Norval Hope
Solution Architect, Consol and LPG

My role is as the Solution Architect for the Consol and LPG products, and occasional consulting architect for the ARNIE product. I have been with Yarris since July 2013.

I completed a BSC at Australian National University and then was invited to spend another year completing my Honours Degree. I considered starting a PhD but then did the sums on how much money I would be forgoing to do so!

I am happy being an applied-architect and feel quite strongly that any less-applied roles such as Enterprise Architect would not be a great fit for me.

The biggest buzz I get from work is in defining nice clean solutions to problems and then to see them undergo real-world usage. The biggest test of the "clean" assertion is how easily and quickly features can be adapted to changing business requirements, or providing a solid base to build-out new functionality

The most challenging part of my role is judging the fine line between improving legacy behaviour and code versus wasting time or taking too many unnecessary risks cleaning up things that are best left lying.

Computer science has always been a major interest of mine, as I really enjoy the balance of left and right brain that it takes to do the job well. Over time I've come to realise that the most important parts are in fact an art, rather than a science.

I was a very keen competitive runner until my knees started having issues after completing the Paris marathon in 2014, and the Two Bays 56k Ultramarathon near Melbourne. Consequently I am revisiting my earlier passion for the Chinese martial arts to fill the void and try and keep active during lockdown and now that it has thankfully ended.