Martin Stühmer — CTO, Enterprise Architect & DevOps Engineer

Who I Am

I’m Martin, CTO at Integrated Worlds GmbH in the Stuttgart region. I’ve been writing production .NET code since Framework 2.0 — back when SOAP was still considered modern and ORMs were a heated debate. A lot has changed since then. My opinions have changed too, usually because I was wrong about something.

Before Integrated Worlds, I was Director of Consulting Services at CGI, leading teams through architecture decisions and digital transformation projects across multiple industries. These days I set technology strategy and stay close enough to the code to feel the consequences of those decisions firsthand.

I’m a Microsoft Certified Trainer and IHK-certified instructor, maintain several open-source NuGet packages, and write about what I’ve actually learned rather than what sounds good in theory.

LinkedIn · GitHub · Bluesky

What I Know Well

Nearly two decades of production work leaves marks. Here’s where I’ve built up depth and, frankly, strong opinions:

.NET and C# — I’ve tracked this ecosystem from the framework era to .NET 10. Source generators, Roslyn analyzers, performance engineering, testing strategies, static analysis. I know what actually improved over the years and what just changed names.

Cloud-native architecture on Azure — AKS at scale, multi-cluster networking, zero-downtime upgrade strategies, cost governance, observability. I’ve spent enough time in Azure to know the gap between what it can do and what you should actually use.

DevOps and supply-chain security — GitHub Actions, dependency management, container security, Bicep-based infrastructure compliance. The organisational side matters as much as the tooling.

Application security and privacy — Azure Key Vault, managed identities, GDPR-relevant .NET patterns, data minimisation, AI coding tool content exclusions. Security that works in practice, not just in architecture diagrams.

Engineering culture — What AI coding assistants actually change about software quality (less than the hype, more than the skeptics admit), how to introduce static analysis without poisoning team morale, and when “best practices” are earned principles versus cargo-cult repetition.

How I Work

As CTO I stay close to the code. I write, review PRs, debug production issues, and mentor — because technology leadership that operates purely from a distance eventually loses touch with the real cost of decisions.

As a trainer I focus on fundamentals that outlast the current framework cycle. Static analysis, testing discipline, performance patterns, maintainable architecture. The things that prevent fires, not just the things that look good in a job posting.

As an open-source maintainer I publish packages that solve problems I’ve hit repeatedly. Knowing that strangers depend on your code is one of the better ways to raise your standards.

What I’ve Learned the Hard Way

I’ve over-engineered systems that should have been simple. I bet on Silverlight and WCF. I built “flexible” architectures that were really just complicated ones. I’ve shipped code I’m not proud of.

Here’s what held up after all that:

  • Quality isn’t optional — analyzers find bugs in milliseconds, tests prevent regressions, and neither is slower than a production incident
  • Fundamentals outlast frameworks — the patterns and principles stick around long after the tools are deprecated
  • Context beats dogma — “best practices” always depend on your team, domain, and actual constraints
  • Evidence beats intuition — measure, benchmark, validate; don’t just decide
  • Pragmatism wins — architecture that ships beats architecture that’s perfect on paper

What I Write About

Everything here comes from production systems and real teams, not documentation rewrites. I’m skeptical of buzzword-driven development and allergic to advice that’s never been tested under load or deadline. If something doesn’t hold up, I’ll say so.

The topics I keep returning to: .NET and C# performance and evolution, Azure and AKS architecture decisions, DevOps and supply-chain risk, application security and GDPR implementation, what AI coding tools actually change (and what they don’t), and the economics of technical debt and code quality.

I write for developers, architects, and operators who maintain production systems and care about getting it right — not just getting it shipped.

The code you create is a valuable legacy, so it’s important to build it carefully.

Published blogs

.NET 10 Testing: Microsoft Finally Fixed the Test Runner (Mostly)

.NET 10 Testing: Microsoft Finally Fixed the Test Runner (Mostly)

.NET 10 replaces VSTest with Microsoft.Testing.Platform, bringing SDK-integrated testing with faster discovery, consistent behavior across environments, and explicit configuration contracts. But it requires .NET 10, breaks old test adapters, and demands CI pipeline discipline. Here’s what actually changes, who should migrate now, and who should wait.
Code Metrics and Configuration: Beyond the Numbers Game

Code Metrics and Configuration: Beyond the Numbers Game

Code metrics have become a standard feature in modern development environments, yet their implementation and interpretation often leave much to be desired. While Visual Studio and .NET provide comprehensive code metrics analysis, the way these metrics are configured, presented, and (more critically) acted upon reveals a fundamental disconnect between measurement and meaningful improvement.

What code metrics actually measure, how to configure them properly, and (more importantly) why blindly following thresholds without understanding context is, frankly, a recipe for misguided refactoring efforts that waste your team’s time and actively damage your codebase.

.NET 10: Boring by Design, Reliable by Default

.NET 10: Boring by Design, Reliable by Default

Microsoft wants you to believe .NET 10 is boring. They’re right — and that’s the best news we’ve had in years.

.NET 10 is here, and for once, Microsoft didn’t oversell it. LTS support through 2028, JIT improvements that actually matter, and C# 14 features that won’t rewrite your architecture. Here’s what you need to know before migrating.

.NET 10: Timing Is the New Technical Debt

.NET 10: Timing Is the New Technical Debt

2025 reshapes the .NET ecosystem with faster release cycles and shared responsibility. Discover why migrating to .NET 10 by Q1 2026 — and supporting your dependencies — turns timing into sustainable ROI.
.NET 10 and the Release Cycle Paradox

.NET 10 and the Release Cycle Paradox

.NET’s yearly rhythm has become a symbol of stability — yet also a source of pressure. The release cycle paradox describes the tension between predictability and exhaustion: a release schedule that keeps the ecosystem healthy, but teams constantly catching up.

With .NET 10 on the horizon, developers must learn to navigate this rhythm rather than fight it.