Introducing the Visual Studio ALM Rangers – Derek Keeler
Who are you? 
I am Derek Keeler, Senior Software Development Engineer for Microsoft. I work for the Development Division (DevDiv) where I am helping teams create awesome tools for developers!
What makes you “tick”?
I am a huge proponent of DevOps and ALM on the teams that I work with, and I love providing value to my teams in the way of speeding iteration times, improving code quality. I absolutely love that this particular passion of mine directly translates to value for our customers, and now that I work for the Visual Studio team, my customers are developers!
A few years back I was looking to change my career from ‘Game Software Developer’ and I had no idea what else I wanted to do. My wife asked me during this time what it was that I was doing during University, where I would break the (then singular) family PC for days on end in my free time after class, to which I answered “Building a development studio from scratch, then deleting it and doing it again”, and now I get to do that on a daily basis – definitely a dream job.
Where you live?
I live and work in one of the best cities (and one of the most expensive) in the world: Vancouver, BC.
Why are you active in the Rangers program?
My overarching career goal is to reach out further than my own self, or my own team, or even my day job, and provide value to developers around the world with things that I may have to offer. I was a consumer of the good work the ALM Rangers had done, it was a primary source of learning material when I started out in the ALM domain. I have had success in my role at Microsoft as a direct result of the experience and tools the ALM Rangers products have brought me. I believe it’s pivotal for me to help give back to this community that has helped to make me as successful as I have become.
This post is part of an ongoing series of Rangers introductions. SeeRanger Index (Who is Who?)for more details.