Seasoned Mainframe Developer with 40+ Years Experience

Gary E. Duck 512-***-****

**** ******** ***** *** *** E-mail: *******@*****.***

Durham, NC 27713 Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/gary-duck-87b6341a

Professional Summary

I have 40+ years of experience as a mainframe developer. I have proven experience coding in assembler and COBOL with 30 years coding in CICS. I have worked with VSAM since it was introduced in 1980. I spent seven years using DB2 to simplify some applications. In my application support role, I have used Expediter and other debuggers to aid in root cause analysis. Abend-Aid has also helped with solving production problems. I wrote an application primarily in REXX. I used TSO/ISPF extensively while working on z/OS. I have used IDCAMS for many functions as well as most other IBM utilities including IEBGENER, IEHPROGM, AMBLIST, plus DFSORT, SYNCSORT, and other sort products. I also am familiar with SDSF. I can communicate technical information to a technical audience and functional business concepts to business stakeholders.

TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT

HARDWARE: IBM z-Series Architecture Mainframe

SOFTWARE: Operating Systems/Languages

z/OS, VSE/ESA, VM/CMS, COBOL, HLASM (assembly/assembler language, ALC/BAL), SQL, CLIST, REXX, Edit Macros, JCL (MVS & ESA), Easytrieve

SOFTWARE: Vendor Products

CICS, IBM utilities, DB2, Xpeditor, DFSort, GitHub, ENDEAVOR, ChangeMan, ISPF/PDF, SDSF, ZEKE Scheduling, Rational Team Concert (RTC), FileAid, STROBE, AbendAid, IMS DB/DC, MS Office

SOFT SKILLS:

Good verbal and written communications, Collaboration, Documentation, Analysis and design, Debugging, Problem solving, Performance tuning, Mentoring

EMPLOYMENT

IBM, Inc. Research Triangle Park, North Carolina June 2021 to May 2025

Sr Programmer/Analyst

Assisted in the creation of the COBOL code modernization assistant by providing COBOL source which was paired with modern code and fed to the ML process to create the COBOL code assistant.

Wrote 10 sets of three COBOL CICS programs (30 programs) using CICS DTR and DPL, and LINK for testing the z/APM Connect product's tracking of cross region calls.

Found/fixed memory leaks in the APM Connect assembler product.

Used an Agile SDLC methodology and took part in Agile ceremonies.

Kept the HLASM product current with fixes to reported bugs as well as supporting new hardware

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

Apex Systems Contractor, Mainframe Programmer

Simplified future maintenance by converting four CICS assembler programs into COBOL CICS.

Added paging capability to COBOL CICS display program. Previously, the program displayed all data once in a series of screens. With my change, it is now possible to scroll back and forth.

Eliminated batch production stoppages by converting a SPIE program to execute in 31-bit mode.

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

Independent Contractor, Mainframe Programmer

Provided production support for issues reported by business users in Life/70 assembler admin system. Used dump reading skills, Abend-Aid, and Expediter to resolve these issues.

Created design documents for conversion team by reading existing HLASM and COBOL programs.

Added products by analyzing specs from actuaries, then designing, coding and testing the changes.

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.

Used ChangeMan as our change management program for this project.

Did two-thirds of an ETL process manually writing programs to extract data from a KSDS VSAM file, transform it to a standardized format, and pass the data for database load routine.

Produced technical design to take web-based underwriting system updates and apply to the Life/70 and Life Comm legacy life insurance administration systems. Coded the Life/70 system programs.

Created JCL to execute all the above newly written programs.

National Western Life In. Co, Austin, Texas March 2008 to Sept 2012

Senior Systems Analyst

Provided production support for the Life/70 assembler insurance administration system on VSE/ESA. This included resolving dumps and program errors.

Analyzed actuarial specifications to design, code, test, and implement changes for new products

Conseco, Carmel, Indiana Oct 1997 to Mar 2008

Senior Application Developer

Lead programmer for the application support team coordinating onshore/offshore staff

I used Endeavor as the corporate source control program for 10 years.

I worked with the ZEKE job scheduling software for 10 years.

Kept money coming in by making program updates (twice) to support changes to the lockbox vendor. I changed the application program interface for the changed incoming file format from the bank.

Analyzed business rules to design and code a program to extract information from a VSAM file and transform it into a database load format replacing an error-prone manual process.

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

Senior Programmer Analyst, Life/70

Integrated an acquired company by converting CAPSIL COBOL files into the company’s assembler format. This involved writing COBOL programs using a VSAM alternate index.

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

Fixed a problem with an ever-growing master record by moving a frequently added segment into a DB2 database. Designed and coded an interface program to access the DB2 database that minimized changes to other application programs

The Continuum Company (Now DXC Technology), Austin, Texas Sept 1978 to Aug 1991

Senior Programmer

Enhanced the company’s Life/70 product by implementing new features. I did the analysis, created the High-Level design, coded the feature, tested it, and delivered it.

Maintained the product by working customer problem reports using batch dumps and CICS dumps. Determined the problem, wrote the code to correct the bug, tested the fix, and delivered it.

Corrected and enhanced vendor-delivered Panvalet exits.

I increased programmer productivity by writing two macros to replace inline coding. Each macro used conditional assembly to work in an MVS, DOS, or CICS environment. I designed the macros, coded, and tested them. I wrote the documentation to go into the product’s documentation suite.

The company hired several recent college graduates. I mentored some of them in assembly language and general programming skills including debugging abend dumps.

Significantly increased SDLC productivity by writing a mainframe “IDE.” This was done in VM/CMS using EXEC2, REXX, assembler programs, Panvalet/CMS, MVS JCL, and edit macros. 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.

Helped modernize the product by converting the company’s ISAM based file access to VSAM

Solved a performance problem by conceiving/designing/coding an in-memory copybook “caching” program in assembler using Panvalet interface calls. This program reduced real I/O substantially.

Resolved reported problems during visits to customer sites.

EDUCATION

University of Texas at Austin

Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film; Dean’s List, 3.03/4.0 overall GPA May, 1973

Business: Graduate Business School

Computer Science: Course work to improve computer science knowledge and skills 1977

At Work Training

Themis Inc: DB2 UDB z/OS & OS/390 SQL and Application Programming

Personal Training

The Great Courses: Computer Science Concepts with Python Examples

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: *******@*****.***

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