Consultant profile

Mr Fairman is an approved Associate Consultant at Appleton Greene and he has experience in information technology, management and e-business. He has achieved a Higher National Diploma in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and an EDP (Mini MBA). He has industry experience within the following sectors: Automotive; Defense; Electronics; Technology and Telecommunications. He has had commercial experience within the following countries: South Africa; United Kingdom; United States of America; Egypt and Turkey, or more specifically within the following cities: Johannesburg; London; Boston MA; Cairo and Istanbul. His personal achievements include: managed national roll-out of Tracker; facilitated handover of Egyptian EW project; managed Uplink project for LoJack; managed handover of SAAF project and designed BlueBox Home Energy System. His service skills incorporate: project management; technical management; SDLC; lifecycle management and technical leadership.
To request further information about Mr. Fairman through Appleton Greene, please CLICK HERE
Executive summary

ITC Development
High-tech developments have become more complex due to the high levels of integration required by clients, where the domain of the desktop must now be made available to mobile devices owned or not owned by the enterprise. This complexity leads to a wide range of problems as the IT solutions now have to be very agile, secure, accessible anywhere on the planet and usable on a wide range of devices. Developments have to be scrutinized in greater depth to ensure that what is being asked for by the client is achievable with the minimum of disruption to the business, but realizes maximum benefit.
This requires the ability to see the bigger picture and tailor the development to meet the exact needs of the business, not perceived needs. An alarming number of ITC developments fail or are abandoned due to overruns of time and cost, and an early indication that the requirements will fall short of client expectations. The most important key to success is the ability of the development to stay on track and stick firmly to the original requirements. This is easier said than done and requires a unique set of skills, honed over many years of witnessing how not to run and manage developments covering several industry sectors.
The key is being able to see the requirement from the outset and know what’s needed in terms of resources, technology choices and development partners. The service offering must have a clear vision of what’s required to analyze the requirement, communicate the design, and finally to develop and demonstrate the end result.

Service Methodology
Developments need three attributes to be a success: vision, pragmatism and experience. These combined form a very solid foundation for finalizing a development that not only endures but produces the expected results. The most important phase is the beginning, as it is here that the information we require to design the solution is gathered from the stakeholders who will benefit the most. The vision attribute plays a major role at this juncture as it enables us to see at an early stage what’s actually needed in the design that is absolutely necessary. While we recognize the importance of engaging stakeholders, we have learnt to be selective and avoid spending too much time on developing a ‘wish-list’ as opposed to a specification.
The pragmatic approach makes sure that we direct all our resource time to achieving the goals and meeting the requirements of the client through the design of the system. When the development forms part of a program, we make absolutely sure that we will not be spending our time being side-tracked on unrelated issues. We make sure that our development strategy is tabled at the earliest stage with the PMO or projects directorate so that they understand our roles and responsibilities so that we have consensus.
Ultimately our experience drives our success as it is this attribute that moves us forward in the right direction, increases our productivity and gives us a sense of what works and what doesn’t throughout the life-cycle. This experience has delivered high tech and mission critical systems in the Aerospace, Defence and Telematics industries internationally. We avoid the unnecessary and concentrate on the necessary. This methodology is a philosophy that works, because it keeps the design principles true to what the client wants, expects and is paying for.
