Objective:

To write great web based applications that are easy to use and that save businesses time and money.

Professional Overview:

• Experienced software engineer and project manager
• Over 20 years of programming, software project management and business analysis experience
• Skilled at customer communication
• Expert software developer
  • Joomla
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Zend Studio
  • Subversion
• Expert with project management, office and web tools
  • Springloops
  • Base camp
  • MS Project
  • MS Office (including MS Access)
  • Linux

Relevant Work History

Apr 08 - present

Web Development

Joomla customisation and development projects using PHP and MySQL. The two largest projects have been:

• Designed and developed a complete pet resort management system for Samford Pet Resort.
• Designed and developed a comprehensive business survey distribution and analysis system for Alito.

For other examples see my online development services page.

Dec 07 - Mar 08

Web Development

Designed and implemented a new online business (Thinking Toys). This has been set up to sell educational games.

Partly for the experience and partly because none of the existing toolkits were quite what we wanted, I wrote this entire system myself using PHP and MySQL. It includes a full commercial shop with checkout and an administration system for stock control, order processing and content management.

May 02 - Dec 07

Senior Project Manager

Auran Games Pty Ltd

Managed the development of Fury, a large client/server application capable of supporting 100,000+ concurrent users in the same virtual world. Fury was developed using C++, C, and MS SQL running on distributed servers. My biggest challenges were coordinating a large and varied team using different methodologies on different sub projects and maintaining team focus in the face of changing requirements and design.

• Managed day to day development, tracking and reporting
• Established project management procedures for team of 70 people distributed across two international offices (Brisbane and Sweden)
• Implemented integrated MS Project and Test Track solution for concurrent ongoing development and debugging on multiple project versions
• Coordinated UML (Rational) methods for server-side development
• Consolidated Waterfall methods for client-side development with Agile methods for game development
• Implemented QA controls for regular builds
• Implemented job control for effective communication across departments
• Implemented ‘tick sheet’ practices for crucial deployment activities
• Implemented daily reporting processes allowing accurate tracking of ongoing work
• Implemented timesheets, overtime and bonus schemes as required by senior management
• Growing team from 12 to 70 people over 3 years

Produced Fury, taking the original concept from the drawing board through the entire SDLC to successful implementation, deployment and maintenance.

• Presenting and successfully selling the concept to Korean investors.
• Demonstrating and promoting Fury internationally

Developed and promoted a number of concepts while building a team with sufficient skills and capacity to develop a large distributed client/server application.

• Original concept and outline design for Fury
• Successfully presenting and selling Bridge It to NVIDIA
• Successfully selling outsource art development to US studios
• Implementing task assignment and tracking processes
• Introduced formal development methods

Mar 02 – May 02

Emigrating from UK to Australia

Aug 98 – Mar 02

Senior Project Manager

Virgin/Interplay

In addition to detailed project management and overseeing the activities of other project managers, I supplied financial reporting and tracking on a large portfolio of games. My Excel, Access and Powerpoint skills were put to intensive use and I spent a large amount of time visiting studios and assessing potential development opportunities or identifying and helping to remedy project slip. The biggest challenges I faced in this period were chronic slip and related cost overrun.

• Consolidated reporting on games in development
• Implemented consultation and review process for scheduling
• Shipped four major products that were rescued from cancellation (UFO, Art of Magic, Evolva, Original War)

Jul 95 – Aug 98

Planning Manager

Virgin Games

Working with 7 project managers (producers) to improve scheduling and effectiveness. With the small team, I also took on the role of Project Manager with two games developments.

• On schedule completion of Magic & Mayhem (Strategy game of the year 1998)
• On schedule completion of Circle of Blood
• Broken Sword rescue and ship
• Implementation of project planning and reporting practises

Dec 94 – May 95

Apartment Manager

After a long and profitable period of running a small consultancy business, I handed the business over to friends and took a long break. For fun, I spent the time running a ski apartment in Bourg St Maurice.

Apr 94 – Dec 94

Software engineer - Sira Industrial

SDC Ltd

Enhancements to Prospex. Added new scheduling capabilities and introduced new object kernel for enhanced maintainability and migration to other environments.

• Design and development of replacement object kernel
• Addition of batch processing and junction box facilities

Jan 94 – Apr 94

Software engineer - Bell Northern Research

SDC Ltd

Extension of LFNM to include new customer requirements. This work involved managing a small team making systemic changes to the system components and enhancing the database to improve performance.

Jul 93 – Dec 93

Software engineer - Sira Industrial

SDC Ltd

Optimising and enhancing Prospex. The work included the optimisation of low level functions, reworking of scheduling algorithms and improvements to the MMI.

• Twenty seven times overall performance speed up in scheduling
• Ten times speed up in windows tabular display times

Apr 90 – Jun 93

Software engineer - Nortel

SDC Ltd

Providing design and development assistance with the MMI and model components of the LFNM.

• Development of Object Oriented navigation and control interface.
• Successful combination of pessimistic and optimistic concurrency control of database.
• Adherence to PROMPT development methodology.
• Providing training courses for ‘C’ programmers at Northern Telecom in Cymbran covering advanced programming, object oriented design and application development

Technical Skills Summary