Mike Harper - UK IT Contractor

Last 5 years - contract roles

• Promethean (Blackburn)

  Website localisation

  Working on the localisation of a website for Promethean, who develop interactive learning technology. Working in an Agile environment using Scrum, with development technologies including SQL Server 2008, SSIS, ASP.Net MVC 3, C#, .Net 4.0, Entity Framework 4.1 and WCF.

  This is the second assignment where I have used ASP.Net MVC commercially this year.

• iSky Software Ltd (From home)

  Friendly Society Online Application Forms

  Re-developed online application forms for financial products using ASP.Net MVC architecture. Used MVC 3, C#, .Net 4.0, LINQ to Entities, Entity Framework, JQuery and SQL Server 2005. Used dependency injection to facilitate unit testing. Used Team Foundation Server for remote source code control. Currently developing web service interface using WCF to provide back-end integration.

  This short assignment put to good use the training I had in ASP.Net MVC earlier in the year.

• Computacenter UK Ltd (From home - 10 months)

  Solution and Services Tracker Project (Mar 10 to Dec 10)

  Provided enhancements (and refactoring) to a workflow application allowing the Project Governance team to track prospects and projects, including financial data. Provided a security module to allow the administrator to maintain user and profile information, reducing the need for support. Used GWT, SQL Server and Jasper reports.

  This was a departure from my usual .Net work, at the request of a long-standing client.

• Webuyanycar Ltd (Rochdale - 3 months)

  Stock Management System (Dec 09 to Mar 10)

  Contracted by this rapidly expanding business to analyse, design and develop a stock management and logistics module. Interviewed all stakeholders to ascertain requirements. Modelled new existing and proposed process using UML use case, activity and state modeling. Integrated with existing systems through a web services interface. Used ASP.Net, VB.Net and SQL Server 2005, CSLA.

  This work saved the logistics manager 2.5 days per week collating manual reports.

• Computacenter UK Ltd (From home - 1 year 9 months)

  BT Refresh and Astra-Zeneca Project Vista (Nov 07 to Aug 2009)

  Contracted by Computacenter to co-develop a workflow application to support large scale hardware migration programmes. Used ASP.Net, VB.Net, SQL Server, SSIS and SSRS. Created tailored versions of this system for BT and Astra-Zeneca.

  I was offered this work on the strength of my work with Computacenter at HBOS.

• Ink Creations Ltd (Bradford - 6 months)

  LA Fitness intranet, Aviva site, Health Force site (May 07 to Oct 07)

  Contracted by a digital agency to develop an intranet for their client. Developed from scratch with core modules including contacts database, document and news management. Used ASP.Net 2.0 with VB.Net, SQL Server 2005, AJAX, JavaScript, JQuery and JSON. Developed website payment logic for Aviva GetActive website and other sites brokering gym membership over the Internet. Integrated postcode and bank validation web services

  This was a small and dynamic digital agency environment, challenging deadlines but fun.

• InHealth Group (Leeds - 3 months)

  Wave 2 Project (Jan 07 to Apr 07)

  Contracted by a specialist healthcare company to design and develop a web service to synchronise patient appointments for diagnostic image scans with a partner company. Collaborated with the partner company to agree message formats and protocols. Used a contract-first design approach. Provided transport over SOAP 1.1 (document / literal) and TCP. Provided message validation with XML schema. Used ASP.Net 1.1 with SQL Server.

  This was primarily a technical requirement. The client was very happy with the result.

• HBOS (Halifax - 1 year 5 months)

  Platform Transformation Programme (Aug 05 to Dec 06)

  Contracted to enhance and maintain the core planning and scheduling system underpinning the PTP Programme, which upgraded the Bank’s 70,000 users to new XP machines. Designed and developed a web-based change management system to support impact assessment, workflow management and the application of planning and deployment changes on the Programme. Used SQL 2000, ASP.Net 1.1 (VB.Net and C#), JavaScript, JSON and CSS.

  This replaced a fragmented system of spreadsheets, emails and other documents, improving workflow and productivity.

Further back - contract roles

• First Direct / HSBC (Leeds - 5 years)

  FDNet, E-Commerce Development Team (Jul 00 to Jul 05)

  Redeveloped a company-wide intranet for 4000 users. The system had a DNA architecture with 19 servers across the UK, four database servers using SQL Server replication. Used classic ASP, JavaScript, XML, XSLT, and SQL Server. Early adopter of AJAX techniques. Designed and built a content management system so users could update content online. This had 50 users, including the CEO who used it to maintain his blog. Developed many applications for the intranet including polls, news, job ads, news and share price feeds, stationery ordering, Internet access control.

  I am particularly proud of this work. I stayed at First Direct for 5 years, building the intranet from the ground up, working with permanent staff.

• Vertex (Manchester - 3 years)

  Electricity Deregulation Programme (97 to 00)

  Worked on an electricity deregulation project using PowerBuilder, Oracle and ASP.

  Back in the North of England.

• SyAp AG (Switzerland - 7 months)

  Commodities Trading System (96 to 97)

  Contracted by a Swiss consultancy to a project for Glencore, a commodity trading house, to work on a trading and traffic system. Used PowerBuilder with Oracle.

  My first contract - working in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

Even further back - permanent roles

• Dendrite Europe (Reading and Germany)

  Employed as Senior Analyst/Programmer by a software house supplying sales force automation systems. This role originally involved localisation of a base product for Germany on the strength of my German language skills.

  Subsequently designed and developed LIFT, a localisation tool to simplify translation of applications into other languages. Received two company awards for this project, which radically changed the Company’s approach to localisation. Used C, PowerBuilder, Oracle 7.

  Back in the South of England. I spent some time in Germany during this time.

• Sun Alliance (Halifax)

  Employed as Analyst/Programmer by a subsidiary of Sun Alliance which supplies quotation products to the insurance market. Used C and shell scripting on Unix.

  Back in the North of England.

• Logica (London)

  Employed as Programmer in Logica’s software engineering division developing tools in C to process software engineering data.

  First job, working in Central London.