Davide Della Casa – CV

Education

  • Certified ScrumMaster and Estimation – Feb 2012
  • Executive MBA at Imperial College – Jan 2009
  • PRINCE 2 Project Management certificate – August 2005
  • Master’s degree in Computer Science – October 2001
    Full marks, University of Genoa, Italy. Fields of Concentration: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Neural Networks.
  • Certificate of Proficiency in English, University of Cambridge – January 1999
  • High School Diploma in classical studies – 1996
  • Course in French, Centre Culturel Franco-italien – 1991

Medium/large size personal projects

Besides my professional interest in Project Management, I have a deep interest in Computer Algebra Systems, live interfaces, visualisation, programming language design, generative art. I’m active in open source, maintaining 40 repositories (i.e. original repositories I created) totalling more than 650 stars on Github. Some of these projects had/have professional relevance (i.e. five JIRA-related tools) significant impact/adoption on the relevant interest groups (i.e. Algebrite, LiveCodeLab), or gained academic recognition (LiveCodeLab again).

Some of these projects were/are:
 – finalist in the Google DevArt competition 2014
 – shown at Mozilla Festival, Google IO Extended London, and Science Museum
 – presented with submitted/accepted/published paper at ACM SIGPLAN 2014
 – published in Wired UK edition (both print and online)
 – exhibited at the V&A, Barbican and Centre Pompidou
 – presented/taught in schools’ and universities’ coding workshops

Please check the other sections of this website for more details.

Professional experience

Masters Of Pie, Senior Technical Project Manager
May 2018 to now

Masters Of Pie is a SW company of 10 people specialising in 3d-collaboration software for VR/AR environments (and 3d environments in general). Our SDK/product is the official Virtual Reality plugin for Siemens NX (one of the most used CAD / CAM / CAE packages in industry).

My duties include managing development / releases of such SDK/product (named Radical), and external stakeholder management (Siemens).

Typical tasks include:
·    master of ceremonies of most internal meetings
·    admin of project management SW (JIRA, spreadsheets)
·    creating realistic release estimates (time quality and scope)
·    reporting to founders about quality/time of deliveries, and regular/ad-hoc summaries of jobs in flight
·    release management (including packaging up and sending the release)
·    managing QA activities
·    being first line of contact with Siemens for bugs and feature requests
·    providing technical input for matters adjacent to project management (e.g. branching strategy)

Key milestone: managed release of cornerstone feature of the product i.e. collaboration.

Algebrite, Founder and R&D Engineer
Jul 2016 to Nov 2018

I founded Algebrite, based around a javascript Computer Algebra / Symbolic Computation library I created in 2016 ( open source at my GitHub ).

I sold engineering services based on this library, among others I contracted as an engineer in the Research And Development department of STOIC, a company at the forefront of big-data next-generation spreadsheet engines. STOIC’s target sectors include “Banking, Insurance, Energy, Genomics, Security”. In STOIC, I worked on the symbolic algebra engine, distributed statistics functions implementation and tooling for navigation of internal data.

Shazam, Project Manager
May 2011 to Feb 2016

Shazam is a world-wide recognized brand, an extremely dynamic company and a phenomenal success story among  UK startups. Shazam’s services are user-facing and serve more than a hundred millions unique active users. I had the privilege to be a PM in almost all the engineering teams in Shazam.

My main activities included:
·    Preparation of sprints’ setup, tracking of sprint progression and release.
·    Coordinate change of process from Scrum to Kanban and vice-versa.
·    Jira administration (workflows, issue types, screens, boards, advanced queries).
·    Metrics collection (flow, burn-down and burn-up charts) and analysis.
·    Master of ceremonies (estimation meetings, triage, backlog grooming, retrospectives…).

Main milestones:
·    PM of Server team (1 year).
·    PM of release of Android 4.0, the largest Android release in the history of the company, including complete redesign and tablet support.
·    PM of release of Android 4.1 to 4.3.
·    PM for web team: managed a) transition from Scrum to Kanban. b) removed obstacles on the way of continuous deployment. c) project-management of home page redesign.
·    Interim PM for iPhone team.

Popup Pixels LTD, Co-founder and main developer
Aug 2010 to May 2011

In 10 months: released two iPhone apps and one iPad app.
·    Meteor Shower Countdown: utility for tracking the next meteor shower
·    Bubble pop pop: game
·    ‘Twas the night before Xmas: iPad book (featured on AppStore) ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZc9CJj8frw )

My main activities included:
·    business set-up
·    cost tracking and accountancy
·    design and development
·    creation of website (currently offline) and video material
·    promotion on/via third-party sites, social media and web ads
·    search for potential investors

A partnerships with a publishing business was evaluated, business was eventually dissolved due to unfavourable return on investment. All apps are currently offline.

Sony Music, Project Manager
Jan 2009 to Aug 2010

Project Manager in Global Digital Operations, planning/tracking 12+ streams of activities performed by a local team of four people, and a global team of 10+ people.
These streams are aimed at improving the way digital assets are registered into Sony’s digital supply chain.

My main activities included:
·    cost tracking of activities performed by external supplier
·    design, planning and tracking of PERT capacity estimation model for registration of all asset types
·    planning/tracking of European deployment of a new asset management system
·    tracking of software enhancements to European tracking system
·    contributions to training presentations for European territories representatives.

EMI Music, Release Manager (contractor)
June 2007 to July 2008

I was Release Manager for the global release of the new EMI digital backbone for supply-chain file transfer.

The new distributed system provides increased transfer speed and usability in respect to the legacy centralised system.

I coordinate and track the following activities across 13 countries:
·    External vendor management (SAVVIS)
·    Circuit installation (by local Telco)
·    Server installations
·    Business processes re-mapping and user information gathering
·    Sw/service setup and configuration
·    Accounts creation
·    Local training
·    Design of support processes with local deskside support team and global helpdesk team
·    Benefits tracking
·    Collateral documentation management (training material and wiki knowledgebase)

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Project Manager (contractor) – Sept 2006 to Feb 2007

I supervised the content stream for the launch of the European PLAYSTATION®3 web  portal (http://www.playstation.com) for both PC and PS3 console in occasion of the European PLAYSTATION®3 console launch. The project required:

·    A complete new design of the playstation.com web portal
·    Deployment of a new content management platform (VYRE)
·    Decommissioning of existing European playstation portals (e.g. yourpsp.com)
·    Paramount attention to timeliness of delivery, since the portal launch was
    synchronous to the console launch of Feb 23rd 2007.

The following project aspects were under my direct supervision:

·    Internal review, finalisation and acceptance of designs received from external supplier.
·    Content migration from previous playstation portals to the new portal. This included game records, manuals, editorials with related images (all localised in thirteen locales).
    Over twenty thousands elements were migrated, requiring a complex batching backup and rollback strategy for correction of mapping errors across different content description formats due to spurious manual entries of legacy content.
·    Tracking of the complete flow of new content. New content consisted in: new game records, new editorials, PLAYSTATION®3 specs and manuals, any promotion material including flash animations. The flow consisted of the main following stages:
        –    Brief definition from MKT dept
        –    Master English copy creation from editorial team
        –    Image creation from creative dept.
        –    Content review
        –    Localisation in 13 locales
        –    Import in content management platform across  environments
        –    Approval through VYRE content management system
        –    Site testing through external company (BABEL media LTD)

All the content activities required detailed coordination of content across three different environments to avoid reciprocal interference of content and overload of the content management system.

In addition, close coordination with the other streams of the project (content management platform stream and backend integration) was necessary to ensure timely delivery.

All legacy and new content was delivered in time on www.playstation.com at the time of console launch.

Vodafone, Project manager (contractor)
Oct 2004 – Aug 2006

I supervise an international team of 13 people – development team through all technical phases for delivery, roll-out and support of a mobile payment platform for VF Live! Over the Vodafone network (GPRS and 3G). Budget: for direct development only: ~2 m£.

The project requires business and technical awareness of VF priorities, coordination and conflicts resolution across teams in a matrix environment located as follows: dev team in Bilbao (ES), marketing team in Milan (IT), test team in Düsseldorf (DE), programme management team in London (UK), external software layers in Walnut Creek (Ca, US).

The platform extends Vodafone Live! (the Vodafone portal), is in its fourth major release and is currently deployed in three countries (and three other countries currently under way).
The goal of the project is to deliver software and documentation (60 documents) to local operators and merchants and to support them in the customisation/integration up to the service launch. After launch, support is given for maintenance and upgrade strategy.

Major project phases comprehend:

        ·    requirements analysis and clarification with marketing dept.
        ·    design
        ·    development
        ·    acceptance
        ·    group-level testing
        ·    integration testing in local mobile operators
        ·    rollout
        ·    support

Project phases follow the Vodafone Live! release cycle and overlap across contiguous software releases (e.g. acceptance test of release 2 overlaps with requirement analysis for release 3).

The platform is a three-tier based on J2EE, Weblogic and Jboss, Oracle. The platform has high dependencies with the following systems in Vodafone: common rendering engine, common assembly engine, customer user repository, access control system, integration framework and OpCo billing system. This being a payment platform, numerous financial and security requirements (both coming from the local operators and at group level) had to be satisfied – examples are: Sarbane Oxley (SOX) requirements, reporting requirements, security of communication with external merchants.

Accenture, Analyst (Milan office)
Jan 2002 to Oct 2004

Worked for Vodafone group on design, test, integration feasibility analyses of a platform enabling top-ups from Credit cards.

Collaboration activities held with VISA and First Data. Technical documentation review activity for the Simpay project (mobile payment initiative founded by T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange). Collaboration activities held with the three biggest mobile operators T-Mobile/Telefonica/Orange.

Algebrite, Founder and R&D Engineer
Jul 2016 to Nov 2018

I founded Algebrite, based around a javascript Computer Algebra / Symbolic Computation library I created in 2016 ( open source at my GitHub ).

I sold engineering services based on this library, among others I contracted as an engineer in the Research And Development department of STOIC, a company at the forefront of big-data next-generation spreadsheet engines. STOIC’s target sectors include “Banking, Insurance, Energy, Genomics, Security”. In STOIC, I worked on the symbolic algebra engine, distributed statistics functions implementation and tooling for navigation of internal data.

Shazam, Project Manager
May 2011 to Feb 2016

Shazam is a world-wide recognized brand, an extremely dynamic company and a phenomenal success story among  UK startups. Shazam’s services are user-facing and serve more than a hundred millions unique active users. I had the privilege to be a PM in almost all the engineering teams in Shazam.

My main activities included:
·    Preparation of sprints’ setup, tracking of sprint progression and release.
·    Coordinate change of process from Scrum to Kanban and vice-versa.
·    Jira administration (workflows, issue types, screens, boards, advanced queries).
·    Metrics collection (flow, burn-down and burn-up charts) and analysis.
·    Master of ceremonies (estimation meetings, triage, backlog grooming, retrospectives…).

Main milestones:
·    PM of Server team (1 year).
·    PM of release of Android 4.0, the largest Android release in the history of the company, including complete redesign and tablet support.
·    PM of release of Android 4.1 to 4.3.
·    PM for web team: managed a) transition from Scrum to Kanban. b) removed obstacles on the way of continuous deployment. c) project-management of home page redesign.
·    Interim PM for iPhone team.

Popup Pixels LTD, Co-founder and main developer
Aug 2010 to May 2011

In 10 months: released two iPhone apps and one iPad app.
·    Meteor Shower Countdown: utility for tracking the next meteor shower
·    Bubble pop pop: game
·    ‘Twas the night before Xmas: iPad book (featured on AppStore) ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZc9CJj8frw )

My main activities included:
·    business set-up
·    cost tracking and accountancy
·    design and development
·    creation of website (currently offline) and video material
·    promotion on/via third-party sites, social media and web ads
·    search for potential investors

A partnerships with a publishing business was evaluated, business was eventually dissolved due to unfavourable return on investment. All apps are currently offline.

Sony Music, Project Manager
Jan 2009 to Aug 2010

Project Manager in Global Digital Operations, planning/tracking 12+ streams of activities performed by a local team of four people, and a global team of 10+ people.
These streams are aimed at improving the way digital assets are registered into Sony’s digital supply chain.

My main activities included:
·    cost tracking of activities performed by external supplier
·    design, planning and tracking of PERT capacity estimation model for registration of all asset types
·    planning/tracking of European deployment of a new asset management system
·    tracking of software enhancements to European tracking system
·    contributions to training presentations for European territories representatives.

EMI Music, Release Manager (contractor)
June 2007 to July 2008

I was Release Manager for the global release of the new EMI digital backbone for supply-chain file transfer.

The new distributed system provides increased transfer speed and usability in respect to the legacy centralised system.

I coordinate and track the following activities across 13 countries:
·    External vendor management (SAVVIS)
·    Circuit installation (by local Telco)
·    Server installations
·    Business processes re-mapping and user information gathering
·    Sw/service setup and configuration
·    Accounts creation
·    Local training
·    Design of support processes with local deskside support team and global helpdesk team
·    Benefits tracking
·    Collateral documentation management (training material and wiki knowledgebase)

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Project Manager (contractor) – Sept 2006 to Feb 2007

I supervised the content stream for the launch of the European PLAYSTATION®3 web  portal (http://www.playstation.com) for both PC and PS3 console in occasion of the European PLAYSTATION®3 console launch. The project required:

·    A complete new design of the playstation.com web portal
·    Deployment of a new content management platform (VYRE)
·    Decommissioning of existing European playstation portals (e.g. yourpsp.com)
·    Paramount attention to timeliness of delivery, since the portal launch was
    synchronous to the console launch of Feb 23rd 2007.

The following project aspects were under my direct supervision:

·    Internal review, finalisation and acceptance of designs received from external supplier.
·    Content migration from previous playstation portals to the new portal. This included game records, manuals, editorials with related images (all localised in thirteen locales).
    Over twenty thousands elements were migrated, requiring a complex batching backup and rollback strategy for correction of mapping errors across different content description formats due to spurious manual entries of legacy content.
·    Tracking of the complete flow of new content. New content consisted in: new game records, new editorials, PLAYSTATION®3 specs and manuals, any promotion material including flash animations. The flow consisted of the main following stages:
        –    Brief definition from MKT dept
        –    Master English copy creation from editorial team
        –    Image creation from creative dept.
        –    Content review
        –    Localisation in 13 locales
        –    Import in content management platform across  environments
        –    Approval through VYRE content management system
        –    Site testing through external company (BABEL media LTD)

All the content activities required detailed coordination of content across three different environments to avoid reciprocal interference of content and overload of the content management system.

In addition, close coordination with the other streams of the project (content management platform stream and backend integration) was necessary to ensure timely delivery.

All legacy and new content was delivered in time on www.playstation.com at the time of console launch.

Vodafone, Project manager (contractor)
Oct 2004 – Aug 2006

I supervise an international team of 13 people – development team through all technical phases for delivery, roll-out and support of a mobile payment platform for VF Live! Over the Vodafone network (GPRS and 3G). Budget: for direct development only: ~2 m£.

The project requires business and technical awareness of VF priorities, coordination and conflicts resolution across teams in a matrix environment located as follows: dev team in Bilbao (ES), marketing team in Milan (IT), test team in Düsseldorf (DE), programme management team in London (UK), external software layers in Walnut Creek (Ca, US).

The platform extends Vodafone Live! (the Vodafone portal), is in its fourth major release and is currently deployed in three countries (and three other countries currently under way).
The goal of the project is to deliver software and documentation (60 documents) to local operators and merchants and to support them in the customisation/integration up to the service launch. After launch, support is given for maintenance and upgrade strategy.

Major project phases comprehend:

        ·    requirements analysis and clarification with marketing dept.
        ·    design
        ·    development
        ·    acceptance
        ·    group-level testing
        ·    integration testing in local mobile operators
        ·    rollout
        ·    support

Project phases follow the Vodafone Live! release cycle and overlap across contiguous software releases (e.g. acceptance test of release 2 overlaps with requirement analysis for release 3).

The platform is a three-tier based on J2EE, Weblogic and Jboss, Oracle. The platform has high dependencies with the following systems in Vodafone: common rendering engine, common assembly engine, customer user repository, access control system, integration framework and OpCo billing system. This being a payment platform, numerous financial and security requirements (both coming from the local operators and at group level) had to be satisfied – examples are: Sarbane Oxley (SOX) requirements, reporting requirements, security of communication with external merchants.

Accenture, Analyst (Milan office)
Jan 2002 to Oct 2004

Worked for Vodafone group on design, test, integration feasibility analyses of a platform enabling top-ups from Credit cards.

Collaboration activities held with VISA and First Data. Technical documentation review activity for the Simpay project (mobile payment initiative founded by T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telefo