solutions
(e.g. Apache, JBoss, BIRT)
HTML and markup (e.g.
other device-specific),
CSS, transformations
Javascript, Working
knowledge of Dojo,
JQuery
Natural Language
Processing (NLP)
Speech Recognition, Text
to Speech, Audio
Patent Awards and Filings
Dialogue Flow Interpreter Development Tool – US Patent - 7,389,213
Dialogue Flow Interpreter Development Tool – US Patent – 7,024,348
Dynamic generation of voice application information from a web server – US Patent - 20050028085
Systems and Methods for Managing and Building Directed Dialogue Portal Applications – US Patent – 7,395,206
Apparatus for Design and Simulation of Dialogue - US Patent - 6,321,198
System and Method for Remote Program Load - US Patent - 5,404,527
TN236 – Testing Techniques (filed August 2002)
TN307 - Managed Services (filed Apr 2005)
Distinctions





Unisys Innovation Badge (2014)
Three Achievement Awards for Excellence [from managers]; highest cash bonus recipient
[judged by peers] for Apollo Bonus Award Program;
Numerous Unisys Short Term Awards;
Recipient of multiple Customer Comes First Awards.
Product (Speech Application Development) featured in VoiceXML Introduction to
Developing Speech Applications, (James A. Larson, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 6 of 7
6
Resume of James S. Irwin

jsirwin@ptd.net
55 Ream Road, Stevens PA 17578
(717) 380-5299
New Jersey, 07548 ISBN: 0-13-009262-2, ©2003).
Coauthored SOA World Byline: http://soa.sys-con.com/read/492583_p.htm#
Interests









Intersection of Psychology and Computer Science
The open movement including implications to industry, government, and culture
Computer’s role in education, communication, overcoming disabilities, and free thought
Man-Machine Interfaces (Natural Language, Speech, GUI design, innovative interfaces)
Semantic Web and broad implications of “smart machines” and “machines that learn”
Blogging (http://www.thenithitme.com)
Active Music Combos, Piano/keyboards, Bass Guitar
Analog and digital recording (music)
East Cocalico Township Recreation Board (former chairman)
Education
Certifications
Agile Certified Scrum Master (8/2010, renewed 2012)
JBoss Advanced J2EE Developer (Aug 2006);
JBoss for Hibernate (Aug 2006).
Degrees
M.S. Computer Engineering Kennedy Western University (graduated 7/00). Courses include
Computer Science Theory (Formal Languages and Automata), Artificial Intelligence, User
Interface Design; Thesis in Natural Language Understanding.
B.S. Computer Science (Cum Laude) Millersville University of Pennsylvania (graduated
12/85). Included paid position in Campus Computer Labs, Consulting for Conestoga School
District, and Beta Testing of Concept 3 Software.
B.A. Psychology (Magna Cum Laude) Millersville State College (graduated 5/81 with double
the major requirements). Six graduate credits in Clinical Psychology.
Educational Honors include being selected to participate in the ACM Scholastic Programming
Contest; Math and Computer Science Chairman's List for Academic Achievement; and Math and
Computer Science Departmental Honors for three separate classes.
jsirwin@ptd.net | (717) 380-5299 | Page 7 of 7
7