Quality Assurance Manager

Director of

Software Quality Assurance

More than 15 years of driving Software Quality Assurance and Development

strategy to complement and accelerate core business functions and reduce

product time-to-market. Dramatically decrease testing time and increase

testing load, performance, stability, and robustness. Frequently employ

parallel testing techniques, regression testing, bootstrapping large-scale

test automation capabilities, and personnel re-training. Subject matter

expert in government standards and ISO 9000 requirements, working in highly

regulated industries such as Aerospace, Defense, and Gaming. Developed

software standards and processes for several enterprise software companies

focused on financial, CRM, wireless, 3-D graphics and new media products.

Customer-focused leader targeting continuous improvement and team building,

often working with global teams comprised of 100+ engineers and testers.

Professional Experience

International Game Technology (IGT), Reno, NV . 05/08 - Present

Global designer and manufacturer of electronic gaming equipment and n-tier

systems products for casino management, slot accounting, customer

relationship marketing (CRM), and enterprise-scale server-based game

management.

Director of Software Product Assurance - Network Systems

Performance Impact: Expanded test automation from 2% to 25% with a focus on

customer-oriented and scenario-driven strategies without using additional

resources for company's gaming products, CRM solutions and business

intelligence modules. Resulted in a significant payback in regression

testing by reducing overall labor and the initial testing cycle time.

Unloosed resources and schedule for additional work and new projects to be

completed with high or increased quality standards.

. Altered company's testing approach from simple button pushing to

customer-oriented scenario execution, which drove the strategy to

improve detection of high value, business critical defects with the

same testing effort. Brought about test lab virtualization.

Bootstrapped automated functional, load, and performance testing as

well.

. Lead the testing of new industry standard protocols for slot machines

and high-end applications for casino-floor management (i.e.,

promotions, customer comps).

. Supervised three major lines comprised of dozens of individual products

including legacy client/server systems, and new n-tier Service Oriented

Architecture (SOA) software solutions.

. Enhanced ISO 9001 compliant processes by implementing multiple,

iterative lifecycles, checklist-based reviews and regular self-audits,

and by promoting continuous improvement.

. Championed the Agile ideals of constantly delivering working code and

continuous testing.

. Managed geographically distributed US- and Beijing-based teams totaling

120 test engineers and automated test tool developers.

. Primary technology: C#, .NET, C++, SQL Server.

MKS Incorporated, Waterloo, ON . 11/04 - 05/08

Software vendor focused on the enterprise Application Lifecycle Management

(ALM) market with an n-tier product supporting Swing and web-based GUIs.

Director of Quality Assurance

Performance Impact: Mitigated performance and scalability testing

automation risk by implementing a department-wide training program

(affected 90% of personnel) and created a dedicated Regression Testing Team

to maintain and execute automated functional test suites. Quadrupled

testing automation coverage and shortened regression testing time by 50% on

major releases. First company Director of SQA to earn payback or benefit

from automation within that same release.

. Converted 50% of manual test effort to automated testing. Drove team

towards a continuous improvement culture mandating the strategy for

automation as a department-wide policy.

. Managed 28-person team of highly technical QA analysts/testers and

automated test developers.

. Passed three audits by FDA regulated companies.

. Primary technology: Java, Windows2000 / XP / 2003 Server / Vista,

Linux, Solaris, AIX, Oracle, SQL Server 2000/2005, DB2.

Independent QA and Software Development Consultant, Waterloo, ON . 01/96 -

11/04

Key Clients: MacDonald Dettwiler Space and Advanced Robotics, Toronto, ON;

Canadian Space Agency, St-Hubert, QC; Federal Aviation Administration,

Washington, DC; The Marketing Store, Toronto, ON; TD Securities, Toronto,

ON; Alias Wavefront, Toronto, ON.

Performance Impact: Assumed the temporary role of a given company's Senior

Quality Assurance Manager or Senior Software Project Manager leading

complicated, deadline-driven projects burdened with compliance issues,

testing deficiencies, geographically diverse teams, and limited budgets.

Key Client: MacDonald Dettwiler Space and Advanced Robotics, Toronto, ON

Role: Project Lead, Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS)

Software, International Space Station Program

. Oversaw Canada's software contribution to the International Space

Station and guaranteed that the product met NASA's quality assurance

standards.

. Directed and project managed final version of flight software and

turned around what would normally be a 12 - 18 month project in just 6

months.

. Changed the testing strategy from sequential to parallel, managing

concurrent teams of 6 to 15 engineers.

. Implemented formal Risk Management to mitigate any uncertainties or

liabilities.

. Refined testing estimates, eliminated redundant testing, and

scrutinized the necessity and validity of every test prior to

administration.

Other Client Work:

. Completed design certifications for International Space Station

robotics software in compliance with NASA requirements and standards.

. Solved QA and software development issues allowing management to

complete business and political transactions.

. Designed and implemented software QA, Configuration Management and

Release Management processes and procedures.

. Designed and executed manual and automated tests for web sites and

database back ends.

. Implemented automated unit and integration testing using NAnt, NUnit

and Cruise Control, and system-level testing using Segue (Borland) Silk

Test.

. Developed and delivered a software course based on RTCA/DO-178B for

United States Federal Aviation Administration.

AdExact Corporation, Kitchener, ON . 11/01 - 03/03

Software startup focusing on the digital broadcast industry with integrated

head-end and embedded digital set-top box solutions for the sale,

management, delivery and presentation of demographically targeted

advertisements/information, as well as the collection of viewer data.

Manager of Quality Assurance

Performance Impact: Established the Software QA team, championed the

adoption of formal, iterative processes, and initiated a staged software

promotion process to move builds quickly through development and QA to

production.

. Defined and implemented Rational Unified Process (RUP)-based

development and test processes, including nightly builds and weekly

deliveries to QA.

. Prepared detailed Feature/Function matrices to control testing in the

absence of documented requirements.

. Implemented automated unit and system-level testing using Ant/JUnit and

Rational Robot, respectively.

Early Career

Additional professional experience in managing systems projects for the

Canadian government and defense contractors. Served as a Senior Software

Systems Engineer for Litton Systems, as well as a Senior Software Systems

Engineer, Manager of Training Development and Instruction - Project

Management and Software Systems Engineering, Manager of Computer and

Simulator Maintenance, and Software Developer for the Department of

National Defence (Canada). Prepared and oversaw designs, specifications,

testing protocols, and product standards for projects involving Advanced

Avionics and Armament Systems, flight and mission simulators, and mission

planning and analysis systems. Developed and delivered project management

and systems engineering courses for graduate engineers. During early

career, supervised joint Canadian government-contractor teams and 70+

computer and avionics technicians. Further details on request.

Technology/Programming Proficiencies

. Java/J2EE, Ada, C++, C#, .NET

. JBoss, Oracle 8i/9i, 10g, SQL Server 2000/2005/2008

. Windows 2000/2003/2008/XP/Vista, Linux, Solaris, AIX

. Microsoft Project, Excel, Power Point, Visio

. IBM (Telelogic) DOORS, IBM (Rational) Requisite Pro, Clear Case, Clear

Quest and Robot, HP (Mercury) Quality Center, Quick Test Professional

(QTP), WinRunner and LoadRunner, MKS Integrity, Borland (Segue) Silk Test,

JUnit/NUnit, HTTPUnit, and Ant/NAnt

. SEI CMM/CMMI, ISO 9000/ISO 9000-3, (Rational) Unified Process (RUP/UP),

OOA/OOD, UML, XP, Agile, SCRUM

. MIL-STD-1553B, MIL-STD 490A, MIL-STD 499A, MIL-STD 881, DOD-STD 2167A, DO-

178B

. Assembly language, CMS-2

. 3-D Modeling and Animation Software in C++

. Weblogic and Oracle-based applications with web-based and native GUIs.

Education and Training

Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Physics, Royal Military College,

Kingston, ON, Canada

General and Project Management

Next Generation Management, IGT Learning Center

Effective Communication Workshop, IGT Learning Center

Performance Management, IGT Learning Center

Executive Presentation Skills, IGT Learning Center

Software Project Management, Learning Tree International

Middle Management Course, Public Service Commission (Government of Canada)

Systems and Software Engineering

Aerospace Computer Systems Course, Royal Military College of Canada

Systems Engineering: Tools and Techniques, George Washington University

Member, Project Management Institute

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