I am the Head of Product Development at SORCE and am responsible for all product development in the company.
Our Engage software powers the intranets and extranets for hundreds of businesses and we have more than 500,000 users worldwide.
I lead our Product Team of talented individuals; Designers, Software Engineers, Scrum Master and QA. I have worked across a broad and evolving selection of technologies and have been involved in many areas of the business since joining in 2000.
I have a deep technical understanding of our product and its architecture, having built much of it myself in previous positions at SORCE, my technical skills include: Languages/Libraries C#, VB.Net, ASP.Net, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, moment.js, SQL, NSIS, NAnt, XML, VB6, ASP, Java, PHP, Objective-C Server Platforms and Software Windows NT
Windows Server 2012, IIS 4-8, SQL Server 2007
2014, Microsoft Index Server, Active Directory, ADFS, Sharepoint, Hyper-v, Windows Server Backup, VMWare, dtSearch, Apache, MySQL, Linux (Debian) Tools/Applications Visual Studio 6
2013, TFS 2005
2013, Sublime Text, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, many other miscellaneous development tools Methodologies Agile, Scrum
Career: 5
SORCE
Jan 2011 - Present
Managing all development of the SORCE intranet product used by over 50 clients and their employees, including EDF, One Stop, Travelodge Working with other senior members of the Product Team to build and refine process for research and development of our Intranet product offering Providing support and mentorship for Product Team members Fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and camaraderie Overseeing the transitioning of all development to C#, providing guidance to developers during the gradual transition and recruiting new developers to add C# skills and experience to the team Designed, prototyped, and managed the complete development of a new responsive, modern front end to the existing product, to meet customers’ increasing need for mobile device support, making extensive use of the evolving HTML5 standard, CSS3, and use of script libraries such as jQuery where appropriate Representing the Development Team at Management Team level, guiding overall product and company direction Managed Consultant who was recruited to increase development capacity during the project to deliver EDF Energy’s intranet Working with the Product Owner to review change requests both for product and bespoke customer development projects for suitability and prioritising them in the product backlog where appropriate for product inclusion Reviewing existing product functionality for potential redevelopment, with a view to eventually replace the existing product completely Redeveloped generic product search capability to improve usability, making some use of jQuery for ‘eased in’ search results as they are retrieved Maintaining the existing product in its entirety, to add new platform and browser support, resolve issues, create build packages for release to customers Fully automated product build process with NAnt, NSIS, Visual Studio and TFS command line tools, working towards continuous integration of our internal test environments
SORCE
Jan 2010 - Jan 2011
Began taking a lead role in development as the Development Manager (and Managing Director) prepared for retirement Prepared development team progress reports for Management Team meetings Managed the development projects for our home working developer Oversaw and completed project to convert entire product from VB6 to VB.Net Developed major new product features in VB.Net including generic access control system to enable granular access and permission control of customer data and ‘group targeting’ mechanism to allow customer content to be targeted to specific sets of users or departmental groups Maintained product source code in TFS; branching, merging, conflict resolution Build/release creation with release note and maintaining internal change notes Attended visits to sales prospects with sales team as technical representative Maintaining Windows Server Backup of TFS and Domain Controller
SORCE
Jan 2007 - Jan 2010
Continued extending product functionality with greater use of VB.Net, additionally learning about version control systems such as SourceSafe and TFS Introduced version control to Development Manager, implemented version control in TFS 2005. Later moved to TFS 2008 Managed main tester and documentation writer Extended Application Development environment to provide customers with greater functionality and flexibility including configurable data encryption options for customer data
SORCE
Jan 2003 - Jan 2007
Various projects, extending knowledge and experience in VB.Net, ASP.Net, ASP, VB6, HTML, JavaScript, SQL, NSIS, Photoshop Developed Document Management module, all new code written in VB.Net Developed HTML and JavaScript based WYSIWYG drag-and-drop form editor for Application Development environment Developed fully automated product installer using NSIS and VB6 for supporting executables Maintained the product source code manually, using file comparison tools such as Beyond Compare and Examdiff to merge code changes from the other developers and to retrospectively apply serious bug fixes Attended customer sites across the UK to carry out product installation and bespoke application development Continued internal infrastructure support, SonicWall maintenance and upgrades, VPN configuration, Active Directory server installation including domain creation and maintenance
SORCE
Nov 2000 - Jan 2003
Self teaching and learning through work projects
ASP, VB6, SQL, HTML, JavaScript, Photoshop Developed dynamic product Sitemap functionality Various Photoshop work; such as slicing designs for web use, creating and modifying button graphics Created and maintained product help documentation Product support, from initial point of contact to development and delivery of fixes for issues Assisted with internal infrastructure support
