Agile Business Navigator

My name is Kimberly Black and I'm based in the San Diego, California area. I have more than twenty five years of corporate experience including twelve years of business consulting, in various industries including healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace, military, law enforcement, banking and insurance. I have been involved in more than 40 software development projects in the past twenty years. Many of these projects produced applications that are still in use.

I worked on large scale applications using Cobol for quite a few years before moving overseas and working for the United States Army as a civilian. That's where I met databases, specifically SQL databases and was introduced to Unix programming. Its also where I met the precursor to the existing email systems and the beginnings of what would become the internet many years later. One of the applications I developed was responsible for as many as 1 million transactions per day.

In 1991, after returning to the states and California, I joined a consulting firm that specialized in client/server applications. I lapped up new technology and was quickly experimenting with the web on my own. In 1994, I tried to convince everyone there that they need a website, but the CEO felt that people just weren't ready to buy online products with the credit cards in hand. Two years later, I developed their website at their request, they felt they were way behind, and I agreed.

In 1996, I started off on my own. My first client was McDonnel Douglas, which quickly became Boeing. Our team was responsible for the creation of a software product that enables authors to create the huge quantities of FAA required airplane manufacturing manuals. Manuals that had been produced manually, would now be produced using a modular system of applications and content based on SGML, a markup language. We had upwards of 50-70 people on the project at any given time, in several parts of the world.

We all had a great time, working very hard and learning from one another. This huge project involved software developers, project team leads, project managers, consultants, testers, system architects and users at all levels. At the tail end of my involvement on the project, I started fiddling around with a new markup language called XML that the SGML guys were also just starting to use. It was also on this project that I took an interest in learning about content management, something that has held my interest greatly.

My next project was creating a subscriber management system for an online video communication system. A throng of web based applications followed for various companies until the bottom dropped out of the market in 2001.

After continuing to develop applications in the online community and branching out into the handheld application development market, I decided to investigate using my management skills by assisting business owners with their technology skills.

My past experience on large software projects and developing large scale applications benefits my clients in many ways. I know how to help groups of disparate people work together to get things done on time and within budget. I know how to make teams work as efficiently as possible. I've always been the Mikey in the group, give it to Kim, she'll make it work.

In 2003, I decided that companies needed a way to utilize technology in unision with smart business practices. I enjoy creating websites, websites with a twist on content management. I don't believe in creating websites with bells and whistles just for the sake of having a cool site. I believe in creating websites that work, that have a purpose and fulfill their purpose.

In 2003, I was reintroduced to blogging. Blogging is like an online diary. I had abandoned mine a few years earlier because the software products weren't there to support it yet. I re-started my blog with a software product called Movable type. Very quickly, I realized that its strength was content management and started using it for other purposes, a group site, a membership site, a catalog management system. Its become a real workhorse, but I've also branched out into other content management systems like Drupal, Mambo and a virtual learning environment system called Moodle.

I like taking these products, turning them on their ear and creating websites that are modifiable for users without HTML or web background.

I believe in simplicity as a focus for websites. Users should be able to find what they are looking for, quickly and without scouring a website. You have 3 seconds or less to present a focus for a prospect, after that they've clicked off your site. I offer quite a few services, you'll find my service and price list as well as my other websites in the navigation section of this website.

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