GENE OLAFSEN
engineering@strattonassociates.com
508-497-9638 x165
Skill Highlights
· A hands-on, lead by example, architect/manager with over 20 years of best-practice oriented, software lifecycle experience.
· Leadership roles have not diminished the ability to take an active role in writing code - has produced a significant body of code for each project.
· Experience creating custom software, commercial shrink-wrapped/off-the-shelf packages and military/FAA certified systems. Wrote drivers for equipment interfacing with analog and digital circuits under test.
· Author and/or technical editor of several books, including MFC Unleashed and Visual J++ Secrets. Contributing chapters on the complex topics, including: Microsoft’s COM, OLE and COM+ technologies.
· Strong communication skills are among the strengths that provide effective project management, employee mentoring and managing staff with varied skill sets.
· Continual re-education process, project management, project accounting, running effective meetings, etc.
· Successful in engaging and managing off-shore developers– this decision provided significant development cost savings for the client while allowing delivery date objectives to be met.
· A well-rounded business professional who has “worked the floor” at numerous tradeshows, written press releases and whose marketing efforts have lead to product highlights in such publications as: InfoWorld, PCWeek, VAR Business, Reseller Management.
Solution Highlights
· Wrote the Prodigy E-mail client that was downloaded to almost two million computers, running either 16-bit or 32-bit Windows software.
· Envisioned and developed an image rendering platform which reduced the number of hosted, rack-mounted computers from 40 to 2; savings realized $200+K in co-location rental fees a year.
· Guidance for the director level at Prodigy, helping to interpret business needs and provide an engineering perspective.
· Listed as the inventor on a patent for a process allowing the extension of a transactional context over CAD-based visual and data element modifications.
· Architected a .NET-based framework, on which a company based its’ next-generation messaging products.
· A track record of delivering solutions -- where there were previous aborted attempts.
·
Architect and lead developer of a backup,
archive and
· Trusted by the Board of Directors of a Soros-funded venture with General Manager responsibilities to investigate merger scenarios with competitors after 9/11, which devastated the tradeshow industry.
· Early career experience include involvement in debugging the firmware for Atari’s 16-bit line of computers, working with a pioneer in the model-based reasoning (AI) field to adapt the technology for embedding in digital, board-level test equipment. Recent concentration has been in developing workflow and/or message-based solutions.
· Contributing developer of the .NET best-practices and software delivery platform used by Hitachi Consulting.
Expertise
· Languages: C, C++, Java, J++, C#, VB, VB.NET, SQL, Fortran, Assembly (8/16 bit)
· Frameworks/API’s: MFC, STL, ATL, Win32, DirectX, .NET, Java, Swing, MTS, MSMQ
· Technologies: OLE/COM, COM+, XML, ASP.NET, JSP, ADO.NET, WinForms, .Net Interop
· Protocols: IMAP, POP, DCOM, SMTP, SOAP/WSDL, HTTP, DDE, HPIB
Publications
·
Technical
Editor, COM+ Unleashed – SAMS/Macmillan
Publishing
Provided
technical editor assistance, verifying the correctness of the text and example
code. Chapters in this book
include COM essentials such as interface design and component construction
using both the OLE SDK, ATL and topics new to COM+, Queued Components --
reviewed for clarity and correctness.
·
Co-Author,
Exam
Cram MCSD C++ Desktop
Author of the chapters describing the development, debug and distribution process for both desktop and n-tier distributed systems. Also contributed a chapter on Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) for the “Distributed” edition, describing MTS operation and business-rule object design. These books are used as exam preparation guides for people wishing to become Microsoft Certified Solution Developers.
· Co-Author, MFC Programming with Visual C++ 6 Unleashed – SAMS/Macmillan Publishing
Author of the OLE chapters for SAMS’ MFC Unleashed book. The chapters written include: COM and MFC, MFC OLE Servers, MFC OLE Clients, MFC/ATL ActiveX Controls and MFC Containers. Taking the reader through a series of programming examples that increased in complexity, these chapters sought to develop an understanding of the Component Object Model as it is implemented in MFC. This project required extensive knowledge of the Microsoft Foundation Classes, Active Document/ OLE server technology, OLE automation, Interface Definition Language (IDL) and C++.
· Technical Editor Visual J++ Secrets – IDG Books
Technical
Editor for IDG’s Visual
J++ Secrets book. This
required extensive knowledge of Microsoft’s Visual J++ 6.0 development
environment as well as supported API’s and libraries, including Java, WFC,
· Co-Author, Visual J++ Secrets – IDG Books
Authored chapters describing JavaBeans and ActiveX technology. Complete with code examples, this chapter describes how J++ implements COM in a powerful manner by implementing the IUnknown interface for every class, thus allowing seamless construction and use of COM components. In addition, it describes the tools for incorporating “beans” and converting “beans” to ActiveX components.
Web Articles
·
Syrinx Consulting – Technical Articles
Author content for this consulting company’s Web site, including:
·
Elevating
Privileges for Web Services Using Kerberos Authentication
·
Facilitating
Sorting of Dataset Content for Web Services
Experience
11/04 - Present Senior
Architect Consultant, Cross Country
Automotive Services.
Recently charged
with leading a team to evaluate and correct a $6M investment in an off-shore
constructed SOA call-center application that is not neither meeting
Worked on network management initiatives as part of a larger project involving the development of a next-generation call-center application or roadside assistance. Worked closely with the business to establish requirements for vendor (towing, repair shops, dealership) selection and implemented a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), enterprise-class, solution using the .NET framework and Oracle database servers.
Incorporating
a data-driven rules engine to translating the business’s vendor-selection
needs- my focus was to develop a COM+ based system to interface with the
“mapping engine” to retrieve geo-coded addresses and calculate driving
distances between the disablement site and vendors (a key component of determining
roadside assistance coverage rates). Performed detailed analysis of the
throughput and latency that this system will experience under the load of 1,600
call center representatives addressing the overhead of COM+ object pooling and
.NET interop to the C-based library. With an
Architect and author of a detailed design specification for an “instant messenger-like” system that tow shops would use to be notified of business opportunities. The system will reduce costs because the interaction with vendors will be done electronically instead of involving human dispatchers. The development was done off-shore; at which time my responsibilities included, code reviews, morning status calls, providing responses to technical issues and business-related issues. This project was completed on time and was 30% under budget.
Investigated and wrote a Web-services security model document (and example code) for the company’s Web service-based systems. Resulting in Kerberos-based security with a mechanism to elevate privileges when necessary.
C#, C/C++, WinForms, ASP.NET, Oracle, ADO.NET, NUNIT, Perforce
Experience
01/04 - 11/04 Architect/Manager,
This project involved a six month elaboration phase, requiring the participation of senior managers across all departments (from this client), to capture 20 years of business and process knowledge. A risk assessment performed during the middle of this phase identified those aspects of the project requiring technical investigations and proof of concept demonstrations. This strategy helps drive out risk by identifying it up front and applying resources to mitigate impact on a timely deliverable and bring attention to these areas of concern with the client. Wrote the function, design and architecture documents that were used in conjunction with use case and requirements documents to detail the system prior to the construction phase.
The construction phase of this project was bid and won by Hitachi Consulting, the proposal included use of off-shore developers to produce “assets” in a pipeline production model which were unit tested and provided to on-shore talent for integration. My design allowed each ASP.NET user control (of which there were over one hundred, used on 40+ pages) to be “instantiated” and exercised in a generic test harness.
The delivered product is a specialized and sophisticated content management system which provides the online creation of and management of high-stake exam questions. (i.e. MCAS, NECAP, etc.) This service-oriented architecture (SOA) allows sharing of graphics and equation/formula MATHML while preserving labeled versions. The design made extensive use of XML documents, validated by schemas which in a typical document/view architecture provided the “backing data” to which the UI was bound. The data-access-layer provided a “business need” level interface. This offered greater performance and scalability than a CRUD model, encapsulated difficult content-handling business logic, and offered a consist interface for exposing these function through web services.
Challenges of this position
include managing a mixed resource
pool of the client’s developers and
ASP.NET, C#, XML, COM, ADO.NET, UML, SQL, XSL-FO, SQL, NUNIT
01/03 - 01/04 Architect – Sr. Developer, IntelliReach Corp.
Worked closely with the executive management, product management, sales and support to define a framework on which the company’s next-generation applications for messaging products would be produced. The challenge was to “re-cast” a suite of Visual Basic desktop applications to an enterprise-capable .NET platform. This architecture became the foundation on which both the E-mail analytic/monitoring and archiving tools were based. The design resulted in the following technology definition and implementation:
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ASP.NET |
user interface |
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WinForm |
installation and configuration utilities |
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NT Service |
message and log processing agents |
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SQL-Server |
storage |
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Web Services |
de-dupe and coordinate dispersed message collection agents |
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Crystal Reports.NET |
report presentation |
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InstallShield |
deployment scripts |
Wrote a custom IMAP protocol handler and worked with Novell to clarify this extended API to provide the only archiving solution for the GroupWise E-mail platform. Also created the necessary Java/NLM components for Novell GroupWise archive product. This product is the only one available to backup-archive-index email for the GroupWise environment. Performed coding, UML modeling, design spec. writing, requirements gathering. Worked with QA and support throughout the Beta process. Participated in customer focus groups during Beta deployment.
Challenges faced by this position included: a staff without .NET application development experience, working with Novell beta messaging API’s and custom implementation of standard Internet mail protocols.
ASP.NET, C#, C++, XML, COM, ADO.NET, Java, Swing (JFC), UML, NDS (LDAP), IMAP, POP, SQL
4/02 -
1/03 Architect – Lead Developer, ExpoCharger International, Inc.
Architect and lead developer for an event/tradeshow/seminar industry software product based on the Microsoft .NET platform. Written in C#/C++ and utilizing both XML and the .NET framework, this ASP.NET application design strives to provide those features that usually require an ASP vendor (service bureau business model) - in an intuitive, installable, self-service product. Following a rigorous design and testing methodology this product was delivered in the scheduled amount of time. As co-founder of the company, I successfully negotiated North-American distribution rights to the leading tradeshow software company, after which, I decided to leave this vertical market.
ASP.NET, XSL, C#, C++, XML, COM, ADO.NET, SOAP/WSDL, CAD, VStudio.Net Installer Tools
12/98 - 3/02 Consultant (conversion to employee VP Engineering) - Architect/Lead
Developer, TSCentral
Architect and lead developer, reporting directly to the CTO, for a suite of lifecycle products created for the tradeshow industry. The software suite, that I led a team of developers to create, employs a loosely coupled message-based architecture whose design allows additional (servers) to be added as the service bureau’s client-base expands. A message queuing and a distributed transaction model assures 24x7 operation. Unique to this system, is a strategy that envelops CAD drawing changes in a transaction context; thus, allowing visual floorplan changes to be “rolled back” when a transaction aborts (compensating resource manager).
The initial software deployment consists of a heavyweight application communicating with a “farm” of server and CAD rendering engines. The flexible architecture allows Cold Fusion, ASP and J2EE compliant servers to communicate with server software that uses either COM or JavaBeans. Constructed an XML/SOAP “Web service” interface using the .NET Beta to interface with third-party event systems.
Technical challenges included managing/mentoring a staff that had varying skill levels and little OO programming experience. Business challenges included interviewing and retaining staff during the tumultuous dot com era.
C++, MFC, Java, J++, COM/OLE, CAD, SOAP, XML, SQL Server, C# and .NET Beta
8/98 Patent
Listed as “inventor” on a patent (VISUAL NOTIFICATION OF AN OBJECT CHANGE TO A COLLABORATIVELY SHARED EXPOSITION FLOOR PLAN) for which the company is applying, regarding a software subsystem which allows multiple “users” to simultaneously edit a CAD rendering /“document” over the Internet and reflect changes to all subscribers, in “real time”.
6/97 - 12/98 Developer – Object Model Developer, Avid Technology
Object Model Developer for the premier newsroom -- AvidNews used worldwide, supporting both radio and television news format broadcasts, including CNN with 2000+ seats. This substantial upgrade to a heretoforth Unix/terminal based system was re-architected to replace the text-only interface with a Windows client that includes video editing/preview support, while maintaining Unix server software compatible with SUN, IBM, and SGI hardware. News “files” were stored in a format known as “NSML” or NewsRoom Markup Language, an XML format.
This position required extensive knowledge of C++, Design Patterns and Standard Template Library (STL) for development of the product’s object model as well as a thorough understanding of MFC, COM/OLE and socket communication. The challenge was picking up the pieces after the object model architect left the project. Fixed flaws in the templates (iterators, collections, etc.) as well as assisted in correcting hundreds of system defects.
The client software was designed
to receive and optionally display dozens of simultaneous, real-time news feeds,
such as AP worldwide and Reuters. The program was fully Unicode compliant and
was ported to 11 language platforms, including Chinese and Arabic. Designed the plug-in architecture for third-party developers, with
OLE-Server technology and custom COM interfaces as well as MSMQ support.
This software division was sold to Tektronics and
moved to
C++, MFC, COM, ATL, MSMQ
8/97 - 7/98 Consultant - Web Technology Group Leader, Reuters
Position to develop Web-tech. projects. Wrote front-end components in Java
for search and publishing applications. Augmented Java
applets with using COM/ATL through DCOM to NT services. This consulting
position was part-time, at the request or Reuters, to continue a working
relationship after my move from
Java, JavaScript, JFC, Swing, ActiveX
5/96 - 6/97 Consultant - Web Technology Group Leader, Reuters
Transactions department head became the director of the new web development group and asked me to come back to Reuters and help lead these new teams. Provided system architecture design and software development for a Web-based document publishing and alert notification system (with most system components written entirely in Java). An aggressive development cycle was adopted which mirrors the rate of change and product releases that have become a part of Internet technology. The group uses technologies, as they become available for purchase -- rather than developing in-house. With the current release being written to the JDK 1.1 spec. (event model), components are being re-implemented to conform to JavaBean’s design patterns.
The group deploys UNIX server components for Sun and Digital hardware, employing Java and Perl scripting. Client side support of both Netscape and Microsoft browsers is being maintained. Prototyping and incremental design, development, review and testing were important aspects for this project’s success. Authored Functional and Design Specifications.
VJ++ & Café, JDK 1.1, JavaBeans, ActiveX/OLE/DCOM, ATL, VC++ 4.2, Netscape plug-in, UNIX, CGI
4/95 - 5/96 Consultant – Development Liaison, Lead Application
Developer, Prodigy Online Services
The original intent of this position was to work with the directors of Prodigy’s communicate products: E-mail, chat, bulletin boards, browser. I attended strategic planning meetings with these directors and provided an engineering perspective on delivery timeframes, task effort and staff capability as potential products, scenarios were discussed. With the release and overwhelming adoption of Windows 95, a decision was made to build a new E-mail client. I was tasked with bringing this program to market.
Led a team in the development of Prodigy’s E-mail client-- the company's first native Window's application (used by 2 million subscribers). Prior to this, E-mail was provided inside the service’s connection and NAPLS rendering engine. This software was automatically downloaded to all subscribers and was compatible with Windows 3.0 through Windows 95. Provided technical guidance regarding the development of all Windows communication products: chat, newsgroup reader, E-mail, web browser.
This position was influential in making architectural decisions, with a goal of providing a common code base, using an OLE/COM model, for product development on the Window 3.X, 95 and NT platforms. A major function of this assignment was the transfer of knowledge to Prodigy employees, thus aiding them in the migration of systems from proprietary languages and tools to industry standard compilers (MSVC), application frameworks (MFC) and mainstream development/debugging tools (CodeView, Bounds Checker, Smart Heap,…).
VC++ 1.52, VC++ 4.1, OLE/COM, MAPI, Java
8/94 - 4/95 Consultant -- Application Design Engineer, Reuters
Provided Reuters Transaction Products division--
near-real-time NT-based solutions for the trading analysis group on 7x24 system. Responsible for coordinating functional and design
specifications, leading a team to implement (code) both report scheduling and
data delivery services (i.e. Fax, e-mail), and define test requirements and/or
tools. This project was one of Reuters’ first NT-based solutions, and as such required teaching their employee's
NT API services and training them to use the tools required to create and debug
these applications. Evaluated/integrated MS Exchange Server and developed Transport
Provider Interfaces (XPI) for
Reuters’ proprietary transaction infrastructure.
VC++ 2.0, NT, MAPI, OLE, ODBC, Windows API, RPC
8/88 - 12/94 Principal Partner, Up & Running Computer Consultants, Inc.
Led development of a workflow/group-ware software product which provides a complete development and deployment environment for collaborative computing and task management. Strong emphasis was placed on a streamline user-interface design. The Microsoft Windows-based product, written in C/C++ and MASM using the Windows SDK, provides visual tools for workflow template design, as well as visual database schema and form design.
The design of the product offered a unique user interface, that offered full control using a command line interface. It retained field highlighting and navigation in the port from Digital Research’s Graphical Environment Manager (GEM). I wrote a BASIC-like scripting language, with source-level debugger, whose scripts could be triggered by events within the system, include: login, displaying a form, entering/exiting a form’s field, etc. I integrated ISIS-compatible scanner drivers and image display components for document imaging support. The product is an alternative to Lotus Notes. I performed the WIN32s and NT ports.
Managed marketing efforts and implemented marketing plans including securing articles about the company and product in leading trade magazines, exhibiting the product at trade shows, and presenting papers at process automation conferences. Developed a program to sign Business Solution Partners (VAR's and resellers).
C/C++, x86 assembly, Windows API
3/92 - 6/92 Contractor, Prudential Preferred Financial Services, Corp.
Developed an application which agents could use to track, plan and project their performance for the current year. This application required a very easy to use (card-stack) interface and was constrained to a small footprint inasmuch as the executable and data had to fit on a single (720K) floppy.
Vermont Views, C/C++, x86 assembly
7/89 - 3/92 Project Leader, Automated Reasoning Corporation (merged with Test Technology below)
Assisted in the development of a model-based reasoning artificial intelligence software package. Ported the product, written in C, from Macintosh platform to X-Windows and Microsoft Windows platforms. Integrated platform specific (MS Windows) features, including communication support routines (RS-232, HPIB), inter-application messaging (DDE) on-line (hyper-text) help systems and OLE. Developed software to convert digital circuit connection lists to a format the AI software could interpret. Led engineering team in the development of an AI model library of integrated circuits for the package. Guided development efforts to join UNIX-based artificial intelligence software with Fluke and HP circuit board test products.
C, LISP, X-Windows, Unix, Windows API
5/86 - 7/89 Software Engineer, Test Technology Incorporated
Led a group of engineers in the development of software for an Engine Test Simulator for Boeing Aircraft Co. The simulator connected to 737/757 aircraft, and consisted of almost a hundred pieces of test equipment and computer hardware which exercised up to 2,000 test procedures, controlled via a remote terminal, ensuring correct aircraft harness wiring and aircraft computer operation.
Job functions included, writing the Test Executive and device drivers as well as coordinating the development of self-test, calibration, and communication routines (VMS) with software and hardware teams. Programming was done in C, ASM, BASIC and FORTRAN. Test procedures were executed on an HP machine, with test results being uploaded to VAX. This position required extensive knowledge of analog and digital test theory as well as practical knowledge regarding the operation of sophisticated test equipment.
Responsible for presentation of functional software specification to Boeing during initial bidding process as well as representing software team during milestone review meetings. Continued to manage relationship between Boeing and TTI regarding software issues for the duration of the two year contract.
FORTRAN, VMS, C, Assembly, BASIC
Education/Affiliations
Microsoft Certified Professional - Solution Developer
Microsoft Certification Exam Development Team Member
New York Institute of Technology