Boris Brodski · Java EE · since 2002

Java enterprise

Chief architect of a tax-administration backend since 2012 — JBoss EAP, Hibernate, SOAP, Eclipse RCP and Vaadin, 15+ engineers — on top of fifteen years of Java EE in insurance, energy and public-sector projects of up to 40 people.

Architecture authority, long term. Eleven years as chief architect of one platform — design decisions that had to survive a decade of change.
Deep stack. JBoss 4 to EAP 7 and WildFly, Hibernate/JPA since 2005, JMS, SOAP, JAAS/Elytron, Eclipse RCP and SWT, Vaadin, Maven and Gradle.
Teams, not just code. Coached 15+ engineers; team lead in a 40-person project; Java EE coach for customer teams.
Tested and automated. TDD since 2011, Puppet infrastructure as code, Kubernetes and Podman for the environments around the platform.

Get in touch

KONSENS

Since July 2012 I am the chief architect of a backend component of KONSENS, the joint software programme of the German federal and state tax administrations: data management, business processes, and communication with a large number of external systems. I own the architecture and design specifications, coach a team of 15+ engineers, and keep the platform evolving — JBoss EAP, Hibernate, SOAP integrations, Eclipse RCP and Vaadin clients, Maven and Gradle, test-driven throughout, with the environment described in Puppet.

Before that

Two statutory accident insurance projects (a 40-person new development as team lead for persistence and base components; then further development and large-volume tuning), a JMS-based workflow system on WebLogic, a meter-data acquisition platform polling a large fleet of electricity meters, a Java EE batch framework with guaranteed data integrity under unstable infrastructure, and a test-management application — all between 2007 and 2012, all Java EE.

What I do for clients

Architecture and design for Java EE / Jakarta EE platforms — new builds and the ones that need a steady hand.
JBoss EAP / WildFly migrations and performance work.
Coaching and reviews for teams; technical leadership on long-running programmes.
Infrastructure around the platform: containers, Kubernetes, Puppet.

Relevant work

2012 –Chief software architectTax administration, NRW11+ years · 15+ engineers
KONSENS — backend platform for German tax administration

Chief architect for a backend component of KONSENS, the joint software programme of Germany's tax administrations. Architecture and design authority for 11+ years, coaching 15+ engineers; JBoss EAP, Hibernate, SOAP integrations with many external systems, Eclipse RCP and Vaadin clients, Maven/Gradle, TDD.
- Architecture and design authority; coaching a team of 15+ engineers
- Text-model-driven development with Xtext at the core of the platform
- Test-driven, with infrastructure as code (Puppet)
Java EEJBoss EAPXtextHibernateSOAPOracle DBEclipse RCPVaadinMavenGradlePuppetTDD
12/2010 – 09/2011Web designer, developerStatutory accident insurance4 people

Message-based workflow system

JMS-based workflow system on WebLogic with Oracle ADF administration UI; built the Ant build tooling and a Python configuration tool.

JavaOracle ADFJMSStrutsWebLogicAntPython
03/2010 – 12/2010Architect, designer, developer

Java EE framework for asynchronous distributed processing

Work-package batch framework on JMS — dependency types, cluster capability, portability across JBoss and WebLogic, and guaranteed data integrity when the app server or broker fails.

Java EEJMSJBoss 5/6WebLogic 10JUnit
02/2010 – 11/2010Architect, Java EE coachEnergy3 people

Electricity meter data acquisition

Continuous polling of a large meter fleet with failure detection and a web-service interface; architecture, code reviews and Java EE coaching for the team.

Java EEJBoss 5Web servicesJMSOracle DB 11gMySQL
07/2007 – 07/2009Team lead, designer, developerStatutory accident insurance2.5 years · 40 people

Statutory accident insurance software — new development

40-person project building a multi-tier Java EE case-management system with an Eclipse RCP client — team lead for persistence (Hibernate), base components, RTF/SQL document generation, UML code generation, and the integration of signature and ECM systems.

Java EEHibernateAspectJJBoss 4/5Eclipse RCPEnterprise ArchitectANTLROracle DB 11gPL/SQL
11/2007 –Founder, designer, developerOpen source

7-Zip-JBinding — Java binding for the 7-Zip compression algorithms

Widely used Java library — the archive-format-independent API design and the JNI layer underneath it.

C++JNIJavaC++ metaprogrammingCMakeCTestJUnitGCC
sevenzipjbind.sourceforge.net
10/2022 – 11/2022DeveloperAutomotive

Camera-based cataloguing app for automotive parts

Android (Java) app for camera-based parts inventory with synchronisation to internal systems.

Android SDKJavaPHPMySQL
01/2012 – 06/2012Xtext architect, developerEnergy3 people

Web forms generated from Xtext models

Java EE / JSF application on JBoss 5 with Hibernate, generated from Xtext models.

JavaXtext 2.1XtendJava EEJSFJBoss 5HibernateOracle DBIntelliJ
10/2011 – 12/2011Analyst, developerEnergy2 people

Software test laboratory

Java EE/JSF application for managing test workflows, from requirements interviews to delivery.

Java EEJSFJBoss 5HibernateOracle DB
08/2009 – 12/2010Designer, developer, coachStatutory accident insurance5 people

Statutory accident insurance software — further development

Further development and large-volume optimisation of a Java EE case-management system; trained the customer's developers.

Java EEJMSJBoss 5Ruby on RailsGitGerritRedmine
06/2008 – 11/2010Project initiator, DSL designer, developerInternal2 people

Software industrialisation with model-driven development

Java EE 6 architecture designed for code generation; Eclipse RCP client.

JavaXtext 1.0Java EE 6JBoss 6Eclipse RCPPostgreSQLOracle DB

Skills in this direction

Security

★★★★★ Security-conscious design 1998–
★★★★☆ Java bytecode analysis & injection 2010–

Languages & DSLs

★★★★★ Xtext / Xtend 2006–
★★★★★ Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) 2016–
★★★★★ Model-driven architecture (MDA / MDSD) 2006–

Java

★★★★★ Java 2002–
★★★★★ Java EE / Jakarta EE 2007–
★★★★★ JBoss EAP / WildFly 2007–
★★★★★ Hibernate / JPA 2005–
★★★★★ SWT / JFace / Eclipse RCP 2005–
★★★★★ Test-driven development 2011–
★★★★☆ Maven / Gradle 2006–
★★★★★ JMS 2008–2010
★★★★☆ JSF (PrimeFaces 2006–2019
★★★☆☆ Vaadin 2020–
★★★☆☆ JAAS / Elytron 2007–2022
★★★★☆ WebLogic / Oracle ADF 2009–2011
★★★☆☆ Android 2016–2022
★★★★☆ Kotlin 2021–

Web

★★★★★ Puppet 2020–
★★★★☆ PostgreSQL 2006–
★★★★☆ Oracle DB / PL/SQL 2000–
★★★☆☆ OpenAPI / Swagger 2021–

Infrastructure

★★★★☆ Docker 2018–
★★★★☆ Kubernetes 2024–
★★★★★ Git / Gerrit 2009–

Systems & embedded

★★★★★ JNI 2007–

Talks & writing

2015-03 Automatisierte Tests, die Spaß machen — Enterprise-Applikationen mit Xtend und Embedded DSLs effektiv testen — Eclipse Magazin 3.15 · article
2015-11 Writing tests with Jnario — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, German
2014-11 Write scalable enterprise application tests with Xfactory — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, German
2014-10 Write cool scalable enterprise application tests with Xtend & embedded DSLs — EclipseCon Europe, Ludwigsburg · 35 min, English
2014-05 Pay your taxes with Xtext — a case study — XtextCON, Kiel · 30 min, English
2013-12 Boost JUnit tests with Xtend — Eclipse DemoCamp Frankfurt · 20 min, German
2013-11 Boost JUnit tests with Xtend and JMockit — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, English
2013-06 Test-driven development with Jnario — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, German

Java enterprise

KONSENS

Before that

What I do for clients

Relevant work

KONSENS — backend platform for German tax administration

Message-based workflow system

Java EE framework for asynchronous distributed processing

Electricity meter data acquisition

Statutory accident insurance software — new development

7-Zip-JBinding — Java binding for the 7-Zip compression algorithms

Camera-based cataloguing app for automotive parts

Web forms generated from Xtext models

Software test laboratory

Statutory accident insurance software — further development

Software industrialisation with model-driven development