Olaf Zimmermann
Senior Researcher
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolOlaf Zimmermann is a senior researcher and independent consulting IT architect with over a decade of experience designing APIs, cloud-native systems, and microservice architectures for industry and academia. He blends hands-on implementation (Java, Python, Go) with research-led methods in architectural decision capture, collaborative modeling, and domain-driven design, drawing on roles at IBM Research, ABB, and OST. A certified The Open Group Distinguished IT Architect and co-author of four books including "Patterns for API Design," he maintains the popular MADR ADR tooling and contributes to API and architecture best practices. His work bridges industry and research—co-editing a column that channels practitioner concerns to academics—and has earned awards for impactful publications and presentations. Known for pragmatic patterns and decision reuse, he advises on architectural coaching, API evolution, and cloud migration while teaching and shaping curricula in software engineering.
11 years of coding experience
35 years of employment as a software developer
Dr. Computer Science, Dr. Computer Science at University of StuttgartDiplom-Informatiker Computer Science, Diplom-Informatiker Computer Science at Technische Universität Braunschweig
Github Skills (30)
markdown10
design-documents10
bug-tracker10
dsl10
service-contract10
nextjs10
representations10
api-documentation10
context-mapping10
soa10
endpoints10
microservices10
ddd10
idl10
agile10
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
ethical-se/ese-practices
Jan 2024 - Aug 2025
Ethical values and IEEE 7000 meet agile practices (for mutual benefit)
Contributions:2 releases, 2 PRs, 16 pushes in 1 year 7 months
agileagile-manifestoethicssoftware-requirements
adr/adr.github.io
Sep 2017 - Dec 2022
Homepage of the ADR GitHub organization
Contributions:1 review, 17 commits, 6 PRs in 5 years 3 months
architectural-decision-recordsarchitecture-docadrarchitecture-decision-recordsarchitectural-decisions
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