Darren Nicholson

Developing courses for training personnel on standards and practices was needed. Training was either out of date or nonexistent.

Immediately began researching the topic and reviewing older lessons. Noted topic changes and missing data and made the needed changes and updates to the current training program.

A team of 30 individuals were expertly trained. This training enabled the group to receive an outstanding report when tested by Department of Defense authorities.

The introduction of new software required comprehensive training that would enable the group to continue daily routines with little interruption. Training had not been developed for the software. The training needed to be comprehensive and developed from scratch.

Became familiarized with the software by reading documentation and reviewing best practices used for similar types of software. Developed and performed test plans based on the best practices on the software. Learned to develop new set of best practices for the software. Developed classes that met the needs of the individuals as it pertained to daily activities. Responded to questions that were outside the “box” of practices and developed a new practice after the class was over.

Reduced the learning curve to one month instead of the usual three to six months. Introduced new software allowing work to continue as normal.

Project deliverables were considerably and consistently behind schedule. Needed to quickly design of a fast-paced and rigorous schedule to maintain order and profitability.

When projects were behind schedule, it was necessary to schedule up to three deliverables per week to stabilize the deliverable schedule. After meeting with team and conferring with management, put together a schedule and timetable. Worked closely with team, learning strengths and weaknesses and paired them accordingly with each other depending on what the project needed.

As a result of these changes, managed to stabilize the deliverable schedule with consistent on-time releases.

During a training exercise, a mission critical problem developed that needed to be resolved immediately. The module designed to perform the work was not operational and any standard workarounds were rendered useless. Needed to come up with a non-standard workaround fast.

Worked tirelessly to find a workaround using knowledge of the system and the algorithms involved in the processing of data. Collaborated with team internationally to test ideas until a viable workaround was found.

Introduced the workaround to the section with the problem to quickly get things up and running and remained at 100% of task until a fix could be implemented.

Noted a key missing aspect in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) with the Quality Assurance plan. The Quality Assurance (QA) plan was carried out by developers, contract managers, and the help desk personnel. Standards were too low to be viable. Time was limited to implement a solution.

Focused on regression testing, as previously fixed defects showing up in a later builds seemed to be the biggest problem. Developing a plan for the QA principles required reviewing design documents and setting standards and practices in place on how those steps would be implemented. The more challenging aspect of this plan was researching an automated regression testing system. This required further research and contacting prospective suppliers. After coming to a decision on the best most cost-effective system of that time, wrote a report detailing the plan for implementation and the suggested software to use. Went to CEO to present findings.

Meeting was successful and solution was well-received by the CEO. The plan was put into practice. The company achieved complete and more efficient development plan for managing releases, resulting in a significant reduction in reintroduced defects and a positive impact with all customers. Customer satisfaction with the software and the SDLC was strongly improved.

Needed to unify functional groups such as customers, analysts, programmers, DBAs, and management under one system to enable a more comprehensive view of projects. Needed to work with business processes both in written and verbal form. Existing processes contained redundancies and bottlenecks.

Converted these processes into representational workflows. Analyzed the process and determine redundancies and bottlenecks. Generated a working copy of the workflow and presented the visual representation to the customer, pointing out redundancies and inefficiencies and making suggestions for a solution. After several meetings discussing needs, processes, and improvements, produced a streamlined workflow that would meet the customer’s needs. Used this workflow and oversee the development, testing, and release of the software.

As a result of these changes, the customer enjoyed a more efficient process combined with a more complete picture of projects. This picture comes complete with traceability from origin to release. Efficiency of staff has improved 10%.

A customer was extremely disgruntled with the product they had received and were on the edge of canceling the contract and going with another vendor. The customer had a series of setbacks with the company. The product delivery was a year late and they did not feel they received what they paid for and were certain to terminate the contract. This was first time as a Team Lead as well as dealing with a customer of this nature.

Reviewed all of the customer’s complaints. Talked to others who had previously met with the customer to get a feel for the situation and understood more thoroughly what the foundation of the problem was. Selected a neutral meeting place to go over the complaints over lunch. Attentively listened to what the customer had to say. Presented options, ironing out the details of what the client wanted vs. what the product was able to do and made compromises when the customer expectation exceeded the product’s ability. At the end of the meeting, the customer felt their complaints were heard and were willing to wait for the next implementation before deciding what to do in regards of the contract. Gave findings to the requirements department and put the customer’s release as a priority on the schedule. Assigned staff and resources to the project, and put it on the timeline with plans of having a release within two weeks. Followed up with both management and the customer, keeping both appraised on the progress and any setbacks that occurred.

The product was released to the customer two days ahead of schedule and implemented on their system. After the customer performed a thorough test they were satisfied with the product and agreed to continue with the contract.

New opportunities were coming in the near future that need to be planned for today. This new business idea was outside realm of experience and needed to investigate application to the technologies, processes, and business plans in use by the other business unit.

Interviewed people who would use the new product and idea. After receiving positive feedback and clarity, drew up an overview of the idea and submitted it to the VP of business development. The idea was received with a favorable response and is moving up to the next level.

This project is ongoing with maintenance and changes as new technologies evolve.

The dispatch module in a new product did not have a way of tracking the vehicle or pin- pointing its location should it break down. Did not have knowledge of where to start or what technologies needed to incorporated. There was resistance from some of the management.

Initiated research myself on my own time exploring the different options, interfaces, and legalities. Identified the interface, a detailed set of commonly used options, and all the legalities settled. Implemented a proof of concept (POC) design and demonstrated the idea to the development team first for feedback and improvement. Demonstrated the POC to the sales VP and the to the CEO, both of whom thought it was a great idea.

The addition was widely accepted by the current customer base. The sales team demonstrated the new module to customers who were undecided. After seeing what the new module could do all of them signed a contract, which increased revenue by about 25%.

A business strategic product that serviced more than 500 clients with three different types of web-based software needed to be migrated from an outside source for server management to in house management with a little interruption in service as possible and without losing current and historical data. Data migration was difficult, as a direct connection could not be made between the third-party servers and the in-house servers. The product being migrated was constantly accessed by customers who updated existing data and entered new data 24 hours a day seven days a week. Not interrupting access to the product was critical.

Set up a series of test servers and practiced migrating data over until finding a process that resulted in as few glitches in the data as possible. Once the process was in place, notified users the system would be down and notifications would be sent once the system is back up. Migrated all data from the active third-party servers to the in-house production servers. Ran a series of tests to expose any major problems with the data. Permanently shut down the third-party servers and activated the new in-house servers. Total downtime was 15 minutes and most users did not notice the servers were down.

The migration was seamless to users. While there were some minor data glitches that were quickly fixed major glitches and loss of data was avoided with little interruption to users’ access to the system. The migration to in-house servers saved the organization approximately $36,000 per year.

Product was extremely behind schedule. To keep from losing customers, needed to schedule multiple releases per week, sometimes up to three. Employees were working between 10 to 12 hour days multiple times a week. Needed to keep up the pace or it could mean loss of contracts and people being let go. The team was tired and motivation was dropping.

Only had a few more releases before the rush could be called off and a normal schedule would resume. Watched team closely, looking for ways to make it easier or do something that would mean something to them. Leveraged personal relationships and rewarded team periodically to drastically improve morale.

A new sense of camaraderie and gratitude was felt between team members, preventing the team from feeling burned out or overworked. The releases were completed on time, and no clients were lost.