D. P. CAREER SUMMARY of Patrick William Szyndel
(In reverse chronological order)

July2001 – present(computerlifeline various windows/linux OS)

Various support roles for private individuals. Supplying and configuring PCs with computerlifeline my own company. As an I.T. Professional I have endevoured to keep abreast of technoloy. I am an avid supporter of LINUX and extol it's virtues whenever I can.

October2000 - April2001(NTL,Hook, UNIX, Ingres, 'C')

NTL required me to work on the OFTEL project, bug fixing and general maintenance. I also produced various other utilities for maintaining the development of code eg. an ftp process for putting code live.The tools that I used were Ingres' report writer, ESQL, ABF and 'C'.

December 1996 - October1999(Syntegra,Fleet,HP9000, UNIX, Ingres, 'C')

I continued this assignment as before please see below. I was involved in other parts of this huge system, maintaining and developing new aspects for the customer, meeting agreed schedules and targets. The tools that I used were Ingres' report writer, ESQL, ABF and 'C'.

August 1996 - December 1996:(Southampton University,Dynix, UNIX, Ingres)

The University were desperately in needed of help so I undertook this short contract. The assignment was to debug and maintain a small data entry sub system consisting of an SQL script that loaded a temporary table for an on-line student register process. After this temporary table was updated it was then used as input to an overnight batch update process. The skills I employed were ABF, 4GL, Vifred and a bit of script writing. The University extended my contract for a further 4 weeks to design, code and test various batch processes for the exams and registration systems. I also tuned various queries by using QEP. I was assigned this contract without an interview. I have in the past obtained two other contracts without interviews, solely on recommendation. However this assignment was on trust due to the University not having any prior knowledge of my abilities.

August 1995 - August 1996:(Syntegra,Fleet,HP9000, UNIX, Ingres, 'C')

Technical Summary: At this site I redesigned a prototype program which used `C' to improve upon the processing of an SQL join of two large tables. This join is in the main loop of the process which is in a semi-permanent state of flux due to many sub-systems utilizing this process to produce various reports and flat files for subsequent table processing elsewhere. A modular approach to the design was used so as to improve upon it's maintenance.

In the second extension to my contract I was subsystem testing the on-line processes of the rates module. This involved not only testing but fault fixing the various features found. I was also given the task to write two `C' programs. Another time consuming table join and a process to handle a weekly feature to rerate consignments. Both these programs were overnight batch processes.

In the third extension to this contract I was involved in doing some more testing of minor processes to finish the current phase of the project so as to become ready for next phase. The utilities I used were A.B.F., 4GL, Reportwriter and ESQL.

System Summary: The system is in a development stage and is for T.N.T. the parcel delivery company. The sub-system I worked on is called Rates and as the name suggests deals with applying the cost of a delivery. This system interfaced with most of the other systems; sales, invoicing, purchasing, deliveries, reinvoicing. The company comprised of various depots each of which had their own database and was controlled by the centre depot. All these depots could interact with each other by a distribution server that made data available to the other depots' databases via a central depot database. In all there are about 50 depot databases. The data is distributed to the central database and then to another database that needed this information. There are various types of data all of which is handled in different ways for different depots.

August 1994 - August 1995:(I.C.L.,LogICL,Reading, DRS6000, UNIX, Ingres, 'C')

Technical Summary: The skills I used with this assignment were 'C' (both UNIX and PC platforms) and Ingres' ABF, SQL and ESQL. I designed, coded and tested various procedures in ABF, ESQL and 'C' for the project. I was also involved with system testing the next release of the software. The front end software used was Windows 3.1. There was no GUI interface with the system so I investigated the possibility of implementing a ``screen scraper'' as an inexpensive alternative to a full GUI conversion.

System Summary: The system is in three distinct packages and is used by various local authorities' planning departments to help with their administration of planning applications (PACIS), building regulations (BRACIS) and the legal enforcement(ENFIS) of both types of applications. The project tasks were to incorporate the various enhancements that came from the User Design Review Group and the fixing of any incidents that arose from customer enquiries. I incorporated a change to the dates in the system so as to deal with the change of century. I also enhanced a search facility that dealt with locations of applicants and progressed many changes to the various reports and letters. The PC/laptop part of the system is solely written in 'C' and also needed some changes, this part of the system is used by the building control officers who have to visit and inspect the sites where the building work is carried out. The system uses a word processor called Office Power, at the end of this assignment I was involved with implementing a client server called LOPI which enabled the system to be word processor independent. This was quite a major change to the letter and reporting facility. All the 'C' and ESQL programs needed redesigning, coding and testing. There were numerous changes to the existing 4GL procedures. I am now thoroughly link testing all of the changes in preparation to system testing.

June 1994 - August 1994 :Hoskyns,Bristol(RS6000, AIX, Ingres, 'C')

Technical Summary: The skills used with this assignment were 'C', AWK scripts and Ingres' ABF, SQL ,ESQL and QEPs. I designed, coded and tested various utilities in 'C' and awk for the analysis of Ingres code to improve the performance.
System Summary: The project tasks were to improve the overall performance of a packaged 'Customer' relational database for SWEB.(South Western Electricity Board).An upgrade to version 6.4.4 was used as well as incorporating the use of QEPs.The system also had some bespoke code written in ABF and ESQL which also needed tuning.

Oct. 1989 - May 1994 :Automobile Association,Basingstoke(Pyramid UNIX/ICL SX VME)

Technical Summary: For the last 3 years I have been working with Ingres under UNIX on a pyramid machine. I have written various scripts using the bourne, korn and 'c' shells, and am aware of the idiosyncrasies of each of them. The scripts were not very complex but involved the use of conditions(if and case) , loops(for and while). Although I have little experience using 'c' on a UNIX box I have used 'c' extensively on a PC. I am developing an accounts package at the moment on a 386, using a case design tool and turbo 'c' with a windows like function library. The library functions allow lotus style menus with a picking-list facility and data entry screens with validations on entering or leaving fields. My UNIX 'c' experience is of a maintenance role with a little experimentation to acquire a feel for the compiler. I mainly use the vi editor but have used emacs and have incorporated it with the 'c' compiler as a debugging tool.

1994: Due to the success of converting the Rates system I am currently converting another system called PCBuild that automatically creates various Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss and statistical accounts that are linked to the mainframe General Ledger system. This conversion is from Ingres version 5 on a PC platform to an Ingres version 6.4 on a UNIX /Pyramid box again I wrote and utilized various scripts to set up the 6.4 environment.

1993: I continued to work on the Rates system and was involved with converting it from Ingres version 5 to version 6.4. The conversion involved using ABF, ISQL and QBF. I changed all the 4GL code, tested each procedure, frame and system tested the entire system. The users then acceptance tested it with my guidance. I successfully attended 3 Ingres courses 'User Interface', 'SQL' and 'ABF 4GL', these courses were given by Ingres themselves. Later on in the year I acquired another Ingres system 'Lincs' which maintains a software/hardware directory and also the three Email systems used by the A.A. This system is written in vers. 6.4. My main duties are involved with maintaining these systems with close liaison with their respective users. I am also involved with occasional development work on other systems.

1992:I was involved with the Rates system that maintained the various Cost Centre cross charge bands. The system runs on a Pyramid machine under UNIX and was written in Ingres vers. 5 and contained various 4GL procedures some of which called 'C' programs. Other Ingres tools were used such as SQL and the Report facility. I also wrote various scripts that enabled me to maintain this system.

Oct. 1990: I became a permanent member of staff due to the Association's request and my liking for the company and the team with whom I work. My job title changed to Technical Specialist. I redeveloped the Pension Fund System and worked with other systems using Ingres on UNIX.

Oct. 1989:This contract assignment I worked on the payroll system. The A.A. use Peterborough Software's Unipay System. My role was as an Analyst/programmer supporting, enhancing and developing the various COBOL and SCL utilities. I was involved with the users helping them to design and develop numerous enhancements. I also took first hand in the day to day running of the Pension Fund System.

August 1989 - September 1989:Marks & Spencer, Stockley Park(ICL3980)

This was my second assignment with Marks & Spencer working this time with a different team on the Depots system. I was involved with amending two COBOL programs and developing a third. The programs were all within the same sub-system that interfaced with the IBM part of the system via a tape. All the programs complied with Marks & Spencer's stringent standards.

October 1988 - June 1989:Southern Electricity Board,Havant(ICL3980)

Within this period I was part of a team to convert SCL Macros to SCL procedures by excluding all VMEB commands. Part of my duties was to establish the installation standards used in the conversions. The Billings/Materials system was converted and two new systems County Court and Facsimile were developed. A number of COBOL programs were also changed.

August 1987 - October 1988:Thorn EMI,Swindon,(ICL 2966/3980)

I solely supported the Set Depreciation and Assets systems by working closely with the user. I incorporated various enhancements by specifying and designing numerous changes to the COBOL programs concerned. The main change was to access the Set Depreciation system by a division key. This involved converting all the programs and files to cater for seven divisions. A parallel Set Depreciation system was developed to produce corporate reports.

April 1987 - August 1987:Marks & Spencer, Baker Street,W1(ICL 3980)

I worked on the Supplier/Communications system, maintaining and developing COBOL programs. Some of these programs were On-line using Video Validate software. I also developed some COBOL programs on the Multi-user Warehouse system that used TraderNet a retail Network.

Jan. 1987 - April 1987:Automobile Association,Basingstoke(ICL 3980)

I worked on PPL's accounting system specifying, designing and writing complex SCL procedures that enabled the user to interact with the system via T.P. like screens. I was supervising two programmers.

Jan. 1986 - December 1986:Milk Marketing Board, Thames Ditton(ICL 3980)

At the Board I was with the Milk Records team. We were developing a system to replace the old. I wrote several file conversion programs, report programs and the animal update program. I also specified several file maintenance programs. These programs were developed in COBOL using a structured design methodology. We had a pre-processor called COBOL Manager that produced all the data definitions and some of the processing code.

Aug. 1985 - Dec. 1985:London Borough of Newham(ICL 2966)

Here I was maintaining the payroll system. Incorporating a Christmas payment routine by amending two programs so that the weekly payroll had no deductions. I also amended two programs to incorporate a new superannuation code. A print process was altered to shorten page length and a tape file for the DHSS was changed to cater for new fields.

May 1985 - Aug. 1985: Reed Publishing Ltd., Haywards Heath(ICL 2966)

I was involved with the General Ledger system developing, amending and giving support to the numerous SCL procedures used. These SCL procedures were designed around a skeleton procedure. The system is a software package supplied by P.P.L. I also maintained a few of the COBOL programs and S.C.L. Procedures within the software dept. One of the programs was written using DELTA.

Feb. 1985 - June 1985: T.S.B. Trust Co. Ltd., Andover(UNIVAC 1180)

At T.S.B. I was working on the Sales and Marketing database. I was involved with designing, writing and testing on-line programs using JSP (Jackson Structured Programming) techniques. I used DPS/SDP to design and configure the various screens. I also used QLP to create test data. The programs were tested using a flow schema/test path techniques. The processing that the programs performed were of an enquiry/update nature of certain records within the database.

July 1984 - Feb. 1985:Sperry Computing Limited(UNIVAC 1180)

With Sperry Computing, which is a subsidiary of Sperry Univac, I was involved with maintaining and developing COBOL programs in an on-line database Banking system that is specifically designed for the International/European market. The whole system is written around one controlling program that uses numerous subroutines. The system is called FISC and has three main sub-systems; CI Customer Information; ML Mortgages and Loans; AL Accounts and Ledger.

Nov. 1983 - July 1984: T.S.B. Trust Co. Ltd.,Andover(UNIVAC 1180)

At T.S.B. I worked with a temporary stop gap system called Payment By Results that maintains the pay, commission and performance details of the company's sales force. The system was developed within a very tight time scale and will be only used for a year. I designed, wrote and tested five extremely large and complex COBOL programs within a specified time scale for the system. Each program did not have particular type of process but was a mixture of updates, sorts, statistical reporting and validates which gives some indication as to their size. In addition to the above I amended two large D.P.S. Programs that involved redesigning all the screens using the S.D.P. Processor.

June 1983 - Nov. 1983: F. W. Woolworth Ltd.,Swindon/Rochdale(ICL 2966)

I was involved with the General Ledger system developing, amending and giving support to the numerous SCL Macros used. I was in the Technical Planning & Support Dept. and my duties were to design and write complex SCL Macros to a defined schedule and specification. I was also in liaison with the users concerned to cater for their numerous requests. I also maintained a few of the COBOL programs in the system. The latter part of my contract was at F. W. Woolworth's Rochdale office to assist with the system/mainframe move from Swindon.

March 1982 - June 1983: Data Training Ltd., London(ICL 1900)

I was involved with teaching 1900 COBOL, Structured Programming and GEORGE III, and conducted post course student development interviews. Part of my duties also involved designing many exercises for classroom use.

Sept. 1979 - March 1982: Surrey C.C,Kingston-upon-Thames(UNIVAC 1180)

Sept. 1979-Nov. 1980:I was involved with the development of an enquiry system for the Trading Standards Dept. I also maintained the Further Education Awards System.

Nov. 1980-Feb. 1981: During this time the Libraries System, phase 1 was developed. I wrote all of the Whittaker file conversion programs converting IBM tape files in EBSIDIC to Univac ASCII format.

Feb. 1981-Sept. 1981: A major rewrite of the Creditors batch system was undertaken where I was involved in writing specifications for three programs, supervising programmers and conducting link and system tests.

Sept. 1981-March 1982: Various on-line programs for the Trading Standards system were developed by me, the largest of which handled five different screen layouts. The transaction software used was Start/Stuser that was developed by Surrey County Council using TIP files. I was responsible for supervising three programmers to write a suite of six programs that converted two master files in the Trading Standards system. The work involved link, system and acceptance testing. I also did some maintenance work for the Energy system on a large complex statistical program that was converted from PL1. I also rewrote some of the large complex programs within the Traffic Accident system.

April 1979 - July 1979: ICL Beaumont, Old Windsor(ICL 1900)

I attended a TOPS course studying ICL COBOL and Direct Access. The course involved writing five Programs and one subroutine that I successfully completed well within the time allocated.

Part-time 1982-1983

During my spare time I undertook a contract to design and develop a small system for the local adult education institute. This system was developed on a BBC Micro and the language used was BASIC. The system has an on-line update and enquiry process producing two financial reports.

Part-time 1983-1984

I designed an invoice system for a telex bureau that interfaced with a Puma telex machine and a Brother daisywheel printer. I again used a BBC Micro programming in BASIC. I have developed a small database for this telex bureau that handles an address labelling system that also interfaces with their invoice system. In 1986/7 I converted this system to run on an IBM PC compatible using 'C' and incorporating MSDOS.

Part-time 1988-1990

I was involved with my own company Computer-Helpline, a help line service for PC users who have software/hardware problems. The work involved installing, upgrading and configuring software packages with hardware. Instructing staff in the use of packages and equipment

Part-time 2000-present

I was involved with my own company ComputerLifeLine, a help line service for PC users who have software/hardware problems. The work involved installing, upgrading and configuring software packages with hardware. Instructing staff in the use of packages and equipment

SUMMARY

I am expertly familiar with inline/linear modular design techniques. I have also used full structured programming design methods. Where inline/linear or modular designs are required, I have used N.C.C. Like-standards in flowcharting and testing methods. With a structured methodology I can either incorporate schematic or pseudo code and am fully aware of the advantages of structured walkthroughs. With my experience I have found that I can adapt to most forms of standards and documentation.

TECHNICAL PROFILE

Date of Birth: 30th October 1947

Educational Qualifications: 'O' Levels: Bookkeeping & Accounts grade A

Mathematics grade C

English Language grade B.

Training received: COBOL (ICL 1900,2900,Range)

Introduction to Local Government

Data Communications

Data on Disc

Exec 8 J.C.L.

Structured Design Methodology

Program Planning and Control

Techniques of Instruction

Introduction to Management

GEORGE III

ICL 1900 Direct Access

ICL SCL(VME,VME/B)

ICL IDMS (introduction)

MSDOS/'C'(introduction)

COBOL Manager

UNIPAY

TPMS TP Implementation

UNIX with vi

Ingres vers 6.4 (User Interface, SQL, ABF 4GL)

Entered Data Processing: March 1979

Positions Held: Trainee Programmer 6 months

Programmer (SDM) 1 year 9 months

Senior Programmer 6 months

Lecturer Programmer 1 year 3 months

Free-Lance Programmer/Analyst 14 years

Technical Specialist 3 years 6 months

Support Technician

Hardware/Operating Systems: Univac 1180 Exec 8 CMS/DMS

ICL 1900, 2900, 3900 series

GEORGE III DME

SCL VME/B,VME

BBC MicroDOS

MAESTRO

MSDOS

Windows(3.1,95.98.NT)

UNIX

Linux

IBM RS6000, AIX

DRS6000, UNIX

Languages/Other Software: COBOL (Univac)

COBOL (ICL 1900,2900,Range)

Univac SDP

BASIC

ICL SCL

'C' ANSI

Video Validate

Unipay

Various MSDOS systems e.g.

Wordstar

DbaseIII+

Ventura

MSWord

Windows(vers 3.0&3.1)

UNIX, scripts, awk

Ingres(4GL,Report,SQL,ESQL)

Applications: Local Government/Planning

Financial

Creditors

General Ledger

Payroll

Statistical

Enquiry

Education

On-line Banking

Milk Records

Accounts Payable

Stock Control

Communications

Stock Depreciation

Pensions

Planning/Building Regulations