Hi there!
My name is Mikhail Lapshin and I really like to create complex multi-tier systems including architectural design, implementation and performance optimization.
My other passion is the Scrum framework. Whatever a project I am taking part in, I do my best to apply modern agile practices to maximize the value produced by the team.
I live in San-Francisco Bay Area. Feel free to drop me an email at mlapshin@gmail.com or send a message via linked.in
Key areas of expertise
- Unique experience of maturing an on-premise application into a SaaS application and then into a Cloud Platform
- About 20 years in professional software development
- 15+ years of hand-on experience in analysis, design, development and maintenance of enterprise-wide J2EE-based applications
- Expert in core Java, J2EE platform, web technologies, object-oriented design, algorithms, threading and performance optimization
- Broad experience in project planning using Agile/Scrum methodology – I am a certified professional Scrum Master and Product Owner
- Unique contribution to Java platform (Swing library)
- 17+ years of experience with databases: Oracle, DB2, MySQL
Professional experience pdf rtf
Informatica
09/2008 – Now, http://www.informatica.com
Roles Technical leader in development of different products, Scrum Master, Mentor for junior engineers, Technical Interviewer
Projects
- Cloud Platform 2015 – Now
Eventually, Informatica Cloud Service matured into a Cloud Platform. It accommodated a bunch of other Informatica applications like MDM, ICRT, etc. The architecture of the system was greatly redesigned to be even more extensible and scalable. We extracted many parts of the system as micro-services. Now we have about 30 of them and the number is constantly growing. We utilize Docker containers for development and deployment, Chef for configuration.
I lead development of Data Integration Service which does the majority of work for our clients. Actually this is the core of the former Cloud Service. My major task was adapting it for the new micro-service architecture and consulting dependent teams.
Now my tasks include high-level review and design of new features; technical interviewing; code reviews; finding ways of improving quality of the product code base; work on new functionality, and of course Scrum Mastering.
- Cloud 2011 – 2014
Informatica Cloud Service is a number of data services like integration, replication and validation available on the Internet. In essence it is a set of scalable web applications.
I was entrusted to found the Cloud department in Russia. I shaped the initial team and organized the development process.
I am the key contributor to many parts of the system: Mapping Designer, Integration Templates, Payment Processing, Template Editor and several others.
Technologies: Java, Tomcat, Servlets, JSP, JSTL, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, MySQL, JavaScript, jQuery, dojo, AJAX, REST.
In 2015 I was invited to continue my work in the Cloud department at the company headquarters in SF Bay Area.
- PIM 2014 – 2015
PIM stands for product information management. It helps big retailers efficiently acquire, author, and publish product information. My role was to lead development of the Web UI. Other tasks included scrum mastering and improvements in the rich client.
Technologies: Java, Eclipse OSGI, Vaadin, Guice, Spring, MS SQL Server, REST, Swing (for the rich client)
- MDM Hub 2008 – 2011
Master Data Management Hub consists of the core J2EE application exposing its services through several APIs (EJB, web services, etc.) and many different tools that provide UI for it like IDD and Administration console.
I was the lead J2EE expert in creation of the DB2 hub version that matches to the functionality of the main Oracle-based product. My major task was design and implementation of the database-independent data type layer.
Also I worked on a Web UI for the data hub (IDD project) where I led development of “Advanced Search” functionality. It was the most complex feature in the next major release of the product.
Technologies: Java, IBM WebSphere, DB2, Oracle, JSF (rich faces), Spring, Hibernate, EJB, AJAX.
Sun Microsystems
02/2006 – 09/2008, http://www.sun.com
Roles Developer of the Swing library; Integrator of the work results for Swing, Sound and i18n teams
Skills Deep knowledge of Swing, AWT, 2D and Core Java; IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, bash scripting, Sun TeamWare, Mercurial, Subversion, Bugster, J2EE, GlassFish, Tomcat, MySQL.
Details I was a member of the great Swing team and developed the core GUI java library. I was responsible for a number of Swing components such as menus, internal frames, labels and combo boxes. For example, I completely rewrote the drawing algorithm of menus which fixed a bunch of old bugs.
Technical skills
- Languages: Java, JavaScript, SQL, shell scripting, C++, HTML, XML, XSL, UML, VisualBasic, Object Pascal, Assembler
- Technologies: Full J2EE stack (Servlets, JSP, EJB, JSF, JMS, etc.), MVC frameworks (Struts, Spring, Vaadin), ORM frameworks (Hibernate, JPA), Presentation level (HTML, AJAX, Swing, Flex), Testing frameworks (JUnit, Selenium, Mockito), Design Patterns, OSGi and many others
- Data bases: Oracle, DB2, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Firebird (Interbase). Development of complex data models, composing of non-trivial SQL queries, development of stored procedures and triggers, working with metadata
- Operating systems: a wide range from Windows through different flavors of Linux (RedHat, Ubuntu) to Sun Solaris (9, 10, XDE) and IBM AIX v6
- Application servers and servlet containers: JBoss, Tomcat, WebSphere, GlassFish
- Development tools: Eclipse, Ant, Maven, bash, Hudson, JIRA, IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, MS Visual C++ and many others
- Experience in development of enterprise-wide J2EE-based systems, WEB 2.0 user interfaces, Swing GUI applications, multi-threaded applications
- Software development methodologies: Agile/Scrum, RUP, XP
Certificates
- 10/2017 IMS Awareness – Incident Management System Awareness (pdf)
- 09/2015 PSPO I – Professional Scrum Product Owner (pdf)
- 09/2015 PSM I – Professional Scum Master (pdf)
- 07/2007 TOEIC – Test of English for International Communication (pdf)
- 10/2005 SCWCD – Sun Certified Web Component Developer for J2EE 1.4 (pdf)
- 05/2005 SCJP – Sun Certified Programmer for J2SE 5.0 (pdf)
Thank you for your question series for PSM exam, it is helping me….
You are welcome!
Thank you for the PSM questions, for me it was a real help. Very much appreciate it! 😀
I am happy to share with you that I cleared my PSM I exam with 90%. These mock tests were real great help.. Thank you so much.
Naveen, thanks for sharing it.
It is great to know that my quiz works and helps people to earn Professional Scrum Master degree.
Mihail, thanks a lot for the tests.
Passed PSM I with 95% 🙂
Although there were a few non-obvious questions that made me review and re-think.
Hi,
I am glad I could help you.
Do you remember what was the topic of the non-obvious questions?
–Mikhail
Hi Mikhail,
Thank you for this blog. I have a quick question. Once we clear this PO certification is there any yearly maintenance test that we need to keep up with?
Thanks,
Anu
Hi Anu,
No, there are no any maintenance tests. The earned certification has no expiry date.
–Mikhail
Thank you so much for providing assessment for PSMI ..I was able to pass exam in my first try today..I have no experience with scrum other than reading through scrum guide and your assessment gave me confidence to sit for the exam..Some of the questions were confusing due to the fact that I didn’t have real life experience ..Hope this takes me somewhere..our organization is going on agile direction and scrum is new to many people.. Any recommendations on what other certification would be helpful for newbie like me?
Hi Merina,
Thanks for using my quiz and sharing your success.
You could pass the PSPO I exam.
–Mikhail
Thanks Mikhail!! Will definitely try it
Mikhail,
Aside from Scrum Guide Document and your PSPO assessment, is there any good books/docs that I could use to prepare for PSPO exam? I tried taking your assessment and felt that some of the questions/answers did not come from Scrum Guide document. For example, there was one question about KVA that I was not familiar of. Would appreciate your help.
Hi Merina,
You are right. The PSPO exam contains questions that are not directly answered in the Scrum Guide. So, you need to learn more about product owner role responsibilities. For me reading the following article: The New New Product Owner and Evidence-Based Management Guide brochure was enough to pass the exam.
–Mikhail
I am a bit confused by this definition: “The Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during the Sprint and the value of the increments of all previous Sprints.” Can someone elaborate?
Hi abedeoan,
It is because of two reasons:
1. All the previous work is required for the Increment done in this Sprint to have value and to be potentially releasable
2. An increment must be tested adequately. This includes regression testing.
Best regards,
–Mikhail
Other question:
– why the answer to “What is the result of the Sprint Review?” is ” A revised Product Backlog that defines the probable Product Backlog items for the next Sprint” and not “Common understanding of progress toward the Sprint Goal and how progress is trending toward completing the work in the Sprint Backlog”.
Hi abedeoan,
First of all, the Scrum Guide tells: “The result of the Sprint Review is a revised Product Backlog that defines the probable Product Backlog items for the next Sprint. The Product Backlog may also be adjusted overall to meet new opportunities.”
The second option, you are referring to, relates to the Daily Scrum: “The Development Team uses the Daily Scrum to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and to inspect how progress is trending toward completing the work in the Sprint Backlog.”
I agree, at the Sprint Review the PO explains what Product Backlog items have been “Done” and what has not been “Done”. However, what is more important, the whole group collaborates on what to do next, so that the Sprint Review provides valuable input to subsequent Sprint Planning.
Best regards,
–Mikhail
Hi Mikhail,
I am very happy to share with you that i passed PSMI. Your site and quizzes helped me during my training.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Aby
Hi Aby,
I am happy I helped you!
–Mikhail
Thank you so much for that test. It really helped me to pass my exam this morning with 98,8% 🙂
Cheers
Paulina
Paulina,
I am glad I helped you. Thanks for sharing feedback!
–Mikhail
Hi Mikhail,
thank you very much for the quizz. It helps a lot, since I’m still preparing the PSM1.
However, I’d like to kow in how far the questions are similar to the exam. Are the questions as short as in your quizz, or will they be more elaborate and thus also more difficult?
Keep up the good work and thanks a lot for sharing your knowlege.
All the best
Marc
Hi Marc,
I would say 4/5 of the questions in the real exam are similar. However, the real exam contains about 1/5 of harder questions that do not have a direct answer in the Scrum Guide. This is the reason why it is important to master simpler questions.
The open assessments at Scrum.org are very similar to the real exams.
Thanks,
–Mikhail
Mikhail,
That final statement may confuse people. The open assessment questions are on average easier than the ones in your mock exams. You make it sound like their average level is similar to the real exam questions.
Kind regards,
Raymond
Agree. The open assessments are easier.
I am sorry for the confusion.
My point was the real exam question base includes the questions from the open assessments.
I recall my exam contained 2-3 of them.
–Mikhail
Thanks Mikhail for all of your efforts, it certainly helped me to pass the PSM1 exam today with only 2 wrong answers. I’m considering a donation and hope and hope many people do as you save them money!
What helped me to pass the exam besides studying the Scrum Guide, doing the open assessments on scrum.org and of course practicing Mikhail’s mock exams was attending a 2 day training given by a very good teacher. He hardly showed any slides, but really teached us what scrum is about by explaining, repeating and challenging the students.
Hi Raymond,
Congrats with passing the exam!
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
–Mikhail
Mikhail – thank you for putting this gem together. It is a very valuable resource for everyone who is looking forward to attempting PSM1.
Sincerely appreciate your efforts.
Thanks for your words.
Words like this are the best outcome of my work on this web site!
Hello Mikhail,
I successfully passed the PSPO I exam with 96%. Thank you very much for your advice and all the information posted on your blog. It was really helpful.
For the ones interested on how to prepare for this exam, in addition to the quizzes and the information found here, the Scrum guide, Scrum.org preparation quizzes and the Product Owner Learning Path book, they were all part of my training for this certificate.
Some of the questions were similar to the ones found in PSM I , others were more related to the PO role (e.g. product value, vision).
Good luck to you all!
J.
Hi Johanna,
Thanks for sharing your experience here!
I am glad I helped you.
–Mikhail
This was an awesome resource! I passed the PSM exam! PSPO is next. I am grateful for you. Thanks. Donation sent.
Dominique
Hi Dominique,
I am glad I helped you.
Thanks for the donation!
Hi! I’d like to know if this quiz has been updated.
Hi,
I am trying to keep the quizzes up to date with the Scrum Guide. The last Guide version is from November 2017. My quizzes are based on it. So, the quizzes are up to date.
Thanks,
–Mikhail