Gary E. Duck

**** ** ***** *** *** *-** ***/***-*204

Miami, FL 33186 E-mail: adlo73@r.postjobfree.com

Skills Summary

I have worked in a software house which taught me best practices in structured design and structured coding. While there I coded patches to batch and CICS programs, assisted in converting the application from ISAM to VSAM, and coding for new development projects. I also spent time in an internal tools group creating and maintaining both internal tools to improve programmer productivity and “black box” programs to support complex parts of the application. I have worked at numerous insurance companies which has exposed me to many other styles of coding, good and bad. My work involved maintenance and new development along with various types of conversions. I coded numerous on-request reports based on the rules provided by the requester. I have also worked at a state agency where documentation is very important. I believe I have the well-rounded background to successfully tackle any mainframe assignment.

TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT

HARDWARE: IBM z-Series Architecture Mainframes, JCL (MVS & VSE)

SOFTWARE: Operating Systems/Languages

z/OS, VSE/ESA, COBOL, Assembler, SQL, CLIST, REXX, Edit Macros, JCL (MVS & ESA)

SOFTWARE: Vendor Products

IBM utilities, Panvalet, ENDEAVOR, ChangeMan, ZEKE, TSO/E, ISPF/PDF, ICCF, CICS (command level), Xpediter, File-Aid, STROBE, AbendAid, DB2, IMS DB/DC, MS Office

EMPLOYMENT

Assurant Ins. (Through Apex Systems) Miami, Florida June, 2019 to April,2021

Apex Systems Contractor, Mainframe Programmer

Converted four CICS assembler programs into CICS COBOL for easier future maintenance

Maintain general infrastructure COBOL and assembler CICS programs and make requested modifications.

Reduce batch abends using a SPIE program converted to run in 31-bit mode plus JCL updates

Reduce CICS overhead by bypassing abend/dump logic in COBOL general dump program for known, identified error conditions

National Western Life Ins. Co., Austin, Texas January, 2016 to June, 2019

Independent Contractor, Mainframe Programmer

Write ad-hoc reports and JCL to extract data from a segmented record KSDS VSAM master file in an assembler-based insurance system. Many of these used an internal binary tree to simplify output reporting.

Research and correct production issues reported by business users in assembler admin system. Used my dump reading skills and Abend-Aid among other tools to resolve these issues.

Analyze and document logic of assembler and COBOL programs for conversion team

Railroad Commission of Texas, Austin, Texas January, 2014 to Dec, 2015

Programmer V

Wrote COBOL programs to do data correction in an IMS database using file input.

Corrected errors in COBOL/IMS programs.

Systems Source, Inc., Dallas, Texas Sept, 2012 to Oct, 2013

Life/70 Programmer Analyst (Contractor to Sammons Group)

Wrote programs to synchronize agent info in segmented record KSDS VSAM master file with data from an outside vendor database.

Wrote additional programs to verify and validate the data correction transactions being generated.

Wrote ETL programs to extract all desired data from KSDS VSAM master file, transform it into an SQL friendly format and pass the data to a “wrapper” program for sending via MQ to a database load routine.

Created JCL to execute all the above newly written programs.

National Western Life, Austin, Texas March, 2008 to Sept, 2012

Senior Systems Analyst

Provide on-going support of assembler insurance administration system on VSE/ESA. This included resolving dumps and program errors.

Increased available products by implementing New Business modifications and policy print functions for those products. This involved program and JCL modifications.

Conseco, Carmel, Indiana Oct, 1997 to Mar, 2008

Senior Application Developer

Wrote binary tree report program to count usage of elements and created JCL to run it.

Coordinated batch and CICS application maintenance with local and offshore staff

Kept money coming in by making necessary program updates (twice) to support changes to the lockbox vendor being used. This required changing the application program interface for the changed incoming file format coming from the bank.

Saved employee time and recovered money from agents by following business rules to create an extract program for getting information from a KSDS VSAM file and transform it into the database load format. Also wrote the execution JCL. This program replaced a manual process that previously took a full day to perform.

American National Insurance Company, Galveston, Texas Sept, 1991 to Oct, 1997

Senior Programmer Analyst, Life/70

Converted data from an acquired company using a different COBOL administration system to the format needed at this company. This involved writing COBOL programs using a VSAM alternate index I created. I also built the execution JCL.

Cut costs by eliminating programmer involvement in interest rate updates by writing programs that allow business users to update the DB2 interest rate tables.

Enhanced and maintained IMS/DC batch and online programs.

Fixed a problem with an ever-growing master record by moving a routinely added segment out of the master record and into a DB2 database. Designed and coded an interface program to access the DB2 database in order to minimize changes to other application programs. Modified the application programs to call the interface program to access the data they required.

The Continuum Company, Austin, Texas Sept, 1978 to Aug, 1991

Senior Programmer

Designed, coded, and documented two macros using conditional assembly logic to perform commonly needed functions in the application so that they would work in an OS, DOS, or CICS environment.

Significantly increased SDLC productivity by writing a mainframe “IDE”. This was done in VM/CMS for VM/XA. It was coded using a CMS screen building tool, EXEC2, REXX, assembler programs, and edit macros. I used the Panvalet/CMS interface to access the source libraries. The application then built JCL as needed and submitted it to MVS or DOS for compilation, assembly, or CICS processing as required. In MVS, I coded Panvalet exits to support the updating of control information in Panvalet libraries. I also wrote multiple COBOL programs and execution JCL to build supporting files.

Significantly reduced real I/O in an application by conceiving/designing/coding an in-memory copybook “caching” program in assembler using Panvalet APIs.

EDUCATION

University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film; Dean’s List, 3.03/4.0 overall GPA

Business: Graduate Business School

Computer Science: Course work to improve computer science knowledge and skills

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Fellow, Life Management Institute of the Life Office Management Association - September, 1980

ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management – February, 2014

E-mail: adlo73@r.postjobfree.com

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