# Phil Diegmann

> Software engineer and information systems researcher. LLM evaluation, data pipelines and agile delivery. Remote from Europe.

Software engineer and information systems researcher. I build data pipelines and LLM-integrated workflows with humans-in-the-loop, and lead the process changes around them. I also mentor developers, coach student teams and supervise theses.

Open to roles as software engineer or project manager.

## Selected work

- [FeedForward: formative feedback for open-ended process modelling tasks](https://dgmn.eu/work/feedforward-llm-feedback/index.md): A SolidJS web application for individual formative feedback on open-ended BPMN tasks; it does not grade. Deterministic checks run first, the AI suggests and phrases, and the instructor decides every finding that reaches a student.
- [LLM judges for BPMN process model annotation](https://dgmn.eu/work/bpmn-llm-judges/index.md): LLM judges label a process model dataset against human-written rubrics. Labels are checked for agreement between two judges and against mutants with known ground truth.
- [Trace data pipeline for open-source coordination research](https://dgmn.eu/work/trace-data-pipeline/index.md): 8 open-source projects, 1,169,489 developer actions on issues, pull requests and comments, prepared as time-ordered event sequences. Published in MIS Quarterly (2024).
- [Pseudonymised linking of survey and trace data](https://dgmn.eu/work/pseudonymised-linking/index.md): A keyed-hash pseudonymisation scheme that links survey responses to the same team's Jira and GitLab trace data. Pseudonymised data remain personal data.
- [Android migration of a B2B task-management and location-tracking app](https://dgmn.eu/work/android-migration/index.md): Led the migration of a B2B task-management and location-tracking app from Windows Embedded CE to Android, rolled out to several hundred devices. The team grew from one developer to four; I onboarded, reviewed and paired with the new developers and introduced Scrum.
- [Self-hosted Kubernetes platform across home and cloud](https://dgmn.eu/work/kubernetes-platform/index.md): A Talos Kubernetes cluster across home nodes and a cloud VPS, with single sign-on, DNS, tunnels and encrypted secrets, all managed as code.
- [Reproducible team metrics from GitLab for project courses](https://dgmn.eu/work/dip-metrics/index.md): Same snapshots in, byte-identical output out, and every ambiguous rule decision recorded. The lecturer keeps the grade.

## Publications

- [The Entrainment of Task Allocation and Release Cycles in Open Source Software Development](https://dgmn.eu/research/misq-relational-events/index.md): MIS Quarterly 48(1), 67–94, 2024. Task allocation and release rhythms in open-source projects become entrained over time. The coupling can be measured.
- [Investigating the "Socio" in Socio-Technical Development: The Case for Psychological Safety in Agile Information Systems Development](https://dgmn.eu/research/psychological-safety/index.md): Project Management Journal 52(1), 11–30, 2021. In agile software teams, psychological safety and social agile practices reinforce each other; without it, practices such as retrospectives lose their effect.
- [The Impact of Modes, Styles, and Congruence of Control on Agile Teams: Insights from a Multiple Case Study](https://dgmn.eu/research/control-agile-teams/index.md): HICSS 53, 6247–6256, 2020. How control is enacted matters more than which controls are used: an enabling control style and congruence between controllers and controllees go along with team autonomy and performance.
- [“The Second Vice is Lying, the First is Running into Debt.” Antecedents and Mitigating Practices of Social Debt: an Exploratory Study in Distributed Software Development Teams](https://dgmn.eu/research/social-debt/index.md): HICSS 54, 6826–6835, 2021. Social debt is the consequence of poor communication, collaboration and coordination in a team. The study names its antecedents and practices that mitigate it in distributed teams.

All 25 publications: https://dgmn.eu/research/publications/index.md

## Teaching

- [New Forms of Development](https://dgmn.eu/teaching/new-forms-of-development/index.md): Master's course on project-driven low-code development, designed and assessed fully online. The digital portfolio replaces the written final examination.
- [Thesis supervision](https://dgmn.eu/teaching/thesis-supervision/index.md): More than 86 bachelor's and master's theses supervised since 2015, through regular one-to-one meetings, written feedback on drafts and the final assessment.
- [Information Systems & Business Process Management](https://dgmn.eu/teaching/information-systems-bpm/index.md): Process modelling with BPMN. FeedForward grew out of this course; the BPMN LLM judges project is related.
- [Capstone Project](https://dgmn.eu/teaching/capstone-project/index.md): Converted to a fully online, flipped-classroom format with a redesigned digital assessment. I designed and ran a two-week web development crash course (React, Tailwind CSS) for student teams building prototypes.
- [Database Systems](https://dgmn.eu/teaching/database-systems/index.md): SQL course converted to an online, flipped format with digital assessment. Both formats were kept after the pandemic.

## Experience

- 2023 – present: Researcher (Tenure Track Senior Researcher), Information Systems, University of Bremen. Built FeedForward, a SolidJS web application for LLM-assisted formative feedback, and builds LLM evaluation pipelines and data infrastructure for research. Teaches English-language courses in Information Systems, Business Process Management and Digital Innovation, and supervises bachelor's and master's theses. Industry study on AI coding tools with a large enterprise partner: keyed-hash pseudonymisation and data linking design, among others. Co-founded the Business Innovation & Transformation (BIT) Institute.
- 2023 – 2024: Coach and Academic Expert, University of Cologne Business School × Zurich Group Germany. Co-designed and delivered practitioner courses on digital product development, business process management and agile methods for business analysts.
- 2021 – 2023: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Cologne. DFG SPP 2267 Digitalisation of Working Worlds, project DiAct (healthcare); contributed substantially to the second-phase renewal proposal. Acquired industry fellowships for the institute.
- 2017 – 2021: Research and Teaching Assistant, University of Cologne. Owned the data collection and preparation pipeline behind the MIS Quarterly paper of 2024. Converted database and capstone courses to online formats. Designed and ran a two-week web development crash course (React, Tailwind CSS) for the capstone course and coached student teams through building working prototypes. Supervised bachelor's and master's theses.
- 2012 – 2017: Self-employed software developer and agile trainer. Client web and mobile applications, including Java for Android. Self-employed technical and project lead for client blueworld GmbH: led the migration of the client's proprietary B2B task-management and location-tracking app from Windows Embedded CE to Android, rolled out to several hundred devices. The team grew from one developer to four; I onboarded the new developers, reviewed their code and paired with them, and introduced Scrum into the development organisation. Agile coaching for small and medium-sized companies.
- 2008 – 2011: Software Developer, Webergy Internet Software AG. Web-scraping and data-acquisition applications feeding a price-comparison platform, in C# and .NET.

## Skills

### Data and platforms

- GitHub, GitLab and Jira pipelines through platform APIs
- Multi-source reconciliation and keyed-hash pseudonymised linking
- Personal homelab Kubernetes (Talos) with SSO and encrypted secrets

### AI and evaluation

- LLM-as-judge pipelines with two-judge agreement checks
- Rubric and prompt design, human-in-the-loop review
- Coding agents with strict guardrails: types, linting, tests, hooks

### Delivery and leadership

- Agile transformation and process work with business owners
- Scrum adoption and agile coaching since 2012
- Practitioner and university courses on agile methods, process management and product development

### Languages and tools

- Python, TypeScript, SQL
- PostgreSQL, SQLite, React, SolidJS, Tailwind CSS
- uv, ruff, mypy, hk, mise, Git

## Contact

E-mail: phl@dgmn.eu

- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=zgXkKRoAAAAJ
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9845-5112
- GitHub: https://github.com/phldgmn
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-diegmann
- Full CV: https://dgmn.eu/cv/index.md