Johan Olivier
Security and Compliance Director & Mental Health Advocate
Cape Town, South Africa
I am a Security and Compliance Director at QorusDocs where I am responsible for the company-wide information security posture and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.
My career in the compliance space is backed by 20 years’ experience as a Software Solutions Architect and 2.5 years in an executive leadership position as SVP of Engineering.
I am a mental health advocate in the IT sector. Having worked in seven countries across four continents I have developed a special interest in behavioral sciences, psychology, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. I am a motivational speaker at tech conferences where I use my experience and principles of cognitive behavior therapy to inspire others to build happy and fulfilling careers.
I actively participate in the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) workgroup and have recently been named a lead author of the Cybersecurity Control Framework for Cloud Computing Implementation Guidelines (CSA CCM).
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Primed for Performance
Do you feel you can be a much better developer, but something is holding you back?
Are you a passionate technologist but heavy workloads and busy schedules keep you from learning new skills and raising your profile?
If you know you can be a world-class developer and you are looking for ways to increase your growth trajectory do not miss this inspiring session. We will discuss seven principles to help you remove interferences and unlock your greatest potential to becoming the best software developer you have ever known.
Key take-aways:
• Why do we want to be better?
• What is holding us back, and are looking in the right place?
• Developer lessons learned from the lion - king of the jungle.
• Principles for managing oneself.
• GRIT for developers.
• Engineering an environment for optimal growth.
Microsoft Teams – The new productivity platform for developers
With 13 million daily users Microsoft Teams has become the productivity hub for Microsoft Office 365 but what does it mean for developers?
In this session, we will discuss the opportunities, techniques, and tools available to developers for building apps for Microsoft Teams and we will evaluate best practices for pairing Microsoft TEAMS with SCRUM, Kanban & CI/CD to increase team effectiveness.
Key take-aways:
- The MS Teams success story and why developers should take note
- Best practices for pairing MS Teams with SCRUM, Kanban and CI/CD
- The MS Teams Extensibility Model – develop six different types of apps
- Become an expert with the MS Teams Dev Center
Decision Making & Cognitive Traps for Developers
Whether you're a Developer, Systems Engineer or Business leader, you constantly make decisions important to you and those immediately around you. During the decision-making process, we are susceptible to various cognitive biases, archaic thought patterns and perception traps which lead to poor decision making.
In this session, we will explore the process of making a good decision and identify common mistakes, mental shortcuts and theories to help strengthen your decision-making ability.
After the Conference
Do you often leave a conference feeling inspired and keen to learn more but find once you get back into everyday busyness the post-conference enthusiasm quickly wears off?
The greatest benefit we get from attending a conference does not happen on the conference day but rather in the weeks following the conference. The excitement and state of mental inquisitiveness instilled in us during the conference can accelerate personal growth but only if harnessed correctly.
Through years of research and experiments with development teams, I formulated a series of principles to help developers nurture and safeguard their conference experience long after the event. These principles will help you effectively acquire new skills, remain enthusiastic, connect with industry peers, give back to the development community and raise your profile.
Key take-aways:
• It takes more than technical skills to be a world-class developer.
• Why conferences are so impactful.
• Preparing for a great conference experience.
• Make the information permanent with Blooms Taxonomy for Learning.
• After the conference – a mind-shift, practical steps, and good habits.
• How to establish and serve a local development community.
The Resilient Developer
Every developer starts his career with a simple dream; use technology to solve problems, write robust code and deliver world-class solutions...and have loads of fun!
The modern workplace is not that simple and as we progress through our careers, we face a series of psychological and emotional challenges that are difficult to understand and overcome.
Competitive markets, complex human behavior, rapid changes in technology, and everchanging agile business practices make a software development career an unpredictable, demanding and complex journey for which the individual requires more than technical skills to be successful.
In this session, we will explore principles you can practice and add to your technical abilities to ensure you build workplace resilience and become the best you can be.
Security, Privacy, and Compliance in the Development Lifecycle
The software development landscape is constantly evolving and Security, Privacy, and Compliance requirements now impact every software developer more than ever before.
In this session, we will take a look at the importance of staying abreast of current cyber threats, regulatory requirements, and data privacy laws to help developers be more successful.
We will also look at principles for introducing a security-first mindset culture and automating security into every phase of the software development lifecycle from design to delivery by using the Microsoft Security Products: Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Purview, and Microsoft Priva.
Protect your Organization, Solutions, and Development Teams with Comprehensive Security
In this session, we will showcase Microsoft's product innovations across Cloud Security, DevSecOps, Threat Protection, Identity Governance, and Information Protection and we will look at principles for introducing a security-first mindset culture and automating security into every phase of the software development lifecycle from design to delivery.
Compliance, Security, and Privacy in the Software Development Life Cycle
The software development landscape is constantly evolving, and Security, Privacy, and Compliance requirements now impact every software developer more than ever.
This session starts with taking a look at why privacy laws, compliance, and security have become more prevalent and critical in the IT industry, and I then share valuable lessons from the field on how to successfully adopt a compliance program into an organization without disrupting the software development team. I will discuss proven techniques to implement shift-left security in the SDLC and ways to foster a security-first mindset culture from design to delivery.
After 22 years as a Solutions Developer and Architect, our speaker pivoted from being Senior Vice President of Engineering to Security and Compliance Director and he successfully guided his organization through three SOC 2 Type 2 audits. He has also been named as lead author of the Cybersecurity Control Framework for Cloud Computing Implementation Guidelines (CSA CCM) by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).
This lessons-from-the-field session is not to be missed.
A Developers odyssey to overcoming fear, anxiety, and burnout.
As professionals in the IT industry, we sometimes have trouble we wish wasn't there and it’s hard for us to understand, internalize, and process non-technical challenges. We are immersed in an ever-changing, fast-moving, and demanding world that expects nothing but the best from us while constantly throwing challenges at us. We feel uncertain, unfulfilled, exhausted, stressed, and we wonder where we lost our energy, excitement, and enthusiasm.
In this session, I will use valuable lessons from my dev career spanning two decades, combined with years of research in mental health and cognitive behavior analysis to share principles that helped me through a remarkable recovery from stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, and ulcers.
Enjoying a fulfilling IT career requires more than just technical skills. It requires all of you. Let us help you become more resilient and better equipped to overcome obstacles and live abundantly.
Cape Town MS Developer User Group (@CPTMSDUG) Monthly User group Sessionize Event Upcoming
DevConf 2023 Sessionize Event
HomeChoice Tech Talks
HomeChoice Tech Talks day for local developers. I was invited as guest speaker.
Session: The Resilient Developer
Software Developers start their career with a dream... to use technology to solve problems and build world-class solutions...and in the process have loads of fun!
But the modern workplace is not that simple and as we progress through our careers, we face a series of psychological and emotional challenges that are difficult to understand and overcome. The career becomes an unpredictable, demanding, and complex journey and the dream could seem unattainable. We learn we need more than technical skills to be successful and to overcome obstacles and thrive in the workplace is an ongoing battle.
In this session, we will explore principles you can practice and add to your technical abilities to ensure you build workplace resilience and become the best you can be.
Azure Bootcamp South Africa 2022 - Cape Town Sessionize Event
Microsoft Ignite The Tour Johannesburg
Microsoft Ignite The Tour brings the very best of Microsoft Ignite to a city near you. The tour provides technical training led by Microsoft experts and your community. You’ll learn new ways to build solutions, migrate and manage infrastructure, and connect with local industry leaders and peers.
I have been invited as a speaker and representative of the Cape Town development community at 'The Hub: theater sessions', a central gathering place where attendees can listen to sessions and connect with experts.
Future-Innovation Lab @ The University of the Western Cape, South Africa
In an effort to empower unemployed youth by teaching them software development and digital social innovation skills, Samsung SA has collaborated with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Microsoft on its Research and Development (R&D) Academy Project. The academy, through its Future-Innovation Lab, aims to provide youth with the opportunity to gain skills in coding.
As part of this program, I had the privilege of being invited as a guest lecturer and share with the students a series of psychological skills to deal with the work environment.
I presented the session: After the Conference - principles for turning enthusiasm into personal growth.
Global Microsoft 365 Developer Bootcamp, Cape Town
The Global Microsoft 365 Developer Bootcamp is a free, one-day event with support from Microsoft and local community leaders.
Developers worldwide attend Microsoft 365 boot camps to learn the latest on Microsoft 365 platform including Microsoft Graph, SharePoint Framework, Microsoft Teams, Office Add-ins, Connectors, and Actionable Messages.
I presented the session: MS Teams - The new productivity platform for developers.
Microsoft Developer User Group, Cape Town
The Cape Town Microsoft Developer User Group is a developer community group that meets once a month to discuss all Microsoft tech-related topics.
I presented the session: Primed for Performance - Principles to remove interferences so that you can unlock your greatest potential and become the best software developer you have ever known.
Microsoft Developer User Group, Cape Town
The Cape Town Microsoft Developer User Group is a developer community group that meets once a month to discuss all Microsoft tech-related topics.
I presented the session: After the Conference - principles for turning enthusiasm into personal growth.
SharePoint Saturday Cape Town, South Africa
SharePoint Saturday Cape Town is a free event for anyone to attend. As with all things Microsoft, SharePoint is no longer just about a product. It's about enablement and spans across Office 365 as well as Azure.
Architects, Developers, IT Professionals, Designers and end-users alike were able to attend sessions presented by seasoned professionals in their respective fields covering the length and breadth of what you would want to see and experience at this world-class event, run across more than 50 countries across the world.
I presented the session: The Untroubled Developer - Smart Ways to Face and Overcome Career and Workplace Challenges
Knowledge Management Workshop - University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
As part of the University of Stellenbosch Business School Knowledge Management program, I was invited as a guest speaker.
I presented the session: Microsoft SharePoint as a Knowledge Management Platform
European SharePoint Conference
The European SharePoint Conference 2011 was Europe’s Premier Microsoft Technologies Conference held in Berlin.
The conference ran over 3 days with 2500+ attendees.
I presented the session: A Developer's Mind-Shift to SharePoint 2013
Online SharePoint Saturday India
The Online SharePoint Saturday India was an online event for Microsoft SharePoint developers and IT Pros.
I presented the session: The SharePoint 2010 Client Object Model
Microsoft TechEd Africa 2010 - AvePoint Interactive Theatre
Tech-Ed Africa 2010 was Microsoft’s premier event for IT professionals and developers, and ran from 17-20 October 2010 at Durban’s iconic International Conference Centre (ICC).
Microsoft has assembled a formidable line-up of local and international speakers for the event, which will include more than 200 in-depth sessions.
I presented a session at AvePoint Interactive Theatre: SharePoint 2010 Managed Client Object Model
SharePoint Saturday Cape Town, South Africa
SharePoint Saturday Cape Town is a free event for anyone to attend.
Architects, Developers, IT Professionals, Designers and end-users alike were able to attend sessions presented by seasoned professionals in their respective fields covering the length and breadth of what you would want to see and experience at this world-class event, run across more than 50 countries across the world.
I presented the session: The Developer's Mind-Shift to SharePoint 2013
Johan Olivier
Security and Compliance Director & Mental Health Advocate
Cape Town, South Africa
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