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Certifications:

ISEB Intermediate Certificate in Software Testing

ISEB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing

Completed the Microsoft Virtual Academy courses and exams for:

Introduction To SQL Azure

Introduction To Windows Azure

Windows Azure Security Overview

Skills

Web:

.NET 3.0
ASP.NET
Java
IE 6, 7 & 8
Firefox
Chrome
Opera
Ajax
jQuery
HttpWatch
Tamper Data
Javascript

Database:

SQL Server 2008 & 2005,
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS),
Oracle 10g/8/7,
SQL Developer,
TOAD v8,
Sybase v11 & 12,
SQL

Testing Software:

HP Quality Centre v9,
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2008,
Test Director v8,
T-Plan,
PVCS Tracker

Methodologies:

Agile
Scrum
Prince 2
SSADM
Waterfall

Operating Systems etc:

Linux/UNIX,
Windows Server 2003/Vista/XP/NT,
VMware WS v6 & Player,
MS Virtual PC 2007,
Citrix Metaframe

Automation:

Winrunner
Loadrunner 9.5
Automator QA

Messaging etc:

Websphere Application Server v4 (Java EE, XML, Web Services)
MQ Series
Websphere
SWIFT

Insurance:

IRIS v8.142

Others:

Business Objects AS/400
HTML & CSS
Wordpress v3 (CMS)
PHP v5
MySQL v5
Apache
Windows 7
Ubuntu v8
Expression Web v2
Dreamweaver CS3
MS Visio 2007
Sharepoint
MS Office Suite 2007
MS Project
Excel macros
Lotus Notes v4.5

Objective:

Available 12th March.

Background

Robert is a software Test Architect/Analyst (manual testing), with 3 years testing on agile projects, who has been in the industry for 30 years both as Analyst and a Programmer and for the last 20 years performing both Functional and Systems Testing on mainframes, client/server PC's and Web site applications. Robert has extensive experience as both a tester and as a programmer across numerous platforms and he has a very good understanding of the development process and test environments. He has passed both the ISEB Foundation Certificate and the Intermediate Certificate in Software Testing.

References moved to the end

Positions

Senior Test Analyst

Bank Of America Merrill Lynch, Croydon
October 2011 - present

The system processed inbound cheque files and printed the cheques on secure printers
Tested Bottomlines Webseries cheque writing system
There were extensive system requirements generated by the users, and stored on Sharepoint, which were continuously being updated and these requirements were entered into HP Quality Center as test requirements
HP Quality Center was also used for the creation of the test scripts (Test Plan area of QC) and test sets (Test Lab) and any found defects
The inbound files used for testing were encrypted but for our own use we needed to view the data that existed in the file so it was necessary to decrypt the files into EBCDIC and then using Ultraedit convert them to ASCII and then to reformat the files to set them to a standard page width
The test data files were then amended where necessary for our testing purposes such as changing currencies, payable amounts, dates, payor and payee details
Additionally the Webseries Admin client was used for the setting up of test data but was tested offshore
The testing was successful and the initial software release was on time and on budget

HP Quality Center, Ultraedit-32, PGP encryption, SQL Server 2008, Windows XP

Senior Test Analyst

Orange (everything everywhere Ltd), Paddington
June 2011 - October 2011

Tested Orange’s main phone shop page
Instrumental in helping to deliver numerous upgrades to the Orange shop via sprints
Upgrading some of the work practices to use HP QC in a more efficient manner
Generating auto scripts, via QTP, to run daily regression tests each night to try and perform continuous regression and therefore encountering system issues as soon as they occur
Encouraging the use of VM’s to allow us to easily test the web pages on numerous versions of Internet Explorer

HP Quality Center 9.2, Java, Javascript, Agile/Scrum, IE6, IE7, IE8, Chrome, Firefox, Oracle VM VirtualBox,

Test Architect

Reed Business Information, Sutton
June 2010 - April 2011

Analysis of the business and technical specifications to understand system test requirements for the products to be tested
Instrumental in the creation of the test confirmations (test conditions), planning of the testing process, determining data requirements for the testing, liaising with the developers and DBA’s for the required test environments and allocation of responsibilities for the test team to prove all of the systems requirements
Wrote User Stories for the Email Alerts feature of the new Viper administered Flight magazine. This was due to time constraints stopping the Business Analysts writing the User Stories.
Tested Reed's Viper application which enables subscribers to the companies B2B magazines (Computer Weekly, Flight, New Scientist, etc) to consume additional online content via subscriptions. This was performed using RBI Admin software and also ASP.NET pages which simulated the users access to the online content (stubs)
Wrote the required documentation and tested several DBA generated data load applications
Wrote the required documentation and tested several SRSS reports
A very strict Scrum project with daily scrum meetings, sprint retrospectives, day long sprint planning sessions and the production of the testing backlog items documentation
Had great rapport with the developers which enabled a hitherto unknown amount of new functionality to be delivered to very satisfied users, working and on time.

SQL Server 2005/2008, Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2008 & dashboard, SSRS, Agile/Scrum, ASP.NET, Silverlight, Sharepoint, Chrome, Firefox, VMware Player, MS Virtual PC 2007

Senior Test Analyst

easyJet (Testhouse Ltd), Luton Airport
December 2009 - May 2010

Tested easyJet's web application developed using the Scrum software development methodology
I was responsible for the creation of the test scripts and the running of those tests for the following functionality: the provision of a new SMS service, an enhancement to the payment process using Visa Electron, an enhancement to the offered hotels page so that a better selection of hotels were displayed from Hotelopia and also an enhancement to the same page to add hotel special offers, the rewritten My easyJet login page and the following display of sales carousels and several other enhancements to the web page
Involved in 30 day sprint cycles working in a medium to large agile team
Involved in sprint planning meetings to determine which of the product backlog items are selected as sprint backlog items and to be developed to improve the airline’s very successful web page
Liaise with both users and developers to determine the exact expected functionality of the sprint backlog items, which had been written as user stories, so that the necessary test documentation could be created
All of the developed backlog items were tested until they worked and all of the non-affected parts of the web page were regression tested
When the backlog item requirements were working I was responsible for demoing of the new functionality to the business owner and the sign off for that backlog item
Testing of IE6 and IE8 was performed on virtual machines
System is a large implementation of the asp.net MVC framework with ASP.NET, MVC, C#, jQuery, Domain Driven Design

HP Quality Center, .NET 3.0, Java, CSS, IE 5.5, 6, 7 and 8, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, MS SQL Server 2005,ASP.NET, XML, HTTPWatch, Ajax, jQuery, Javascript, Log4Net, Tamper Data 11, Agile/Scrum, User Stories.

Senior Test Analyst

Johnson and Johnson, Bracknell
June 2009 - October 2009

Worked on a Business Intelligence ETL project writing test scripts specifically for new country data feeds into the ETL system. HP Quality Centre was used for this test documentation.
I also created the test documentation and performed the tests for an enhancement to an existing ETL process where new data columns were added to five tables and others columns were amended with many data lookups.

HP Quality Centre, Cognos Data Manager, Citrix, Oracle, SQL Developer, MS Communicator.

Senior Test Analyst

QBE Insurance, London
August 2008 - April 2009

I worked on several projects including two Professional Indemnity insurance packages for IT contractors and a more general PI product. Within the same package of software being delivered by a third party software development company were enhancements for a Directors and Officers package. This project was very structured and involved the creation of a Master Test Plan, phase Test Plans, Quality Gate documents, Traffic Light Reports, system test progress reports for both test preparation and test execution and a Test Completion Report. This was in addition to test requirements, test plans and test sets in Quality Centre.
Tested IBM’s Datamirror application for the (ETL) Extraction of data from Lloyd’s IRIS and onto QBE’s data warehouse via a landing area (staging tables) then the Transformation of that data via another schema and the eventual Load of that data into the data warehouse. This was processed by SSIS. I discovered a defect in the Datamirror application that was forwarded to IBM and who responded with a patch.
Tested many further enhancements to the company’s data warehouse load process some of which required the use of (Lloyd’s) IRIS to identify data that was eligible for the ETL process of loading the required data into the data warehouse.
Investigated and researched the implementation of a company Wiki, using MediaWiki, for use initially of a central depository of the test departments knowledge and links to essential documentation. This involved the installation of the Apache web server, the PHP interpreter and MySQL database software and the creation of a database and users.
Tested an old tactical CRS package which generated reports from an Access database that was enhanced to include a second data feed and that was loaded from SQL Server 2005.
Implemented some process improvements with the use of HP’s Quality Centre where test scripts were further enhanced with additional information to enable other testers to perform their work more efficiently.
All testing was performed using VMware virtual machines.

SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express, Agile/Scrum, SSIS, Oracle, TOAD, HP Quality Centre v9, VMware WS, Citrix, Windows Vista.

Senior Test Analyst

British Car Auctions, Farnham, Surrey
October 2007 – April 2008

An Agile .NET 3.0 project. The testers worked in the development environment which allowed us to have a direct relationship with them. We had daily scrum meetings which allowed each of us to inform the team of our progress in the last day and what we intended to accomplish in the following day.
The application was being heavily customized for a particular client which required us to work closely with them. The customization allowed the client to lease vehicles from BCA and at the end of the lease for their return and BCA's requirement to sell these returned lease vehicles either through auctions or physical sales.
When the system is live it was envisaged that there will be numerous thousands of vehicles flowing through the system on a daily basis. As the majority of these vehicles were standard road vehicles, with no modifications, then the majority could be processed from beginning to end via in-house workflow processing. Where the workflow could not complete the processing of returned vehicles then it generated Service Level Agreement (SLA) xml messages which were displayed for the user to manually promote the required processing. The messages we interrogated using QueueExplorer.
There were 17 SLAs of which several had more than a single trigger. I was responsible for the testing of this SLA functionality which with little documentation was a challenge but was nevertheless successfully accomplished. We were also responsible for the generation of our own test data, via own generated or amended xml files, and loading them into a test harness. This replicated data feeds from outside systems.
The application was written in asp.net/C# and used a SQL Server database for configuration and a DB2 database running on an AS/400 for vehicle and sales data. I was able to interrogate the SQL Server database using SQL via a remote desktop connection to SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
Where system errors were found then the initial step was to interrogate the relevant servers event viewer either using the Windows Computer Management console or again via a remote desktop connection.
Team Foundation Server was used for the recording and monitoring of both tasks and defects that were found by BCA. Defects found by the client were stored on HP Quality Center v9.2 which we also had access to.

.NET 3.0, HP Quality Centre 9.2, Team Foundation Server, SQL, Agile/Scrum, QueueExplorer, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server Enterprise Manager, DB/2 on AS/400, Lotus Notes, Windows Server 2003.

Test Team Leader

Ministry Of Defense, Winchester, Hampshire
April 2006 – September 2007

Systems testing of a new Army personnel system
Various data feeds generated from EDS written software were tested
Wrote a very complex test script to test software that enables soldiers to be transferred to Out Of Barracks servers (in theatres of war)
Though there was some documentation this is very much an agile development area necessitating me liaising closely with developers.

Oracle v8, SQL, Unix, Test Director v8, TOAD, Windows 2000

Senior Test Analyst

BAA, Heathrow
May 2005 – March 2006

Tested and proved the BAA requirements of an upgrade to BAA's airport display systems that was produced by a third party company
The requirements were entered into Test Director as test conditions and test scripts were then produced that would prove the test conditions
Was able to use my extensive testing experience to teach the company many testing 'best practices'
Numerous defects were found both with the new software and also the already running BAA software that provides the raw flight data to be displayed
The testing was performed in a test lab with 15 display screens of various sizes. Testing of the server software was on Unix and the client was running various versions of windows
The initial phase was delivered working, on time and under budget

Oracle, Unix, TOAD, Test Director v7, Citrix

Senior Test Analyst

Prudential Assurance, Reading
June 2004 – April 2005

Produced test plans, conditions and scripts using Test Director, executed the tests, liaised with users where necessary for confirmation of system requirements, then raised any defects found
The Bottomline Webseries application was used for the enterprise cheque processing hub producing company cheques either singularly by a user or by one of several of Prudential’s systems that generate cheque request files
Excel macros were used for the creation of additional test data files enabling us to perform load testing to simulate the running of tests with files of millions of records
The Business Objects data warehouse tool was tested for management and operational reporting
Produced various reports for weekly management meetings.

Oracle v9, Test Director v7, Loadrunner, TOAD, Business Objects, Excel macros, Prince 2, Windows 2000

Senior Test Analyst

Churchill Insurance, London & Bromley, Kent
June 2003 – June 2004

Produced test plans, test scripts and test conditions using Test Director and also performed the testing on a currently live system which was being augmented to include QAS Ltd’s Quick Address System to validate currently held customer and broker addresses
The software was used both via front end screens and in the overnight batch processes when dealing with inbound files of new customer insurance policies
Also worked on a motor insurance migration project where an Oracle system was migrated to DB/2
Was responsible for the test documentation for all of the functionality
When defects were found I liaised with both system designers and developers to ensure the defects were corrected
I led the training of the test methods & tools for Indian contract staff with very limited formal test experience.

Oracle v8, Unix, Test Director, TOAD, Windows 2000

Prior contracts with:

Legal & General, Baring Asset Management, British Airways, Prudential, Reuters, London Electricity, Citibank, Bank of England, Ionica, Fidelity, British Gas, ICL.

References

'Rob began his contract with Bank of America in October as we had a high-pressure initiative to go through a software development life cycle – Rob took charge of the system testing for the project. I’m glad to say the system testing – while complex – was handled very professionally and competently by Rob and his direct reports. His experience proved invaluable and I don’t hesitate to recommend him as he fits this role well’ – Senior Developer/Vice President, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, February 2012.

'Robert wrote test confirmations for user stories I had written. In doing so he picked up a number of ambiguities in them and made helpful suggestions for improvements. Robert was always ready to help and offer suggestions whatever my problem or interest. He has a great sense of humour which contributed to the dynamic of the team. I would like to work with him again' - Business Analyst, Reed Business Information, April 2011.

'Robert is a tester with high standards and close attention to detail. He worked within our team, taking a professional and thorough approach to all aspects of testing, including learning and getting involved in automated testing technologies. He took responsibility for ensuring the product is of a high quality, challenging the development team when he found that features had not been produced to an acceptable standard' – Lead Developer (agile), Reed Business Information. April 2011.

'I think Rob has done an excellent job with the first release. He has approached the work very well and at a good level of detail. He has engaged very well with both the suppliers and the customers through a tricky period (which has included 4 separate scope creep packages!). He has played a major role in keeping the whole process running smoothly and has adapted his approach flexibly and constructively as needs have dictated. He has been a real asset' – Test Manager, QBE, 2009.

‘He is easily the best tester I have ever worked with in my 17 years at the Prudential, a sentiment echoed by the other people on the project’ – Business Analyst, Prudential, 2005.

‘Highly experienced test analyst, fully conversant with all the necessary tools and techniques’ – BAA, 2006.

‘He worked unsupervised, and was thorough when testing; he picked up defects missed by other people and always chased defect fixes’ – Prudential, 2005.

‘Robert has a huge amount of commitment when it comes to issues that are not resolved’ – BAA, 2006.

‘He carried out his role in a professional and diligent manner and was instrumental in the project delivering a fit for purpose application that met the needs of the business’ – Project Manager, Prudential, 2005.

‘Can focus on detail without losing the big picture’ – BAA, 2006.

‘Robert is very logical and an excellent test analyst’ – BAA, 2006.

‘I would have no hesitation in employing Robert again in a similar capacity’ – Prudential, 2005.

‘Testing isn't so much breaking software as doing whatever's necessary to make the software work as required, and delivering it on time and on budget. I've managed to do this on at least 60% of the projects I've worked on in the last 10 years. A considerable achievement.’ – Me, Now.