Highly qualified & experienced ISEB Software Test Practitioner with a proven track record of planning, estimating, designing, executing and recording the results of automated & manual tests in the Financial, Hospitality, Police, Intelligence & Telecommunications sectors.  Skilled with fault recognition, data comparison & documentation.  A first-class analyst, who implements new ideas, provides solutions to problems and manages test projects, whilst working alone as well as with a team. Effective and efficient time manager with proven organisational abilities who prioritises tasks to achieve the agreed goals.

Technologies:  SQL Server 2000, XML, Windows XP/2000/CE/NT/98/95/3.x, WinRunner, C++, Bugzilla, Adminitrack, TOAD, MS Office, XML Spy, TCP/IP, Rational Robot, Rational Test Manager, Java, Extreme Programming, Rational Unified Process, Rational ClearQuest, Rational RequisitePro, Oracle, VMWare, Paradox, Poet, UML, Visual Basic, ICL Fujitsu mainframe, Test Director, Unix, C, MS Project, Apache server, 4GL (Gembase), VMS, ISO 9001, DOS, Pick, COBOL

TEST CONSULTANT (Contract)                                 [snip] Sep 2005 – Feb 2007

Leading provider of mortgages and other financial services.

Key Projects & Achievements: Business Systems Department.

• Provided test consultancy to the client throughout the project lifecycle of a Debt Management project in a Rational Unified Process (RUP) environment, thus enabling the project to meet all quality criteria.
• Designed & implemented a manual functional test suite to verify the automated population of mortgage application forms, thereby ensuring the accuracy of completed forms sent to applicants.
• Designed & implemented a manual regression integration test suite to verify the integration of the customer relationship, customer interview scripting and mortgage applications, thus ensuring the interoperability of these applications in each live release.
• Designed & implemented a manual functional test suite to verify the automated population of FSA compliance reports, and assisted with the UAT financial reports reconciliation, thereby ensuring FSA compliance.
TEST TEAM LEADER / TECHNICIAN [snip] 2000 - 2005
Develops & supports an EPoS system for the UK & US hospitality markets.
Key Projects & Achievements: Development & Product Release Management Departments.
• Created & integrated a Test process, involving designing test document templates & new Test processes, into a Rational Unified Process (RUP) environment which ensured that quality software was produced on time.
• Piloted Mercury WinRunner, a test automation tool, for a Finance module.
• The automation of the Finance module was proven feasible & subsequently implemented. Time spent on manual regression testing was saved & quality of the software could be maintained while reducing the time to test.
• Designed & implemented a manual regression test suite for Finance & Human Resource modules which verified business processes & made future automation feasible.
• Introduced formal test documentation & mentored new testers to ensure that the new staff quickly contributed to the Test department & that they followed departmental standards.
• Analysed source & target data & designed a test suite to verify the data migration of Finance, Human Resource, Purchasing and critical data maintenance modules from a Paradox database to an SQL database. The subsequent high quality modules were released along with the target database.
• Designed & implemented a ‘unit test requirements’ template for a new Java application & mentored the subsequent unit testing performed by the development team. The coverage of the unit testing of the application reached the agreed level. Developer knowledge of unit testing was improved.
• Successfully piloted a keyword automation test framework to be used in conjunction with Rational Robot to regression test a Java application. Specified custom VB libraries for Rational Robot & mentored their implementation by a contract developer.
• Generated all non-functional & functional test requirements & identified non-testable business requirements for the first major release of a Java application. The analysis was completed by the agreed deadline & was based on the Business Requirements document using the Rational Requisite Pro & Test Manager tools.
• Gathered requirements then designed and implemented an integration test suite for third party bar code readers at back office and front office sites allowing bar-coded products to be speedily and accurately priced.

SOFTWARE TEST ENGINEER                                                                     [snip] 1999 - 2000

Develops & supports a telephone exchange management system in Europe & US.

Key Projects & Achievements: Test Department.

• Manual & automated testing of client/server & web telecoms applications.
• Performing SQL queries on an Oracle database.
• Writing & reviewing test documentation as a test team member working in a RUP environment.

SOFTWARE QUALITY ENGINEER                                                                  [snip] 1995 - 1999

Develops & supports police & government intelligence systems for the global police & intelligence community.

Key Projects & Achievements: Development & QA Departments.

• Designed a test suite & supervised testing of a failing mission-critical National Police Intelligence system. Raised quality of the system & rescued the contract for the company.
• Developed & implemented a Test process in a company with no history of professional testing. Ensured software quality improved & that the agreed standards were adhered to.
• Design & developed a standard test data set using Rational Robot. The data was generated much faster with 100% accuracy & the set up of the test environment was more efficient than previous manual methods.
• Introduced the use of the MS Project tool to plan testing activities & to provide accurate feedback on test progress to the Development Manager.
• Designed & implemented the automated set up of test environments using scripts on a UNIX server. Greatly reduced set up time & ensured 100% accuracy of test data.
• Integrated contractors into the Test team by coaching & supervising them to reach expected goals by the end of the contracted period.
• Led a team of end users in the UAT testing of a criminal intelligence system. The system was accepted for release to the Metropolitan Police on the planned date.

PREVIOUS IT EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

PROGRAMMER                                                                [snip] 1994 - 1995

IT POST GRADUATE STUDENT                                         NAPIER UNIVERSITY 1993 - 1994

CONTRACT ANALYST/PROGRAMMER                              [snip] 1992 - 1993

ANALYST/PROGRAMMER                                                [snip] 1987 - 1992

PROGRAMMER                                                                [snip] 1985 – 1987

PROGRAMMER                                                                [snip] 1985 – 1985

EDUCATION

Napier University                                                              PG Dip Software Technology 1994

Robert Gordon University                                                  PG Dip Info Systems 1984

Dundee University BSc                                                     General Science 1982

PERSONAL DETAILS

Date of Birth -                               Marital Status - Single

INTERESTS
Tennis, Golf, Hill Walking, Cinema, Film Scriptwriting, Crime Fiction.