Learning the operation before writing the software
I helped create a mobile cruise-operations product line, then followed the work from architecture and delivery into implementation, solution engineering and production support on board ships.
The shipboard operation
Fidelio Cruise built software for the operational reality of a floating hotel: housekeeping, passenger services, excursions and shipboard workflows that still had to work when connectivity was expensive or intermittent.
FC Smart was the mobile product line around that core platform. It ran on roughly 10 to 20 vessels across fleets including Pullmantur, MSC, P&O Cruises, Hurtigruten and Uniworld.
From architecture to implementation
- I was the first developer in FC Smart, made its founding architecture decisions and grew the team to five, including hiring developers.
- I worked across business cases, specifications, implementation, testing, documentation, tier-3 support and customer-facing delivery.
- After moving to Oracle Hospitality Cruise, I focused on implementations, solution engineering, customisations, upgrades and support while still contributing development work.
Where specifications met reality
The software served people working thousands of miles offshore. I travelled to ships and cruise-line headquarters to watch the operation, install and customise the products, and find what the specification had missed.
VSAT satellite connectivity was extremely expensive, so the first architecture kept the server physically on each ship. Later work added ship-to-shore synchronisation without making the operation depend on a permanent connection.
Products that reached the fleet
- We shipped iCrew for crew and officers, iGuest for passengers and iInfo for shore-excursion sales. iCrew still ships as an Oracle product today.
- The experience established the product habit that has followed me since: understand the real operation first, then decide what the software should do.
What stayed with me
During the Oracle transition, development and product responsibility moved elsewhere while the local role shifted toward support. I would make ownership of the product feedback loop explicit earlier, because separating delivery from the people closest to the operation weakens both.
“As a Developer he was always approachable and patient with us Consultants, and once he joined the Consulting team he only added value since he brought with him a world of knowledge and a great personality.”