Apart from technical ability in computer programming, software design and IP security, I have strong interpersonal skills in presentation, and consultancy. I also have a good sense of humour. I can be decisive when necessary but prefer to be inclusive and arrive at consensus. I am able to think on my feet and to generate ideas and solve problems, and I am not afraid to be wrong. I have developed technical skills in software engineering, IP, network management, software process and project management.

British Telecommunications PLC

Adastral Park (formerly BT Labs), Martlesham Heath, Ipswich

Manager of the Advanced Communications Engineering (ACE) Process Unit, November 1999 to April 2000

I was appointed as the manager of the ACE Process Unit in November 1999. This was a group of 11 people within Advanced Communications Engineering (ACE), responsible for the maintenance of ISO9001 registration and the supporting Management System, for the capability assessment of systems engineering groups through BT HealthCheck and ISO15504, and for research into Systems Integration. My goal was to lead the group into becoming a resource for the ongoing support of systems engineering process improvement across Advanced Communications Engineering, developing expertise in process improvement, software engineering best practice and appropriate software metrics.

Network Management Solutions (NMS) Software Engineering Improvement Programme

I ran the NMS (formerly ISEC) Software Engineering Improvement Programme from April 1998 to November 1999, with responsibility for bringing about improvements in software engineering process, methods and tools. I offered guidance on improvement activities to client projects across ACE, based on BT HealthCheck assessment results or on detailed improvement assessments. I set a HealthCheck assessment policy for NMS that has resulted in project-level assessments rather than unit-level assessments being conducted. This means that resource managers are now able to differentiate the process capabilities of the different projects within their remit and apply project-specific process improvements.

I have conducted improvement assessments for NMS and other ACE teams locally, and in Canada, India and France on behalf of Internet and Multimedia Applications (IMA), BT Global, and Mobility and Network Services (MNS). I have become an internal quality auditor, a BT HealthCheck assessor and an ISO15504 (SPICE) Lead Assessor (currently provisional).

In 1998 I conducted a detailed benchmarking exercise on 6 NMS projects, contributing to a 20 project submission from BT Systems Engineering to the Computer Science Corporation's Process Enhancement Programme. I worked with the ACE Process Unit to update the BT HealthCheck assessment method and I worked with people from across ACE on the future of the VV&T Handbook.

SDH Design team leader

From October 1996 I was a team leader with the design team of the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy Network Control Layer (SDH NCL) project, concentrating on system design for future software builds. I was directly involved with GPT Ltd (now Marconi) and Siemens AG through the Network Management Review Group, which involved representing BT in meetings in Britain and Germany, working across team, company and national boundaries. In particular I managed a list of technical issues with SDH element management software interfaces and liaised with GPT on resolution of those issues.

I contributed to the Network Management section of an Invitation-To-Tender for the supply of SDH equipment for the Access network. Prior to that I managed the analysis of change requests for the SDH NCL. To that end I held workshops to define and prioritise requirements, with representatives drawn from the systems, operations and process areas of BT, and from GPT and Siemens, and I project-managed the delivery of analysis documents written by team members from across Systems Engineering.

I was involved in a project to assess the suitability of several third-party suppliers’ systems to replace components of the SDH NCL, and have heavily influenced the evolution of key NCL components to streamline and optimise the system.

As a champion of Rapid Application Development (RAD) within ISEC, with experience of RAD applied to large projects, I took part in a Video on DSDM which has been used both as part of a change management program and for DSDM training.

SDH RAD team leader

I lead the design team and RAD process for the development of the SDH Planning Assignment and Configuration System (PACS) for SDH NCL Build 3. The SDH PACS RAD Team was a high performance team with BT people, contractors and Oracle consultants brought together very quickly to work under pressure to meet aggressive deadlines. The first full version of PACS was delivered into VV&T in 4 months, as planned. The NCL system of which PACS is the central component went live in October 1996.

I consolidated my team leadership experience and developed better presentation, requirements gathering and workshop leadership skills. I also developed my role on the UAE unit management team, responsible for software process improvement - at the time the unit was orienting itself towards RAD work and the processes for quality delivery of that work were being explored.

Design consultant

I was a Design Consultant within the User Access Engineering (UAE) Unit. I worked on a variety of projects and feasibility studies, such as applicability of User Facing Architecture (UFA) to the SDH NCL, the design and prototyping of a Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) thin client architecture for the Customer Handling Infrastructure project and finally the feasibility of RAD for the development of Build 3 of the SDH NCL.

Mercury Communications Ltd,

Alpha Tower, Broad St., Birmingham

Senior Analyst/Programmer

As a Senior Analyst/Programmer I did Object Oriented design and development using Booch, Rational Rose and C++, and was involved in several feasibility studies. I worked in the Customer Front Office systems area. In particular I delivered a Fault Logging system, and a small system that updated several corporate databases with customer name and address changes. I project managed a small collaborative feasibility project with Hewlett Packard, using program generators and DCE-like mechanisms to rapidly build 3-tier software to interface to legacy systems and corporate databases.

I developed my software design and development skills and acquired team leading, software quality and some project management skills. I became aware of RAD and attended a seminar by Scott Schulz, a leader in the RAD field. I was invited to join a group designing a 3-tier architecture strategy for the company, but I left to take a position at BT Laboratories.

HCI Limited

Contract programmer

As a contract programmer I worked for a variety of companies either as a network manager or as an analyst & programmer. I developed skills as an effective communicator as well as gaining valuable technical experience in a range of application domains, programming languages and operating systems.

I developed systems in C, Pascal, Macro-11 and 4^th-Dimension (a 4GL), covering such diverse applications as real-time lighting control, packaging estimation, medical audit and financial planning. I managed a network of Macintosh computers for cancer research, and did UNIX system troubleshooting and networking. I continued to run programming tutorials in C++ at Trent Polytechnic when time allowed. I left contracting in order to develop a career in software design and management.

Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham (now Nottingham Trent University)

System manager

I managed a laboratory of 40 PC’s for student use, assisted in the management of the department’s VAX BSD UNIX system, and installed & managed the department’s research network of Sun workstations.

I became involved in the Esprit 295 research project on handwriting recognition, and co-authored a paper on the use of orthographic information for script recognition. I ran programming tutorial sessions in Pascal for Computing and Engineering students and assisted them with computing and programming problems and occasionally taught first year undergraduates.

I completed my degree whilst working at the Polytechnic, and left the Polytechnic to take contract work and broaden my experience.

Bachelor of Science with Commendation in Computer Studies, and the Addison Wesley Prize for best final year project.

Bemrose School, Uttoxeter Road, Derby, From 1973 to 1980

8 ‘O’ Levels, 2 ‘A’ Levels

‘The use of Orthographic Information for Script Recognition’ C.J. Wells, L.J. Evett, P.E. Whitby and R.J. Whitrow, in ‘Computer Processing of Handwriting’ edited by R. Plamondon and C.G. Leedham, published by World Scientific in 1990