Profile:

I am an experienced Business Analyst, Technical Architect and J2EE Developer with over twenty years design and development experience. I specialise in using Agile Development techniques to help stakeholders define their basic business requirements, turn them into a development requirements and time-scale definitions. I then use the requirements to produce a system or application as required. I have a through understanding of development and quality assurance techniques for J2EE, Java, Perl and C++ code development. I have a flexible and inquisitive nature, which has helped me to provide unique solutions to business problems. I have developed and worked as an architect in various business areas in the scientific, financial and public sector realms. I am willing to relocate to any part of Europe in search of interesting projects and consultancy roles. I consider no job too small or too big too long or too short. The more unusual or difficult the project the more interested I become yet I am happy working on standard off the shelf solutions when required.

Professional Qualifications: 

Degree #1:           BA (Hons) Geology (Keele University)

Degree #2:           MBCS is equivalent to a BSc (2i) in Computer Science

MBCS:                  Elected Member of The British Computer Society 17/12/1998

Masters Degree:  CEng (Software Engineering) equivalent to MSc in Software Engineering

CEng:                   Elected Chartered Engineer (Software Engineering) 11/1/1999

CITP:                    Designated Chartered Information Technology Professional January 2004

Recent Courses:

·          Java for Programmers certificate -- September 1997

·          Developing Network Computing Solutions Using Java Technologies - 8th to 10th March 1999  

·          ORACLE 9i Release (9.2) Enterprise Edition ORACLE STREAMS Hands on Workshop October 2002

·          SAPTEC SAP NetWeaver: Fundamentals of the Application Platform, 28/07/03 to 30/07/03

·          NET050 Web Application Development Foundation, 20/08/03 to 22/08/03

·          NET100 SAP ITS: Developing Screen-based IACs, 27/08/03 to 29/08/03

·          Essential .NET: building applications and components with C#, 5 days 08/02/04 to 13/02/04

·          GCSE O’level French, Poole and Bournemouth College September 2003 to July 2004.

·          Currently studying French with the Open University, which will lead to a Diploma in French in 2008/9

Current Situation:

Freelance Developer / Architect

[snip] (October 2004 to Date)

Since October 2004, I have been working with Novell Netware 6.5, E-directory, DirXML and Novell OES. My primary tasks were Business Analysis, Pre/Post Sales support and customer liaison. However, since Live-Data is an SME, I have also worked developing Java (JSP, Enterprise Beans and Vanilla Java), Perl (Document handling, Apache connectivity and database connectivity) for various clients. I spent some time also writing Apache configuration scripts and adding modules to apache 2.0 servers connected to a Tomcat 5.x J2EE engine. I have specialised in working with the SUSE 9.2 Linux operating system including installation, development and systems support of the operating system.

Web Developer

[snip] (April 2003 to October 2004)

April 2003 I began working on a pilot project to use the SAP Enterprise Portal Version 5.6 for an enterprise wide portal within the RNLI, which would eventually run on their Linux based servers. I produced the initial enterprise, detailed architecture and design of the portal (called Porthole) and developed test IViews using the Portal Software Development Kit, which was based on a J2EE engine, Java 1.3.1, Tomcat 4.3.4, and links into the SAP R/3 application through the ITS, WAS and ABAP code. I used the Eclipse development environment in conjunction with the PDK and with consultancy from SAP. The initial requirement was to develop links to SAP R/3 backend applications using JSP, BSP, Java and J2EE libraries to extend the Enterprise Portal on a Linux system.  I developed content and new code extensions for the KM (Knowledge Manager, which is a plugable knowledge management tool) and administered the TREX index and search application to develop a content search section for the Porthole.

To assist me in this work, I was sent on four SAP training courses over a period of six months from June to December 2003. These were to familiarise me with R/3 Enterprise architecture, the ITS and WAS applications and how they link with R/3 and the Enterprise portal on LINUX and Windows.

As the study progressed, and as I gained knowledge from exploration of the product, I realised that the SAP connectivity was not as important as content management and discussion group functionality. Therefore, I started architecting an upgrade path to SAP Enterprise portal 6.0, which had better content management and discussion group functionality. However, during the process I discovered that the product was still very immature and would cost the Institution over £1.5M to implement. So, I suggested that we use an existing application called CMS, developed by a local company [snip] Ltd and already used by the institution, which has saved the organisation over £900,000 in SAP Licence fees and development cost. It also ensured that the project came in under budget and on time.

In cooperation with [snip], I developed a strategy for extending the existing CMS product and to make it behave like the SAP enterprise portal. From December 2003, I worked with [snip] on the architecture and project development work required to integrate the CMS into the RNLI’s intranet. To help me understand the CMS product’s core code and design I was sent on the “Essential .NET: building applications and components with C#” training course in February 2004. Soon after that I started development work in C#, XML, XSL and Visual Basic on the Porthole extensions to the CMS.

Part of the integration philosophy was to use as much off the shelf software as possible, for that reason I recommended and then piloted the use of Novell Virtual Office. Virtual Office is a suite of applications for collaboration within an organisation. It consists of Virtual Team, IFolder, NetStorage, IPrint and eGuide. The most useful product and the one I customised for the Porthole was eGuide, which ran an internal office phone directory based on eDirectory tables. This enabled anonymous and user authentication modes including context less login, cookies, and support for eDirectory password restrictions.

On completion of the project in April 2004 and after a month of load testing and tuning, I developed specialist scripts for gathering CMS log file statistics. I developed these scripts in Perl on an IIS Web server with a Web front end to simplify the gathering of user access information. I was also supported the role out of the Porthole to all departments within the RNLI, which has over a 1000 users and will expand to over 8000 by May 2005.

Technical Architect / Project Manager / J2EE Developer / Business Analyst / Consultant

[snip] (May 1995 to March 2003)

[snip] was a consulting company that specialised in Agile Development methods for complex Java, Perl, C++ and J2EE applications. The company developed its own software EasyBooker, Secretary and Property Guide but also developed bespoke applications, Web sites and provided consultancy and maintenance to a large variety of clients. Listed below are some of the main projects and clients with, which I was involved as an Architect, Business Analyst or Consultant.

Project: Financial Document Handling (August 2002 to October 2002)

Role: J2EE Architect

Client: [snip] International

I was the J2EE architect and developer of a J2EE web application for a financial document downloads and update system. I was using the Borland Enterprise Server with JBuilder 7.0 to develop EJB’s (Session, Entity and Message Beans), Servlets and JSP modules for this product. I started by developing the JAAS based security system, which uses container managed security control to validate client access. I also used CORBA ORB based naming and security contexts to access the container security control.

            The Borland Enterprise Server was a full J2EE (EJB 2.0) compliant server integrating with the following applications and services. Interbase 6.5, Borland Enterprise Server 5.0, Java Development Kit 1.3.1, JBuilder 7.0, Apache Web Server 1.3, Tomcat 4.0 and WinCVS Configuration management. I ran unit-testing using the JUnit package supplied with JBuilder7.0. Developed for both LINUX and Windows environments

            Project: Icebox (April 2002 to August 2002)

Role: J2EE Architect / Developer

Client: [snip] (DSL),

I was the architect and developer of a J2EE user interface for a combined email SMTP (POP3 + IMAP), fax and SMS product called ICE Box. I used JSP, Servlets and Java Beans to form an interface to the three existing email, SMS and fax applications that constituted the EIS tier of the I.C.E product. The JSP, Beans and Servlet objects were run in a standard HTTP Web container taking full advantage of JAAS container-managed security. The project was ongoing and was being run as a XP or agile programming project. This involved short, frequent deliveries of completed product; continuous JUnit based testing and continuous customer contact. This, combined with UML, was an ideal design and development regime for a modern, rapidly changing Web environment.

            The project used the Apache Jakarta Tomcat 4.0.3 J2EE Application Server; however, I also used the Sun Microsystems J2EE 1.3.1 Application Server to test EAR portability. These products were both used in conjunction with Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition v 1.4, JavaMail-1.2 (later upgraded to JavaMail-1.3) and jakarta-ant-1.4.1, JUnit 3.6, JUnit-add-ons, JTestCase and Rational Rose Enterprise 1.5. All code was written to run in both LINUX and Windows environments.

Project: Teaching Software Development (February 2000 to December 2001)

Role: Associate Lecturer / Consultant
Client: [snip]

I taught M301 “Software Systems and Their Development”. The topics included Business Analysis, Enterprise Design Techniques and Java programming (Swing, RMI, CORBA, J2EE, RMI and AWT), the analysis and design of applications using UML (Unified Modelling Language) for Use Cases, Class Diagrams and sequence diagrams, frameworks and design patterns, and concurrency. The course covered the full project lifecycle of a development project especially project time and resource estimation fro traditional project models and agile development models.

Project: Systems Architect (April 1999 to April 2002)

Role: J2EE Architect / Business Analyst / Developer / Project Manager

Client: [snip]

I was responsible for the full project lifecycle from business specification, working in conjunction with the clients, requirements specification to project assessment and re-development. I was also responsible for several teams of developers working on various projects in several computer languages for B2B and B2C applications. WebScript developed several large web enabled products for a number of blue chip companies including J[snip]. During my two and half years at [snip] I was involved in the initial phases of customer contact through to the final hand over and support of the completed systems and Web sites. I was also responsible for man management and helped with the financial management of the company. Most development was carried out on Linux based PC’s with a central SUN Sparc server. I was responsible for the version management of new code on the SUN Sparc server using CVS linked to Homesite for the development team.

Project: Truck Insurance Web site (Nov 2000 to April 2002)

Role: Architect / Business Analyst / Developer

Client: [snip]

This project involved the collection of business requirements for a Truck INSURANCE product code named TD. This was a retail web enabled product for the USA market. It involved extensive client specification meetings, working from the client’s premises and budgetary control of project. I also had to recruit and train the work force to develop the product. I used Microsoft Project and in-house project management techniques and tools (UML) to deliver the finished product on time and to budget.  The entire project was developed on LINUX PC’s and integrated with an existing mixed Linux, UNIX and Windows based legacy system.

Project: Disclosure Document Management (1st April 1997 to May 1999)

Role: Technical Architect / Consultant

Client: [snip],

My duties were to study legacy systems and to design, develop and implement web based financial systems.  I spent most of my time maintaining and developing the [snip] Disclosure system. This is a financial product designed to allow an IFA to produce illustrations and key features documents for [snip] PEPs, Unit Trusts, Investment Trusts and Open Ended Investment Company (OEIC) funds. I was also the architect of a SYBASE OpenClient/OpenServer conduit application for Disclosure system. This work involved a substantial amount of FIREWALL implementation and development with Sybase libraries. I continued to develop business integration strategies and a design and for the integration of CGI applications (written in C, C++ and PERL) with the HTML pages of  “WebXpress” and “[snip] Access”. I spent a year studying the integration these products with Business Objects as produced by Orbix Web, which was a product based on CORBA standards on LINUX and UNIX systems.

Project: Various Web and Java Projects (March 1996 to 31st March 1997) 

Role: Web Systems Consultant

Client: [snip]

My duties were Web development and Web infrastructure design. I used UNIX (DEC Alpha Station 255,400 and a Sun Sparc 20 running OSF1 and SOLARIS 2.5 respectively) and WINDOWS NT 4.0 machines. I produced code and web pages in HTML, PERL, JavaScript and JAVA 1.1. I ran and developed the [snip] “Company Annual Reports” Web Site. I also spent 2 days a week developing a site for “The International Insider”. I undertook operational analysis of the integration of new software with "off the shelf" software like the Harvest Search Engine and Various Netscape Web Servers to aid [snip] in their “next step” development project. 

Project: Schools Directory (December 1995 to March 1996) 

Role: Multi-media Development Manager

Client: [snip]

My duties were to use any means to develop multi-media presentations and multi-media software. This work included the development of a WEB site from scratch and integration of my own code with Multi-media Director and other multi-media development products. I used several languages and development systems - including Java 1.0, PERL, VISUAL C++, BOURNE SHELL, AWK, and Fox Pro RDBMS systems. I designed a system to make the creation and update of a WEB SITE semi-automatic. My multi-media activities involved the formatting of .wav and .avi files and the generation of all code required for a multi-media presentation. 

Project: Tape Transcription Service (May 1995 to November 1995) 

Role: Snr. Software Engineer / Snr Support Specialist

Client: [snip]

I was responsible for porting existing products to AIX/SGI-IRIX and DG-UX environments, using my skills in X11, Motif and Standard C coding. I became Snr. Support Specialist, dealing with system integration and customer support issues.  

[snip] ceased trading in 2003; however, each client has agreed to provide a reference for the work I carried out on his or her behalf as a member of the [snip] development team.

Software Development Manager (April 1992 to June 1994)

Support Department Manager (June 1994 to May 1995)

[snip]

This involved extensive customer contact, usually overseas, and with various UNIX WORKSTATIONS and PC platforms. I travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Texas, Colorado, Alaska, California, Norway, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Nigeria, Libya, China, Italy, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt, Indonesia, and Oman.

I was responsible for developing and enhancing 3D Visualization Software and data conversion software. All code was written with multi-platform operation in mind. Code was written to POSIX standard C or VISUAL C++ and all graphics were to MS WINDOWS/NT standards. Visual C++ was used for small programme development on PC systems. The primary use was image capture software. In my last year at this company, I was responsible for the maintenance of customer installations and customer training.

Lead Programmer (September 1990 to April 1992) 

[snip] 

I was responsible for project development and system design of Graphical Database System, using Windows 3.0 SDK and SQL Windows. My tasks were: work assignment; work scheduling and all coding and design.

Project Leader (February 1989 to August 1990) 

[snip]. 

Worked mainly on SONAR and data capture systems for the MOD where I developed a software rapid prototyping system using an OODBMS and OOD development method. Software tools used: EXCELERATOR V1.8, and TEAMWORK. I produced a design for a Software Rapid Prototyping system (SRP). Developed customized Digital Signal Processing and image processing systems, on Inmos Transputers, in Parallel C, FORTRAN , Pascal and Occam.  I was vetted for MOD work to NV level.

Analyst Programmer (October 1984 to February 1989)

[snip],

Initially on overseas assignment in Adelaide, Australia (Nov 1984 to Jan 1987) where I worked on the Design of colour and monochrome plotting system based on "in-house" database retrieval systems and GKS graphics. Used standard code designed for three machines, IBM 3080 - Convex 120 - VAX machines (VMS). I later returned to the UK to work on the design and maintenance of Digital Signal Processing and Image processing software systems. I spent two years travelling the globe fixing software and developing bespoke solutions for various SSL data processing centres. 

Personal Reference: 

On Request