SQL Server
Enterprise OLTP SQL Server Rescue
This workload was very unstable and prone to runaway query plan compilation and severe waits from overly complex, badly optimized view stacks. The simplest change meant rolling the dice on whether a plan would buckle and cause a production outage. Literal decades of SQL Server experience had been hired, and failed trying to address this over multiple years.
I spent days poring over Brent Ozar's Blitz scripts, and came up with two recommendations: forced parameterization, and embracing Query Store. No app or architecture changes in a fragile production system. I stabilized query plan compilation for good, and when a bad plan came up I could stop it with a Query Store hint. That returned sanity to the team and the system, after everyone had been afraid to make changes for a long time, and uptime improved considerably.
Estimation
Scoping and Estimation
Multiple times I have been tasked with scoping and explaining rewrites of huge enterprise line-of-business apps on legacy technology. When a large quote is on the line, there is no substitute for experience, understanding, editorial taste, technical writing, and sales engineering that can all be deployed in meetings in front of a client, and that you can take to the bank.
I document the system quickly, build and evaluate wireframes, and translate that into a polished, prioritized, granular estimate. The client can tailor the work to their goals, budget, and timeline up front, with confidence, and that estimate seeds the planning phase.