Tim Rayburn
Vice President of Consulting at Improving
Plano, Texas, United States
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Tim Rayburn is a Vice President of Consulting with Improving Enterprises, a software and project management consulting company in Dallas, TX. He is a passionate advocate of apprenticeship and mentorship in corporate environments. He has been awarded the Microsoft MVP in recognition of his expertise and community leadership 11 times. He is also a conference organizer, an author, and can be found speaking across the nation on agile processes, software design, and career management. He lives in the North Dallas area with his amazing wife Kate and their loyal dogs Dresden and Radagast.
Area of Expertise
Topics
Integrating SBOM for Secure DevOps
The rapid acceleration of software delivery, enabled by DevOps practices, must be coupled with a robust strategy for managing software supply chain risk. A Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is the foundation of this strategy, providing transparency into application components, dependencies, and their licenses and vulnerabilities. However, manual SBOM generation is impractical in a high-velocity environment. This talk will demonstrate the critical importance of seamlessly integrating SBOM generation into every stage of the DevOps pipeline. Attendees will learn how to leverage CycloneDX, an industry-leading standard and format, to automate the continuous gathering of comprehensive and accurate component data. Furthermore, we will explore practical open-source and commercial tooling that consumes CycloneDX output to provide actionable, real-time visualizations for security, compliance, and engineering teams, enabling rapid risk assessment and remediation. By the end of this session, attendees will have a clear roadmap for transforming their security posture from reactive vulnerability scanning to proactive supply chain risk management.
Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers
The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way?
This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents.
Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to:
Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture.
Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases.
Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI.
Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem.
Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does.
Help Your Teams Avoid Burnout And Apathy
We work in a fast paced, constantly growing, high demand industry that is known for creating burnout and apathy for teams who constantly live under this emotional pressure. Tropes like “people quit managers not jobs” aren’t enough to guide us to real solutions. Over the last 13 years I’ve helped growing a company from 40 employees to 1,500 employees and regular winner of Best Places to Work awards. To avoid the pitfalls we must balance two critical areas, engaging minds and engaging hearts. Come learn how to use Autonomy, Mastery, and Achievement to engage minds, and balance that with Purpose and Appreciation to engage hearts.
Vibes Aren’t a Strategy: Engineering Context in the Age of AI
The Problem: The "Vibe Coding" Wall
We’ve all experienced the magic of "vibe coding"—describing a feature to an AI and watching it come to life. But for greenfield projects, "vibes" quickly lead to architectural drift, context loss, and unmaintainable "spaghetti" code. The missing link isn't a better prompt; it’s a better process.
The Solution: Context Engineering via BMAD
This hands-on session introduces the BMAD Method (Breakthrough Method for Agile AI-Driven Development), a revolutionary framework that transforms AI from a chatty assistant into a structured, production-ready development team.
Participants will learn how to replace fuzzy prompts with Context Engineering. We will use the BMAD multi-agent workflow to greenfield an application from scratch—moving through a disciplined, four-phase lifecycle:
Analysis: Using specialized agents to brainstorm and research the project "North Star."
Planning: Generating high-fidelity PRDs and specs that provide the "source of truth."
Solutioning: Sharding documentation into actionable epics and stories to prevent context bloat.
Implementation: Orchestrating Developer and QA agents to execute code with zero "context loss."
Hands-On Experience
Attendees will work through a live greenfield track, choosing between Quick Flow (for rapid prototyping) and the full BMAD Method (for robust platforms). You will see firsthand how to use the BMAD-Core flattener and agent-as-code patterns to maintain a single source of truth within your repository.
Key Takeaways
Context Engineering Mastery: Learn to design the structural context that AI agents need to build complex systems without hallucinations.
The Multi-Agent Team: Understand the roles of the Analyst, Architect, and Scrum Master agents in a spec-driven environment.
Practical Tooling: Get hands-on with the BMAD CLI and learn how to integrate it with IDEs like Cursor, Claude Code, or VS Code.
Beyond Vibes: Converting AI Hype into a Trust Dividend
The Problem: The "Vibe" Trap and the Trust Tax We are currently witnessing a massive influx of "Vibe Coding" and ad-hoc AI usage in the enterprise. While the demos look like magic, the reality often feels like chaos. Leaders are discovering that "vibes" do not scale. When we treat AI as a magic wand rather than a junior employee, we pay a heavy "Trust Tax"—manifesting as hallucinations, data drift, and a lack of accountability. The missing link isn't a better model; it is better leadership.
The Solution: Context as Strategy To move from "playing with AI" to "productionizing AI," leaders must shift their focus from Prompt Engineering to Context Engineering.
In this session, we will explore how to apply the principles of the BMAD Framework (Breakthrough Method for Agile AI-Driven Development) to business strategy. We will demonstrate that AI Agents are not replacements for humans, but rather distinct stakeholders that require the same "Clarification of Expectations" you would offer a new human hire.
We will break down the lifecycle of a Trustworthy AI Agent:
Defining the North Star: How to align Agents with your Higher Purpose to prevent "strategic drift."
The "Contract" of Context: Why high-fidelity specs and documentation are the ultimate "Straight Talk" for AI.
The Human-in-the-Loop: Moving from "Human-in-the-Loop" to "Human-at-the-Helm," ensuring that empathy and judgment remain strictly human domains.
Key Takeaways
The Trust Dividend: Learn how providing structured context reduces hallucinations and increases the reliability of your digital workforce.
Operationalizing Agency: A framework for deploying "Analyst" and "Planner" agents that respect your organizational boundaries.
Leadership in the Age of AI: Understanding that the primary job of the future leader is not managing tasks, but managing the context in which tasks are performed.
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