Positions Held - | Software Engineering Manager, Software Technology Leader (Kanata), Data Interface Unit (DIU) Software Lead Engineer, Senior Systems Designer |
Worked / communicated with senior management and other levels of management to best determine the appropriate strategies and organizational direction.
Budgeted, planned, staffed and managed the software process improvement program using earned value, continuous risk management and project tracking and status reporting techniques to make Canadian Marconi more effective in delivering products and services to its customers. During the 4 years of participating in and managing the program, the following processes were developed:
Requirements Management and tracking processes and procedures to enable project managers to manage scope changes which occur;
Software and system planning processes including:
Estimating (both Activity Based Costing, and Size Based Estimating);
WBS development;
Establishing project baselines to monitor project performance against;
Project scheduling;
Creating a project reporting framework for reporting project issues from the project team through the Project Manager to senior management and to the customer;
Tailoring of organizational processes; and
Producing and maintaining Project Plans.
Project tracking processes using Earned Value techniques, risk mitigation strategies, and other metrics collection and analysis techniques;
Software Quality Assurance Processes; and
Configuration Management Process at the project and organizational levels.
The improvement program affected over 100 staff in three vertical markets and centered around the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI's) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for software and ISO 9001. The principles used are similar to those in the PMI's PMBOK, but are more particular to software and systems management in an IT or engineering project/organization. The is the same model on which the Treasury Board Secretariat's (TBS) Enhanced Management Framework (EMF) is based.
Developed training courses and provided training and coaching to Project Managers in the use of the processes developed.
Participated on Review Boards for projects to review software project plans and estimates, and to review software project status;
Provided input to the ISO 9001 Risk Management Work Instruction in areas related to software and systems development.
Strategically improved the development environment / infrastructure to support the above. These included:
Use of and installation of project management tools such as MS Project, QSM SLIM and custom spreadsheets;
Introduction of DOORS requirements management tool (installation and training);
Implementation of a new Configuration Management (CM) toolset (MKS Source Integrity and Track Integrity) to satisfy the Company's CM requirements;
Installation of a Sun Server and porting and Existing CASE tool and its customizations to the UNIX (Sun Solaris) operating system; and
Creation of a transition plan for the transition of the development from a DEC/VAX based environment to a UNIX and MS Windows based environment.
Staffed and managed software support personnel (Software Quality Assurance, Configuration Management, and tool support personnel) for the control and improvement of the R&D part of the business.
Performed two SEI authorized CBA-IPI assessments of the Company's project processes as they relate to software and systems development: once as an assessor, once as a planner/coordinator on behalf of the sponsor (VP Operations);
Worked on two international task forces to improve the way Canadian Marconi and its sister companies developed products.
For 5 years, managed the software portion of multiple contracts (see last bullet) which required:
Preparing and maintaining project estimates, schedules and plans;
Tracking and analysis of project issues;
Reporting project status against project baselines;
Performing continuous risk management and tracking of Open Action Items;
Conducting milestone and periodic project status review meetings including the creation of agendas, holding the meeting and producing and distributing the meeting minutes;
Leading the development (technical) of the product including requirements analysis, design, code, and test of the software, integration of the software with the hardware;
Performing requirements and design reviews and the validation of the system to military and flight safety standards;
Software development (technical) followed structured methodologies using Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. The design used an object-based language (Ada) and the documentation was written to MIL-STD-2167A.
Dealt directly with senior management and external customers on all cost, schedule, requirements, design, validation and verification issues relating to the project(s) and to the product(s) for which I was responsible.
Defined requirements for and designed/developed systems and software products to meet performance and flight safety requirements (RTCA DO-178B, DO-160, ED55, ED56) on time and within budget. All designs used multiple processors in a master/slave configuration with object-based, multi-tasking and real-time requirements. The product(s) consist of avionics flight units with real-time embedded software, PC based ground support software, and documentation to support both.
Dealt directly with senior management and external customers on all cost, schedule, requirements, design and verification issues relating to the product.
Developed systems / products to meet performance and safety requirements on time and within budget. All designs used multiple processors in a master/slave configuration with object-based, multi-tasking and real-time requirements. The product consists of avionics flight units with real-time embedded software, personal computer based ground support software, and documentation to support both.
Contracts/projects include navigation, communication, flight management, cockpit integration, structural loads monitoring and / or flight data recording applications on the following aircraft:
- EH101 Merlin,
- EH101 New Shipboard Aircraft
- KC-135 Speckled Trout,
- MH-53E Sea Stallion,
- MH-53J PaveLow,
- HC/KC/CC - 130 Hercules, and
- CP 140 Aurora.
- When requested, I also assisted on projects for the CH146 Griffon and the UH-60 Blackhawk.