Michael Blaess
Over 20 years of professional experience as IT consultant, software developer and programming coach. Specialist in database and web applications with comprehensive expertise in Microsoft technologies.
Development of scalable web solutions with ASP.NET Core, TypeScript, Angular and React in the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, as well as document and content management systems based on Sitefinity and SharePoint.
Industry experience: Automotive, media, auditing, energy and utilities.
Services
What I offer
Over 20 years of experience in designing and delivering complex IT projects.
Consulting
Individual consulting and strategic planning for your software solutions. Architecture reviews, tech strategy and modernization consulting.
Consulting
- System architecture & design
- Code & security reviews
- Tech strategy & roadmaps
- Modernization & migration
AI & Automation
Hands-on AI integration with Claude, GPT and local models for development, testing and process automation.
AI & Automation
- Claude Code & OpenAI Codex
- Agentic coding & multi-agent workflows
- AI-assisted code reviews
- Workflow automation with n8n
Development
Scalable enterprise development for frontend and backend with C#, ASP.NET Core, React, Angular and TypeScript.
Development
- ASP.NET Core & C#
- Angular & TypeScript
- REST, gRPC & GraphQL APIs
- SharePoint
Sitefinity CMS
Extensive experience with Progress Sitefinity - development with ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core and Next.js.
Sitefinity CMS
- Widget & module development
- Automated tasks
- Digital Experience Cloud (Insights)
- A/B testing & personalization
Coaching
Code analysis & reviews, individual training and seminars on Microsoft technologies, design patterns and C# programming.
Coaching
- Clean Code & SOLID
- Design patterns in C#
- Mentoring & pair programming
- Unit testing & mocking
Cloud
Migration of your enterprise solutions to Azure or AWS cloud. Application Insights, DevOps pipelines and containers.
Cloud
- Microsoft Azure & AWS
- Docker & containers
- CI/CD pipelines
- Application Insights & KQL
Testing & Quality
Test-driven development and automated testing during deployment with Azure DevOps and Jenkins. Test plans, crash tests, system tests and performance tests.
Testing & Quality
- MSTest, Jest & Cypress
- TDD & automated pipelines
- Performance & crash tests
- Security reviews
Business Intelligence
Database development with SQL Server 2022, PostgreSQL and MongoDB. Reporting with SSRS and PowerBI. Performance optimization of your existing database systems.
Business Intelligence
- SQL Server, PostgreSQL & MongoDB
- Reporting with SSRS & PowerBI
- ETL & data modeling
- Performance optimization
Legacy & Migration
Maintenance, modernization and migration of VB6, VB.NET and classic .NET Framework applications.
Legacy & Migration
- VB6 & VB.NET maintenance
- .NET Framework → .NET Core
- WinForms & WPF migration
- COM interop & ActiveX
Clients
Trusted since 2004
Industry experience in automotive, media, auditing and energy.
E-ON
EnviaM
Marquard & Bahls
Sparkasse
Francotyp-Postalia
Gazprom
KPMG
RTL
Deutsche Bahn
Scandlines
BearingPoint
Volkswagen
Kraftanlagen München
Bayootec Open Source
Software Projects
Own tools and libraries - mainly Python TUI applications and web tools.
Chinese Checkers vs AI in the browser. Three difficulty levels, seven themes, background music, highscores, and fully offline-capable as a PWA.
GeoGuessr-style browser game. Five rounds, pinpoint a location photo on the map, local highscores. Fully static, no backend.
Terminal music player with retro aesthetics. FFT spectrum analyzer, 40 retro themes from 8-bit to terminal phosphor, lyrics, playlists, cover art right in the terminal.
Vehicle logbook for the terminal, for leased and owned vehicles alike. Records every trip, keeps the odometer chain consistent, checks entries for plausibility and exports to Excel, JSON or Markdown.
TUI tool for automatically scanning websites for JavaScript console errors, HTTP failures and CSP violations.
Scans website sitemaps for AI-generated images - via C2PA manifests and EXIF/XMP metadata. Textual TUI, supports EU AI Act Article 50 transparency requirements.
Browser port of the Python library TerminalTextEffects in vanilla JavaScript. 45 text, canvas, style, input and art effects (decrypt, matrix, CRT, fireworks and more), a single file, zero dependencies, no external requests.
TUI for Jira worklogs: list, calendar and year view with forecast, Excel/PDF export, German holiday detection, retro themes.
Desktop edition of jira-timesheet built with PySide6 (Qt 6). Timesheets from Jira worklogs plus manual time entry, list, calendar and year view, Excel/PDF export. Same core as the TUI, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Terminal UI for JetBrains InspectCode. Browse C#/.NET issues, auto-fix with diff preview and top-10 analytics.
Website crawler for standard-compliant sitemap.xml. Dual-mode (httpx/Playwright), auto-split at 50,000+ URLs.
Automated visual regression detection via screenshot comparison. Pixel-level diff with configurable tolerance.
Codename generator as a Textual TUI. Produces concise project and release codenames right in the terminal.
41 color themes for VS Code, 36 dark and 5 light, built from the retro palettes of textual-themes. Every colour is checked and lifted until it is readable, the same derivation as nvim-retro-themes.
41 colorschemes for Neovim, 36 dark and 5 light, built from the retro palettes of textual-themes. Every colour is checked and lifted until it is readable, and syntax colours that would look alike are pulled apart.
Put a private loan in writing: fill in a promissory note and save it as a PDF, all in the browser. Plus templates as PDF and Word, the legal situation with court decisions, and frequent questions. Bilingual, light and dark.
A private collection of plastic-cased Swatch chronographs from 1990 to 1998. What I have, what I am looking for, and what to watch out for when buying. Bilingual, light and dark.
Python library with 40 vintage color schemes for Textual TUI apps: 8-bit home computers, terminal phosphor, Unix workstations, watches, 80s pastel and mafia noir.
Python library with reusable Textual widgets for your own TUI apps. Companion to textual-themes.
Shared building blocks for PySide6 desktop applications: theme, runtime-colourable icons and the dialogs every application needs anyway. So several apps look and behave the same.
Curated collection of useful tools and resources. Windows tools, AI tools, database tools, developer tools and browser extensions.
Blog
Latest
News from my projects - new tools, releases and lessons from the field.
Finding a name for your software? What to watch out for
Code is often written faster than a name is found. A name should be free, findable and free of any troubling meaning. This post shows the order in which to check, which sources exist and where my own projects got stuck: Jira, Halma and a rename.
A web interface without a JavaScript project? FastHTML in the Python stack
FastHTML writes HTML as Python functions and gets its interactivity from HTMX. No npm, no build step, one language. What convinced me, where the tool does not belong, where you can run it - and how such an app turns into a single HTML file that works offline in the browser.
Why my timesheet tool now exists twice: terminal and desktop
Turning Jira worklogs into a timesheet, as Excel or PDF - my Textual application has been doing that in the terminal for a while. Now the same application exists a second time, as a native desktop interface built with Qt. Why you build the same tool twice, why the core is copied instead of imported, and why the desktop version comes under a different licence.
Let's discuss your project?
I look forward to your inquiry - whether consulting, development or coaching.
Get in touch