Marc J. Balcer - Chief Architect

Background

Marc Balcer is a software architect, author, and teacher who has made a career of creating better specifications and turning them into powerful systems and productive tests.

Marc has many years of experience as an SDLC coach and trainer and as a consultant and enterprise modeling expert. Most recently as CTO of Model Compilers, Marc has been leading the development of TAME, a unique model-driven platform for specifying and generating many test cases from a single simple specification.

As a hands-on consultant, Marc applies agile model-driven techniques to client projects. His systems have been used to test and verify software in critical areas including molecular diagnostics, financial services, implantable cardiac devices, transportation logistics, telecommunications, and broadcasting.

Together with Stephen J. Mellor, he is the co-author of Executable UML: A Foundation for Model-Driven Development. He has numerous publications and conference presentations to his credit on topics ranging from project management to software testing techniques. Marc has developed and taught courses for Ranorex, ASPE, TCSI Corporation, and Project Technology, and has been on the faculties of SUPINFO International University and Arcadia University.

Marc holds a BS in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary and an MS from Villanova University.

Staff Snapshot

Name: Marc J. Balcer

Primary Expertise: Agile Software Development, Software Project Management, Software, Process, and Business Modeling, Test Automation, Test-Driven Development, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design

Education: BS, Computer Science, College of William and Mary MS, Villanova University

Notable Clients and Employers:

  • Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • Prudential Financial
  • Ranorex
  • St. Jude Medical
  • International Asset Systems
  • Siemens Corporation
  • Allscripts
  • Lowe’s
  • The Principal
  • Walmart

View Marc Balcer's LinkedIn profile View Marc Balcer's profile

An SDLC Agile Expert, Modeling Instructor, and Software Team Coach

In his career, Marc has taught many software teams and their companies how to leverage advanced modeling techniques to increase the efficiency and quality of their software development practices. He has collaborated on agile and model-driven development projects with Steve Mellor and Sally Shlaer at Project Technology, and with Martin Fowler at ThoughtWorks. He consistently seeks out opportunities for automation in the development process, developing tools to transform information captured during requirements and analysis into executable code and productive test suites.

Marc is a veteran Agile practitioner and has a wealth of real-world, “in the trenches” experience leading and inspiring teams.

Throughout his entire career, he has infused his instruction with his insights as an expert modeler and business process designer. Marc’s deep understanding of computing and technology opportunities make him a unique talent as a subject matter expert.

He has taught many complex organizations how to leverage the efficiencies of model-based computing and automation combined with Agile software practices. Marc also brings an extensive competency in cloud computing technologies to clients.

His continuous engagement with current technology and real-time innovation make a frequently requested speaker, instructor, and consultant.

Notable Achievements

  • Marc has long been the most qualified and sought after modeling instructor on ASPE's faculty. He has had a long career of driving innovative and practical model-based solutions.
  • For Ranorex, Marc developed the North American training program and has become an expert in transforming organizations from manual to automated testing.
  • As CTO of Model Compilers, Marc has been leading the development of TAME, a unique model-driven platform for specifying and generating many test cases from a single simple specification.
  • In a four-year-long project at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Marc and his team earned a US patent for their development of an innovative cloud-based system for validating and verifying molecular diagnostic assays.
  • At AZORA Technologies, Marc’s teams created a product to enable software architects to design service-oriented architectures and to generate the design documents and implementation artifacts directly from the architectural models.
  • For St. Jude Medical Marc led a team that developed a domain-specific language for expressing test cases and developed software for creating, managing, and executing these tests. This provided them with a more effective way to design and to execute tests of the device firmware.
  • At ThoughtWorks, Marc and his teams developed enterprise systems incrementally, rather than requiring all of the requirements up front. Lessons learned from these projects contributed to the foundations of today’s agile approaches.
  • At Project Technology, Marc studied under Sally Shlaer and Steve Mellor, developed courseware, taught courses, and contributed to client projects, becoming a passionate advocate for object-oriented and model-driven techniques.
  • As a graduate student and junior research scientist at Siemens Corporation, Marc and his team developed the Category-Partition Method for specifying and generating functional tests, one of the earliest systematic model-based test development techniques.

Specialties

  • Agile and Model-Driven Development
  • Test Automation and Test-Driven Development
  • Business Processes and Business Process Modeling
  • Executable UML
  • Model-Driven Architecture
  • Service-Oriented Architecture
  • Cloud Computing
  • Business Requirements and Business Analysis

Technologies, Languages, and Notations

  • UML and BPMN
  • SQL and E-R Modeling for relational databases
  • C#, C++, VB.Net, Java, C
  • Ranorex test automation system
  • Gherkin test specification language for Cucumber
  • R and Excel for data and statistical analysis
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • HTML, CSS, and Responsive Web Design

Publications

  • Applied SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture and Design Strategies, with Michael Rosen, Boris Lublinksy, and Kevin Smith
  • Executable UML: A Foundation for Model-Driven Development, with Stephen J. Mellor
  • The Category-Partition Method for Specifying and Generating Functional Tests, with Thomas J. Ostrand