ABOUT ME

a little about me.
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“ I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them! (Asimov) ”

Travis is an accomplished software developer, architect, and speaker. A tech enthusiast and blogger, Travis finds his niche in architecting and working with teams to compose highly automated service-oriented systems both in the cloud and on-premise. Travis currently works as a Distinguished Software Engineer for SPS Commerce, the world's largest retail network. He has a strong focus on continually learning new architectures and development patterns across different stacks and technologies but has a special place in his heart for Developer Experience and Productivity.

Name

Travis Gosselin

SKILLS & INTERESTS

what i'm interested in.

Development

.NET & .NET Core
Java
Node, TypeScript
NPM, Angular, React
Relational Databases, NoSQL, Queues & Streams

Architecture

API Design
Synchronous & Asynchronous Workflows
DevOps, CI/CD, 12 Factor App, Automation
Bounded Contexts, Data Domains & Microservices
Solution Architecture

ABSTRACTS

presentation and speaking topics

BLOG

records of a software developer.

Promoting Reuse and the Design-First Approach: API Success with SPS Commerce

SPS Commerce maximized a design-first approach and Stoplight Platform to improve the internal developer experience. Their design review process went from being a weeks-long effort to an hour-long effort by creating an effective design review process over multiple iterations. They...

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Is GitHub Dependabot Now Enterprise Ready with Grouped Updates?

Is GitHub Dependabot Now Enterprise Ready with Grouped Updates?

Discovering Dependabot many years ago was one of those moments of incredible excitement. It was not the same kind of excitement as when you finished creating and publishing that new feature to production, or even the same as when you...

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Azure Pipelines: Passing Variables Between Stages

Variables inside Azure Pipelines have a long history of complexity. I get the feeling that they started off pretty simple and primitive. Over time the introduction of new features like YAML pipelines along with templating and expressions have made a...

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Top 5 Tips I Learned My First Year Speaking at Conferences

Introduction This past year, 2022, was a breakout year for me to engage with opportunities in speaking and presenting to the external software development community through meetups, conferences, and podcasts. I relished every chance that I had to chat and...

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DevEx-Powered API-led Product Growth

With the release of our REST API Standards, SPS Commerce is committed to continually evolving our Developer Experience through APIs and beyond. Join me, and the folks at Tyk.io, on the All About APIs Podcast by Tyk as we dive...

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SPS Commerce REST API Standards Now Open Source

SPS Commerce REST API Standards Now Open Source

The SPS Commerce Tech Team has been working tirelessly over the past few years in curating a single set of technology best practices that we call Guardrails. These Guardrails are the culmination of years of experience from our engineering teams in...

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Conf42: SRE 2022

I had the opportunity to speak at the Conf42 SRE 2022 conference in June this year. Definitely one of the more interesting virtual conferences I have participated in. All content is pre-recorded but streamed live at a particular time for...

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EBOOK: The API Roadmap

Excited to see the launch and free availability of The API Roadmap: Secrets to API Strategy Success from Industry Leaders from Stoplight. This book brings together many of the amazing insights and information presented in the API Intersection podcast which...

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SPS Commerce + No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS)

SPS Commerce + No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS)

If you have ever gone browsing for some great conferences for software engineers, you likely have come across No Fluff Just Stuff, aka NFJS. NFJS offers a network of conferences and webinar topics, both big and small concentrating on anything...

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AWS SDK Credential Provider Multi-Region Behaviors

In the course of investigating an issue with a multi-region deployment in AWS EKS, I ran into not just some obscure behavior from the application operating in the second region, but just straight-up bugs in the AWS SDK for .NET...

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EMPLOYMENT

my experience.
SPS Commerce - Distinguished Engineer, Developer Experience - Feb 2023 - Now
Distinguished Software Engineer, www.spscommerce.com

SPS Commerce offers a SaaS platform for seamless integration and EDI between retailers and suppliers (trading partners). Once on the platform customers can take advantage of products from fulfillment, sourcing, assortment, and analytics. As a Distinguished Software Engineer focused on Developer Experience, I work strategically to develop the emerging space of Developer Experience and Productivity Engineering at SPS. Continued research and development to enable our engineers to reduce toil and stay in creative flow longer are essential. Day to day I focus on developing broad approaches across the development teams to realize this value, while also working closely with our internal Platform teams to bridge the gap in understanding true productivity and making the quality of life for our engineers that much better to deliver an amazing product to our customers!

SPS Commerce - Principal Engineer, Developer Experience - Sept 2020 - Feb 2023
Principal Software Engineer, www.spscommerce.com

SPS Commerce offers a SaaS platform for seamless integration and EDI between retailers and suppliers (trading partners). Once on the platform customers can take advantage of products from fulfillment, sourcing, assortment, and analytics. As a Principal Software Engineer focused on Developer Experience, I worked strategically to develop the emerging space of Developer Experience and Productivity Engineering at SPS. This led to deep dives into the organization's application development patterns, CI/CD efficiency and patterns, and the development of an API program and best practices.

SPS Commerce - Principal Engineer, Analytics - Jan 2016 - Sept 2020
Principal Software Engineer, www.spscommerce.com

SPS Commerce offers a SaaS platform for seamless integration and EDI between retailers and suppliers (trading partners). Once on the platform customers can take advantage of products from fulfillment, sourcing, assortment, and analytics. As a Principal Software Engineer on the Analytics development teams, we built applications to drive the retailer/vendor in category management processes and insight using the latest technology and cloud infrastructure including AWS and Azure. Day-to-day involves architecturally designing a pluggable analytics framework that allows for client-specific customization, that is both scalable and repeatable. Agile processes, automated testing, and continuous delivery are essential components to its success.

Pluralsight - Technical Author - Sept 2013 - Sept 2015
Author for Developer Training Courses, www.pluralsight.com

As a slightly new chapter in my career, I took the opportunity to become a published author, and began building hardcore developer training material and videos for the popular "Pluralsight" website. This was a new type of challenge for me that I enjoyed very much, and the Pluralsight author community were very welcoming and helpful.

I continue to work on new material and content as a subject matter expert (Author Profile).

•Development of all aspects of course content including outline, flow, testing material, demos, and presentations.
•Acted as subject matter expert and technology specialist for course design.
•Narrating and editing of all courses.

COURSE RELEASED: ASP.NET Bundling, Minification & Resource Optimization
A complete look into the bundling and minification framework available in the ASP.NET web optimization library. Learn how to efficiently optimize your website resources and assets without comprising the way you want to develop. ASP.NET makes bundling and minification incredibly easy and leaves no reason not to ensure your web application is fully optimized.

ToolBox Solutions - Architect - July 2012 - Dec 2015
Senior Solutions Architect, www.toolboxsolutions.com

As ToolBox took a more active role in leading the Category Management industry with the revolutionary web software we had been building, I began in the lead role in architecting a re-usable, customize-able and distribute-able Web Reporting Framework for consumption within the companies own multiple development teams. The challenges in this framework were quite different than most, with the development of custom virtual pages, embedded resource dependency manager, and several other deep ASP.NET customization’s to ensure this product would be very easy to distribute and customize. This product would soon become ToolBox’s flagship product, and bring faster data insights to the customer like never before with development times cut in half. This would be the first of a few key innovative products, in which I continue to act as Senior Architect to today.

•Development of re-usable, customize-able, enterprise reporting framework(s)..
•Core feature development in .NET 4.0, 4.5 with C#, SQL Server 2012..
•Use of latest technologies where possible to bring the development and customer experience to a max..
•Administrator for TFS 2008, and migrations through to TFS 2010 and TFS 2012..
•Development of Technology Roadmaps for the dev team(s)..
•Architectural designs from Client side frameworks such as Backbone, AngularJS, Knockout all the way through the Server Data Access Tier including Web Services, Web API, MVC, WCF, and Entity Framework..
•Developed and coordinated integrated development team code reviews..
•Introduced branching and merging strategies in TFS 2012 for supporting multiple active release versions of an application..
•Continued work as apart of the companies Innovation Team for Research & Development..

FRIMP - Developer - Jan 2009 - Aug 2013
Contract Developer, www.frimp.me

FRIMP is an online networking and social dating web application designed to be fun through a series of small games. Members create FRIMP games and invite people to play for a chance to win a date with the prize Fringle player. The entire experience is brought to the players through a fun interactive interface that resembles a similar style to existing social networks.

•Lead contract developer for web application architecture, design, and implementation.
•Implementation of highly interactive interface in HTML and JavaScript backed by ASP.NET.
•Heavy JavaScript and single-page application architecture and design patterns.
•Integration with FaceBook Graph API for marketing and socializing.
•Highly service oriented architecture ready to scale horizontally.
•Agile and Kanban style development processes used.

ToolBox Solutions - Developer - May 2009 - July 2012
Senior .NET Developer, www.toolboxsolutions.com

ToolBox Solutions are very good at delivering high-quality analytics that meet any reporting need. Clients like Loblaws, Petro-Canada, Nestle Waters, demanded the highest quality work in the least amount of time. Reporting systems were built quickly and efficiently in a small team scenario, which allowed each team member to be adaptable and step into anyone’s shoes in a moments notice. Precision and performance was also a requirement as some reporting systems involved working with Billion’s of rows of reporting data all driven from a SQL Server architecture.

•Development of corporate reporting system containing billions of records of data.
•Development of core features in .NET 3.5+ and C#.
•Development of enhanced client features developed in JavaScript for maximum client side performance.
•Development and support of Sharepoint sites, and automated installation process.
•Created database architectures and designs in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008.

Process Driven - Developer - Oct 2008 - June 2009
Intermediate .NET Developer, www.processdriven.net

Process Driven are experts at building feature rich internet applications which are user friendly and fulfill business needs. They leverage client side scripting toolkits to animate, minimize download times, load features on demand, connect to live data sources, create smarter controls, give better user feedback, and provide a visually compelling user experience.

•Development of corporate reporting system containing a full feature set of exports, customizable parameter selections, and performance tuning for maximum experience.
•Development of core features and enhancements using .NET 3.5 and C#.
•Development of automated application to create specific vendor files on a weekly basis for over 150 different vendor types.
•Customization of vendor Sharepoint sites (programmatic use of WSS 3.0 and Sharepoint 2007).
•Maintained and supported Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) to allow for a secure code in a multi-team environment.
•Created database architectures and designs in SQL Server 2005.

Multiplied Media Corporation - Developer - Dec 2006 - Oct 2008
.NET Developer, www.poynt.com

MMC’s core development pertained to building highly scalable local search clients available on instant messaging clients and portable devices. I worked as part of a highly agile team that used the latest Microsoft technologies to support the development of “Poynt”. Responsibilities and contributions to the team included:

•Development of core features and enhancements to the system using .NET 3.0 and C#.
•Development of administration system for deployment with the platform using ASP.NET and AJAX Extensions.
•Consumption of external XML data to provide seamless integration of live data.
•Dynamic virtual mapping technology scripted to allow integration of 3D Maps with live data.
•System made 100% scalable via the use of modules broken down using Windows Communication Foundation.
•Maintained and supported Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) to allow for a secure code in a multi-team environment.
•Upgraded TFS to 2008, and scripted continuous integration tasks, automated builds, and deployments via MSBuild and Microsoft SMS Installer.
•Created database architectures and designs in SQL Server 2005.
•Developed .NET User Group web solution created with ASP.NET and AJAX: www.northoftoronto.net

BT Web Design - Owner / Developer - March 2006 - July 2008
Web Developer, www.btwebdesign.ca

BT Web Design’s core business involved the creation and hosting of small business and personal web solutions. As the core developer of BT Web Design, solutions and architectures were all implemented by myself in a fast paced iterative cycle. Most often sites were developed using open source technologies including PHP, MySQL and JavaScript.

•Responsible for end-to-end iteration with clients of premium web solutions from concept to implementation.
•Maintenance and support of web servers and applications to the client.
•Cost analysis, benefit structure outline, and alternatives provided and evaluated to the client.
•Solutions and architectures implemented using PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML.

Georgian College - Support - May 2006 - Aug 2006
Library Commons Navigator, www.georgianc.on.ca

As a Library Commons Navigator I was responsible for handling the first level of tech support at the Georgian College Library. This included many responsibilities from customer care to technical support.

•Support and troubleshooting with wireless network infrastructure.
•Administrative management of Georgian College passwords.
•Application and customer care support to staff and students.
•Rollout of new PC’s to replace existing legacy devices.

Overview

My employment experiences range from consultation and contract development to corporate and enterprise architecture. No matter the work, I always enjoy the challenge and opportunities that come with working on new software solutions.

EDUCATION

my academias.

Overview

While formal education backing is important, the life of a software developer really requires ongoing education as you continue to grow and learn new technologies and design approaches every single day.

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist- 2011
TS: Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation (Exam #70-536)

•Developing applications that use system types and collections.
•Implementing service processes, threading, and application domains in a .NET Framework application.
•Embedding configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation features into a .NET Framework application.
•Implementing serialization and input/output functionality in a .NET Framework application.
•Improving the security of .NET Framework applications by using the .NET Framework security features.
•Implementing interoperability, reflection, and mailing functionality in a .NET Framework application.
•Implementing globalization, drawing, and text manipulation functionality in a .NET Framework application

www.microsoft.com

Microsoft Certified Professional- 2009
TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development (Exam #70-562)

•Configuring and Deploying Web Applications
•Consuming and Creating Server Controls
•Working with Data and Services
•Troubleshooting and Debugging Web Applications
•Targeting Mobile Devices
•Programming Web Applications

www.microsoft.com

Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology- 2005 - 2008
Computer Programmer / Analyst, CO-OP Program – Advanced 3-Year Diploma

•Graduated top of the class (94% avg. over 3 years).
•Final class included building of a custom web application created in ASP.NET and AJAX driven by SQL Server 2005: www.thorntontigers.ca

www.georgianc.on.ca

“ Think my experience can help you? Contact me anytime!”

CONTACT ME

do not hesitate!
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Located in Toronto, ON, Canada

Toronto, ON, Canada