Currently working with the group that provides support for a drug adjudication application. This Tandem based application is written almost exclusively in COBOL, i.e., both native mode and COBOL85. The application is comprised of the traditional PATHWAY requesters and servers which front-end an Enscribe database. As well there is a large adjudication application which processes patient drug claims from clients (pharmacies, insurance companies etc.) in real-time. The incoming drug claims are adjudicated based on the patient’s group health plan information held in the Enscribe database.

Past and current projects...

• Currently leading an NonStop application modernization project to provide a framework for future applications development using SQL/MX, Java, Spring, JToolkit and web services.
• Lead adjudication engine analyst for a major enhancement.
• Team lead on a project to integrate a new User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment. Involves Pathway configuration, application / database setup, connectivity and Golden Gate Extractor / Replicator configuration (NonStop to UNIX).
• Lead web services analyst using NonStop SOAP and the iTP WebServer. This project replaced a RSC link with a XML SOAP web service. I developed a custom SOAP server application which includes C++ user exits that house the required business logic. NonStop SOAP Server and iTP Web Server operate in the OSS space.
• Lead analyst on the “green screen” replacement project utilizing Pathway/iTS.
• Developed a .NET web service client to exercise a NonStop SOAP Paper Claim Reimbursement web service.
• Developed a web site utilizing ASP.NET, C# and SQL Server 2008 to demonstrate Tandem web service access and provide development staff with a more flexible Paper Claim Reimbursement interface.
• Developed and improved many script (TACL) used in our batch environment and for code promotion.
• Lead Golden Gate Software (GGS) developer. Designed and developed solutions to replicate Tandem data to Oracle / JAVA systems. This project required GGS replication application to be augmented with USER EXIT modules.
• Lead analyst on a project to synchronize Drug Engine database elements with a JAVA/Oracle based Dental Engine that run in UNIX using GGS and web services.

Recent training...

• Introduction to Project Management – a two (2) day course based on the Project Management Institutes's (PMI) process structure.
• Introduction to SQL/MX - a one (1) day overview of the ANSI compliant SQL product for HP NonStop.
• Integrity Server Migration – a one (1) day overview of S-Series to Itanium migration planning.

At CIBC I worked with the eFTS group which provides application support for the BASE24 ATM, POS and Remote Banking applications. CIBC makes extensive uses of BASE24 to manage their ABM, POS and Internet / Telephone banking services as well as for fraud monitoring. My main focus involved the bank's chip card migration initiative, i.e., migrating from magnetic strip bank cards to a smart or chip based card supporting the European Master Card / VISA (EMV) standard. Whilst at CIBC I wrote a stand-alone program to populate their in house SQL card holder database with several hundred test cards. This application was written in TAL with embedded SQL. In addition , I was the lead developer on the Tandem based Card Holder Services Platform (CSP) database. CSP is a very large database management subsystem written in COBOL and embedded SQL. A big part of CSP included the MQ Series infrastructure that maintained coherency with the DB2 cardholder database. I performed all the CSP coding changes designed to support the data requirements of the EMV project. In addition, I supported MQ Series by implementing version upgrades. Within less than a year, I became the in-house expert on CSP and was conducting lunchtime lectures on its structure and how the bank manages its cardholder population. In addition, I oversaw fraud monitoring upgrades, i.e., to Proactive Risk Manager (PRM) 7.0.
Other areas where knowledge was gained are BASE24 (configuration and control), RMS (source management) and VERSATEST (simulation tool). Training includes:

• VersaTest introduction and Scripting.
• Introduction to BASE24 ATM, POS and Remote Banking.
• BASE24 ATM and POS Transaction Processing.
• XPNET Environment Course.

My last area of involvement at the RCMP was with the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS). Here I served as the application support prime. CETS is a server based web application developed for the police community by Microsoft. It utilized the latest Microsoft .NET technologies, i.e., IIS 6.0, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, C#, Web Forms, Web Services and SharePoint; SQL Server2000 ran the back-end database and SharePoint front-ended the CETS application. My role was primarily one of application support, i.e., diagnosing and fixing bugs, problem solving day-to-day user issues and assisting other groups such as the network management group with trace collection and analysis. Moreover, I spearheaded each and every release that took place during my tenure (two (2) application releases, a Reporting Services release and a production server rebuild).

In addition, I configured the SharePoint portal content. More specifically, I configured SharePoint areas, sub-areas and added built-in content elements to satisfy user requirements that were established in conjunction with the policy centre.

When time permitted, I was involved in new development, i.e., developing SharePoint Web Parts and Web Part Pages from the VS.NET Web Part template component. The web parts would house user directory information and HTML elements (table) displaying information pertaining to “team” (agency) sites. All development was accomplished using Visual Studio .NET within a Virtual PC (VPC) environment.

Additional areas of involvement:

• Reporting Services (installation, configuration and report creation).
• NETMON (Microsoft’s network tracing utility). Collection, filtering and analysis for problem solving purposes.
• BASE24 ATM and POS Transaction Processing.
• SQL Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer.

Here I served as the project lead; the primary responsibility was to maintain a proprietary e-mail application that ran on the RCMP’s Tandem network (8 nodes - 4 Prod, 2 QC and 2 Dev). This network supports an SNA and X.25 communications backbone as well as the CPIC messaging application. This messaging application was used by all police agency across Canada to communicate important police information such as All Points Bulletins (APBs), suspect query hits (notifications), query by mail to external motor vehicle databases and regular agency to agency messaging. The CPIC messaging application handled almost one million transactions per day and supported 10,000+ terminal addresses. Maintenance / development work primarily involved COBOL, TAL and TACL. The CPIC messaging system utilized the ENSCRIBE file system as well as SCOBOL Pathway IDS and UMP terminal interfaces. Moreover, I have extensive INSPECT debugging skills along with experience using the full range of Tandem utilities, i.e., FUP, SCF (line tracing and line control), PTRACE (line trace analysis), SCUP, SPOOLCOM, Peruse and forth. I also provided 24/7 production support.

Projects of interest:

• I led the migration effort which supported transition to the next generation CPIC messaging system.
• Development of many TACL scripts to monitor and report system operation activities, i.e., disk and print spooler capacity, database transaction activities, message queues and so forth.
• Developed a program that provided automated system recovery which allowed the RCMP to operate the critical business element at the lowest possible cost.
• Developed a PATHSEND application which provided monitoring / recovery for X.25 communication links. This effort reduced related helpdesk calls by 90%.

During my first term my primary responsibility was to oversee quality assurance for the proprietary e-mail system. This involved developing test plans for the distributed messaging application as well as ensuring proper implementation of each test case.

Other duties included the following:

• Problem diagnosis and resolution.
• Testing network recoverability, i.e., verify/exercise the fault-tolerant capabilities of the entire system.
• Operations support (consulting, documentation and tools)
• Technical advisor to RCMP members.
• Capacity planning.

I held two separate contracts at Nortel. The first (4 months) was with the Meridian Norstar group. Here I developed tests script for an automated test environment. All development was performed on HP machines running HP-UX and X-Window.

The second contract (11 months) was with Fiber-World (Nortel’s fiber-optics switch division). Here I served as a tester situated within the STS-1 development group. The STS-1 tributary board was part of the OC-48 fiber-optics communications product.

On contract basis, new software features for the ENVOY100 electronic mail system were developed. This includes implementing and testing a PC interface to ENVOY100 plus a library of communications routines that handled DATAPAC bisynchronous and asynchronous protocols. Implementing the above software features provided a complete understanding of the structure of a large computer system electronic mail application. Furthermore, a complete understanding of the X.25 WAN communications was gained, i.e., packet structures and PAD (X.3) programming requirements. The bulk of development was performed using "C"; however, since the majority of ENVOY100 code is TAL based, an in-depth analysis of this language was required to facilitate the various interfaces.

Here I worked on a factory automation product, i.e., bar code reader and so forth used in the garment industry. Programming was done in PASCAL.

Here I worked on a factory automation product, i.e., bar code reader and so forth used in the garment industry. Programming was done in PASCAL.

Here I worked on an embedded application that switched video to a cable TV network. Coding was performed in “C” and testing was in assembler using In Circuit Emulator (ICE) units. All application ran on a real-time operating system (iRMX86). The O/S and application software were downloaded onto programmable read only memory (PROM) chips. The PROMs were then inserted into an 80186 micro computer board..