Software Project Manager

Joseph L. Mabel

******@*********.***

I am currently working full-time on contract through

for the

Builders' Exchange of Washington

(BXWA) . I expect to be doing this

at least

through December 2012, probably a bit longer. However, if you have a

small

consulting project I'd be glad to talk & see if

I can squeeze it in, and of course I am interested in possibilities

for January 2013 and onward.Skills/Strengths:

Over 25 years in the software development industry,

in

both technical and management positions and in both contract and

permanent positions.

Technical Personnel Management: Consensus-building,

team-building,

training and management of technical personnel up to and including

managers. Coordination between technical and

non-technical personnel.

Software Development: Specification, design,

programming,

debugging. Emphasis on data structures, object-oriented design, efficient

algorithms, flexible configuration, graphics, and user-friendly interface.

Extensive experience in numerous computer languages, notably C++ and

JavaScript/jQuery. Familiar with most major Web technologies.

Expertise in, CAD,

web-centric development.

Project Management: Scheduling and

estimation, requirements gathering, functional specification, risk

identification and management. Expert in turning around troubled

projects.

Vendor/Client relationships: Estimating/bidding

projects, managing relationships. Experience on both sides of the

vendor/client interface, both domestically and internationally.

Communications: Strong written and oral communicator.

Documentation experience includes technical and process standards,

specifications, API documentation, user documentation,

and preparing software systems for source licensing. Worked as a freelance

writer prior to my involvement in computing.

Problem-solving and flexibility: A broad range of

experience

including both regular and contract employment in a variety of environments.

Feasibility studies, overall systems design, database and data structures

work, close work with people from a variety of cultures and a variety of

professional

backgrounds.Current:

Since August 2010 I have been on contract through,

mainly developing a web-based measurement/takeoff tool (basically a

stripped-down CAD system for the construction industry) for the

Builders' Exchange of Washington

(BXWA), currently in a "soft

release." I developed both the front and back ends of this system, and

am currently adding

various features, which we are slipstreaming into the live site.

The system allows builders and others to view and mark up

plans and specs, to take measurements, and to make certain calculations

useful during the bidding process.

This is hands-on development, mostly

jQuery/JavaScript/HTML5 and PHP but also at times C++ and Java, and

includes highly interactive HTML5 graphics for both conventional PCs

and touchscreen devices. The work

also includes some project management, software systems architecture,

and occasional online research.

I expect to be doing this at least through December 2012.Prior experience:Accretive Technology Group in Seattle,

Washington.

Software Development Manager (January

2008-February 2009)

Managed an e-commerce intensive, Internet-centric software

development group. Combining people management, project/program

management, and occasional hands-on tech work, successfully brought

a software department out of perpetual "maintenance mode" and

evolved it into a group capable of taking on major new projects.

Took a system that was essentially undocumented when I joined, and

turned it into something that new, mid-level hires could understand.

Vastly improved specification processes, bug tracking processes, etc.

Played a major role in

defining company priorities. Drove internationalization of company's

online products. Led an evolution from focus on individual features

to a greater focus on capabilities and configurability.Contracting/Consulting 2001-2007

From 2001 through 2007 I

was contracting and consulting. Major projects included:

Lux Group, November 2007 - December 2007: Wrote

the

requirements, compliance checklist, etc. for the online version of the

Washington State Health Insurance Pool (WSHIP) Standard Health

Questionnaire (SHQ).Active Voice, LLC

(AVLLC, now AVST), January-December 2006: wrote

functional and technical specifications (and designed GUI and telephone

user interfaces) for the company's next several major product

releases. These specifications drove AVLLC's features for roughly

the next two years.

[More…]

AVLLC, now absorbed into AVST, was a

subsidiary of NEC,

specializing in voice technology. As of April 2009,

it is being

absorbed into NEC's Infrontia group.Working with a team distributed between Seattle and Bucharest,

specified voice mail features such as:

Hospitality (hotel/motel) packageSchedule- and caller-ID-based call handling.SMS (Short Message Service) integration: use SMS to notify

about voice messages, etc.Led a research effort on networked, multi-client, multi-PBX

systems.Also wrote post facto technical specifications for

several features where internal documentation was lacking.Sakson &

Taylor (now Aquent), March-December 2005: wrote or

rewrote most of the Microsoft SDK's conceptual documents and API

references (Win32 PSDK for C++ and .NET Framework) on

internationalization and typography.

[More…]

Covered

such diverse topics as developing software in ways that make it easy to

change UI language resources; Microsoft's concept of locale; formatting

dates, times, numbers, and currencies internationally; typography and

scripts; and text encodings.Included

both the Win32 PSDK for C++ developers and .NET Framework.This work is now "live" on MSDN. I did

major additions and rewrites to the material on National

Language Support, Unicode

and Character Sets,,

and

Multilingual

User Interface.I'm particularly proud of

adding pages such as the

Uniscribe

glossary and of completely reworking pages like Language

Identifier Constants and Strings, the previous version of which

was almost unusable., July-August 2004: Internationalized Tableau's

flagship product, Visual Spreadsheet, functioning as both project

manager and developer. This was successfully achieved

within a very tight 8-week schedule.

[More…]

Developed overall strategy for internationalization of this

Microsoft® Windows Desktop application.Re-instrumented to use Unicode internally rather than ANSI;

identified and isolated

string resources.Internationalized

presentation and validation of dates, floating point numbers,

etc. at the user interface and in communicating with a variety of

DBMSs.Internationalized the approach to sorting order and other string

operations.

Internationalized the approach to recognizing a column in a

database table as containing day-of-week or month-of-year data.Identified international UI layout issues; helped established

policies that will

allow

maintenance of internationalized software. Lux Group, June 2003 - March 2004: Acting Director of

Development.

[More…]

Estimated, bid, and pitched a broad range of software, consulting,

and documentation projects for current and prospective clients.

Clients included major national software firms, an insurance

company, a hospital, and several e-commerce companies.Managed software development group.Participated directly in projects as a consultant, software

developer, and programmer/writer.Active Voice, LLC (AVLLC), November 2001 - May 2002 (Bucharest), July

- December 2002 (Seattle): Represented executive management of AVLLC at, an offshore R&D center in Bucharest. Also functioned

as a

technical consultant to Unidec.

Tremendously improved mutual working relationship. Also

researched future products and wrote functional specifications for

future features for several of AVLLC's existing products.

[More…]

Functioned as a consultant to Unidec on technical matters, managerial

approaches, and American business practices; successfully integrated them

into AVLLC's development process.

Provided liaison between Seattle-based marketing

and Bucharest-based

technical groups. Tremendously improved mutual working relationship.Taught voice mail technology and other messaging technology to a team

of Romanian software developers.Supported several different teams within a 50-person software

development group.Helped establish software development standards for the

Romanian team.Authored numerous functional specifications and guided these through

AVLLC's consensus process for new features.Designed an integration between email and voice mail based on

IMAP4.Mastered and documented a large, previously undocumented body of third

party C++ code.Researched future products and wrote

functional specifications for future

features for several of AVLLC's existing products, notably the

KinesisTM

unified (voice and text) messaging

product. Saltmine, June-October 2001 (Manchester and London, UK): As

a member of a Microsoft Consulting Services team, helped the "Manchester

2002" team design a web-based system to integrate with the Central

Results System and serve 100 million objects per day during the 2002

Commonwealth Games

. Also, QA Lead for Microsoft UK online events

calendar. Devised development standards and policies for Saltmine's

London office. [More…]

Manchester (Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games):Authored recommendations documents that proposed a range of alternatives

for design, testing, and implementation of systems to deliver

live results to the web with minimal latency, and which

explained tradeoffs among these approaches.Strategized stress and

performance testing. Wrote high-level test plan. Specified several utility

and component programs as part of the site and the test harness.

Worked with Manchester 2002 personnel to implement these

successfully.Devised strategy to reconcile clashing systems of

identifiers, so that web sites may appropriately link information from

different third-party sources applying to a particular athlete, country,

etc.Worked successfully to improve communications between Microsoft and

Manchester 2002 personnel.London (Microsoft UK and Saltmine UK):QA Lead for an online events calendar for

Microsoft UK, which provides such features as workflow for submission

and review of event content, integration with Microsoft's HR systems,

content personalization, and

email subscription services for both users and Event Administrators.

Devised development standards and policies for

Saltmine's London office.Saltmine (1997-2001)

Director of (Software) Development

Managed and advised on software development projects, both web-centric

and otherwise; handled client contact with several

key

clients; cooperated with Business Development personnel in client pitches;

estimated and bid projects; hired, supervised and trained

technical managers, developers

(chiefly C++

developers), software QA personnel, project managers;

helped set company and

departmental standards in technically-related areas; also served as a

development lead

directly involved in the specification, design, and development of

software,

especially three-tier web-centric applications, ISAPI DLLs and

GUI-intensive Win32 development.

Major projects included:PM and Dev Lead through four release cycles of a

troubleshooting tool for Microsoft, utilizing

Bayesian logic and embracing such technologies as ISAPI and XML. This included

development of workflow and content management tools. All content fully

globalized, handling even Near Eastern and Far Eastern languages.

Dev Lead for a CD-ROM-based game for Wizards of the Coast (now part of

Hasbro). Game

incorporates a complex database, uses a broad range of Microsoft

technologies, and involves Internet play.

While Director of Development, also served as Acting

Director of Software QA (Jan-June 2000) and managed the IT department

through a management transition (Aug-Sept 2000). Created materials for,

and conducted, numerous training sessions and series; topics included

advanced C++, internationalization and

localization, and (for QA)

fundamentals of database modeling and programming.

Orca Medical Systems (1996-1997)

Program Manager

Chief author of database and UI specifications for a Windows- and SQL

Server-based medical records system, later a product of Spacelabs,

Inc.Through rapid iterations of prototypes and mini-specs,

developed a consensus from half a dozen initially very divergent

visions of Orca's product. To this end, worked with in-house

domain experts (nurses and physicians), client clinicians, and hospital

CIOs to develop a UI that could handle hundreds of

distinct scenarios by

which data may become part of the medical record. Successfully

communicated these to a team of software engineers.Developed a "vocabulary" of about 15

screen controls that covered cases which, in an earlier release of the

product, had used approximately 50 distinct controls.Overhauled medical records database schema. Introduced a full

journalizing capability while actually reducing disk storage requirements

and speeding access for common operations.Active Voice Corporation

(1991-1996)

Software Architect, Project Lead

Software Architect for ReparteeTM, the

flagship product of the world's

then-leading

manufacturer of PC-based voice mail. This

highly

multi-tasking voice mail system integrates with third-party

e-mail and various proprietary LAN-based applications.

Functioned simultaneously as both Project Manager and Development Lead

for Repartee 7.4. Over the course of 18 months,

led and motivated my team to successfully deliver what was, at the time,

the largest project in the history of the company.

Directly supervised 7 Software Engineers plus QA Lead, Technical

Publications Lead, and Field Test Coordinator. Coordinated with

Marketing,

Training, Technical Support, and Production departments, as well as Platform,

Desktop Applications, and Software Components groups within

Development.Set schedules and tracked progress of project. Negotiated with engineering

management for resources and delegated work responsibilities within the

team.Authored approximately one third of requirement, functional

specification, and

technical specification documents, and reviewed the other two-thirds of

these documents.Programmed several of the more difficult portions of the system

and coordinated and supervised code reviews.

Repartee 7.4

provided an architectural foundation still in use today.

Among the key features of the project were: merged three separate code

bases, each offering significant unique

features; converted from 16-bit code and non-preemptive multi-tasking to

32-bit code and preemptive multi-tasking; expanded from 36 to 60 simultaneous

voice conversations, while improving performance; added features in

support of fault tolerance; improved system configurability; improved

modularity of code; allowed on-line backup; improved granularity in the

locking scheme to remove limitations on certain operations occurring

simultaneously; improved APIs to maximize forward compatibility; allowed

analog networking of multiple voice mail systems.

Other achievements at Active Voice:Managed several other projects, including

integration of fax and voice mail.Instituted much-improved coding discipline throughout the enterprise,

including the introduction of

code reviews.Developed server support for ViewCall, a breakthrough system which allows

clients to control incoming phone calls from their desktop computer.Made major improvements in the design of the Repartee database and major

extensions to the voice interface.HealthWare Corporation (1989-1991)

Senior Software EngineerLiaison to Marketing for 3-person software team.Designed and implemented MS Windows Custom Controls to edit structured

nursing notes and

other structured medical records. Performed extensive database work to

support this design.Redesigned report generator, resulting in

order-of-magnitude

speed improvement.Portable Cellular Communications (1988-89, contract)

Transformed software specific to a single cellular phone rental company

into

a production system which formed the basis of Cellular

Technical Services,

a joint venture with Nynex.Extensively interviewed PCC programming staff to produce a document which

resolved Nynex's issues about the flexibility of the software and

applicability beyond one company.Wrote in-line documentation of code, created system diagrams, wrote

functional and technical descriptions of programs, files, and interprocess

communication. Organized source and object libraries and created

"make" files.Completely redesigned and rewrote point-of-sale software to create a

single configurable program.Designed simulation/testing environment and developed a strategy for

fault tolerance.For CTS, wrote programs for data verification, telephone switch

interfaces, long-distance telephone billing, serial and TCP/IP

communications.Energy International (1987, contract)Designed and implemented a graphical user interface, which added

interactive grid design, profiles, vector plots, and contour graphs to an

existing fluid dynamics system.Established administrative procedures for Apollo network. Greatly

improved relations with Apollo and other vendors.MegaCADD (1983-1988)

Co-founder, Senior Software Engineer

Led team that developed the first effective

PC-based three-dimensional modeling tool for architects.

Designed and implemented three-dimensional graphics capabilities,

including efficient automatic hidden line removal, walkthrough animations,

DXF (AutoCad) interchange, and highly interactive creation of models and

components, including manipulation of curves by handle points.Supervised 3-person project team. Set design priorities. Reviewed all

technical specifications. Set coding, documentation, and testing standards.

Scheduled and monitored all project work, ranging from user documentation to

device interfaces.With this team, developed four major releases of Design Board Professional

(later MegaModel from Design

Futures Incorporated), the pioneering three-dimensional CAD

application on PCs.

Architecture Magazine (February 1987) called this product,

which

produces perspective renderings and other drawings, "splendid...the only

good, inexpensive 3D program."

Azurdata (1983 contract)

Key member of a team that designed and implemented software for a

custom

handheld inventory-gathering device.

Telematic Products (1982 contract)

Key member of a team that designed and implemented a

fault-tolerant table-driven system to gather telephone billing

information and relay this to a central billing computer.Education:

M.S. in Computer Science, University

of Washington (Seattle, WA 1981). Master's thesis describes my design

of

the interactive symbolic debugger included as part of DEC's Pascal-36.

Other major projects while in graduate school included a LISP interpreter and

a preprocessor to translate

concurrency specifications into C code to manage semaphores.

B.A. Cum Laude in Mathematics, Wesleyan

University (Middletown, CT 1977).Languages (human):

English: Native.

Spanish: Proficient written language skills,

moderate-to-strong spoken language skills.

Romanian: Proficient reader, moderate writer, moderate

spoken language skills. Have worked professionally in Romania.

German: Moderate written and spoken language

skills.

Samples of translations from all of these languages (and several

others) available on request.

Also moderate ability to read other Romance languages (e.g. French,

Italian, Catalan, Portuguese).

Languages (computer):

C/C++: "Native"

JavaScript/jQuery: Expert.

PHP: Solid,

approaching expert.

Java: In a pinch.

FORTRAN: Expert,

but

not recent.

Pascal: Expert, but

not recent.

Also have successfully implemented commercial software in several other

computer languages, including

PERL and various dialects of BASIC.

Last modified: September 29, 2012

******@*********.***

Contact this candidate