David F. Leigh

Professional Biography.

This resume is also available in various formats upon request.

Project Manager / Technical Lead

Availability

Not currently available.

Synopsis

Senior Systems Analyst and Applications Designer with broad experience designing both end-user and back-end systems. Experienced in producing complex projects on-time and under-budget. Extensive experience consulting in retail, financial, insurance, and healthcare markets provides the client with a software designer capable of engineering systems for a wide range of industries.

Design and Management Skills

• Eighteen years of IS experience in honing exceptional supervisory and management skills.
• Superb communications skills with the ability to relate to customers' needs.
• Capable of handling multiple projects in various stages of development. Capable of concurrent scheduling to minimize the development cycle and maximize resource utilization.
• Skilled in the use of Microsoft Project. Have also used Project Workbench. Skilled in effective project management where no such tools have been provided.
• Strong (and practical) UML modeling skills.
• Understanding of Object Oriented principles and associated issues.
• Accomplished designer of a number of high-profile, mission-critical Web and Java systems (including both human interface and back-end systems).
• Ability to work with various development methodologies. Familiar with both traditional waterfall and RAD development methodologies.
• Understanding of cross-platform development issues. PC to AS/400 and Unix interfacing using various techniques.
• Ability to interface to legacy software systems. Understanding of legacy design notation including ERDs, DFDs, and Flowcharts.
• Understanding of language-oriented issues relating to design. Familiar with a variety of languages (listed below)
• Formal testing processes and use of automated tools including Autotester and LoadRunner.

Recent Work Experience

Cratchit.org began as an effort to create a mid-level accounting system for Linux to similar to the SBT Database Accounting package. When it became clear to me that other well-supported projects existed that would fill that niche, I canceled that project. I now operate Cratchit.org as a part-time consultancy, providing services including but not limited to project management, product assessment and procurement, small business network design and installation, and programming services in Visual FoxPro and Lotus Notes. I maintain two highly-rated Open Source projects; VIC CRM and Cratchit.org Timetool.

CTG, Inc., 300 Executive Center Dr., Greenville, SC 29615
May 2003 - Present

• I'm currently working with a major worldwide manufacturer of automotive components In this capacity I've assisted in the migration to a different warehouse management system, re-engineered a bids management system, and am currently maintaining extensive CRM systems for all of North America for the truck and passenger car divisions.
• I once again worked with United Guaranty, this time to assist with an effort to increase the size of their loan number within all information systems processes and databases. This effort was similar in scope to the Y2K effort, which is why my assistance was requested by the client. I was brought in to recreate the success of the System Repository, which I re-implemented in Lotus Notes. After this, I stayed on for a time to assist in the organizational planning for a new Quality Assurance group.
• Beginning in 2003 I worked with CTG as a Project Manager for RBC Liberty Insurance, a prominent multinational insurance company. I am managing a number of projects, notably an effort to bring their adjudication systems into compliance with the Health Information Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPAA). As part of this effort I managed all aspects of HIPAA compliance: physical, procedural, and automation. 

I am responsible for designing and creating Vitex's custom CRM package, which is tailored specifically to their unique needs as an IT Banking consultancy. This package is written entirely in Lotus Notes R5 from the ground up, as no commercial package is capable of providing the specific features to meet Vitex's unusual needs. In addition to standard CRM capabilities it will include certain specialized project management and data mining features.

All experience with SMCI was while on contract to United Guaranty (a major mortgage insurer).

• Designed systems to support the eBusiness Initiative intended to convert UG's systems from legacy AS/400 applications to web-enabled Java components. Designed a centralized Business Rules Engine, a Common Decision Engine, a Field Validation Engine, and a robust eDocument Delivery subsystem subsystem. Saw the first three of these through to implementation and acted as consultant on the PDF Document Delivery project.
• Introduced highly effective load-testing procedures to UG as well as an isolated load-testing environment and championed formal QA. Worked with four Systems Development Managers to coordinate load testing of mission-critical underwriting and product delivery systems among their teams.
• As the Lead Analyst and Lead Developer for UG's Sales Force Automation project, worked with the Sales staff to analyze UG's SFA needs. Made extensive modifications to the commercial Lotus Notes OverQuota SFA package to fit UGs business practices. Extensively re-worked page layouts, data design, LotusScript and Formula Language routines, and added back-end database connectivity to existing DB2 data sources on the companys AS/400. Created test scripts and supervised testing. Created end-user documentation and trained the Training department on use of the system.
• Further modified OverQuota to integrate with the Lotus Notes Boomerang expense reporting and Xpedite mass fax services. UGs Boomerang installation is now trumpeted as a "success story" by Acceleron (authors of Boomerang).
• As Systems Analyst for the Year 2000 remediation project, determined that no commercially available tool addressed the cross-platform issues specific to United Guaranty. With only a 2-week beta development cycle, Designed and implemented a unique System Repository that analyzed the interactions of a jumble of legacy AS/400 RPG code modules and organized them into coherent work units that enabled remediation to occur with zero downtime. Directly managed the assessment and remediation of end-user developed applications, commercial-off-the-shelf packages, and non-IT infrastructure; and acted as DBA for the Y2K System Repository.
• Created the Lotus Notes system used to manage the Y2K Command Center, using distributed workflow to provide managers with up-to-date information on the state of UGs software systems. After Y2K, re-worked this to provide development teams with a workflow-enabled issue database used during development and testing of new software. Prototyped a system in Lotus Notes to replace the Help Desk software currently used.
• Acted as both Technical Lead and Project Manager for large project to modify UGs Lender Evaluation application and brought the project in on time and with an unprecedented 21% under budget bottom line.

Purity Wholesale Grocers required a rapid conversion of their unique distributed marketing/ordering system to a 32-bit Windows platform. In only 3 months I and one other programmer designed and delivered the conversion from MS-DOS to Visual Foxpro 5.0, modernizing the UI and adding faxing, e-mail capability, web browser links, and cross-communication with their central AS/400.

• As POS Project Leader was the technical lead responsible for the development of Point-of-Sale systems for all of DZ's 230+ domestic and international stores.
• Responsibilities included supervising 5 programmers and coordinating their efforts, writing program specifications, technical project management, administration of revision control, code review, system integration, coding, debugging, and 3^rd level technical support.
• Implemented numerous complex enhancements to store systems: improved loss prevention controls, a complete inventory control system, game reconciliation, detailed transaction reporting, program management, and store-level systems for integration with a national customer database. In addition, I vastly improved the stability and robustness of store systems by standardizing module development and devising a technology by which handshaking is done between modules to guarantee code compatibility while speeding deployment of software changes at less cost.

Additional Experience and Affiliations

• Member, IEEE Computer Society
• Partner, SABRE Consortium (Software Architecture Based Requirements Engineering)
• Designed and implemented many additional systems including a comprehensive inventory control system and menu maintenance system in FoxPro for Denny's restaurants; personnel management system for Union Camp; a full-featured medical office management system; car show management system; timeclock and tradeshow extensions to SBTs database accounting system; video store point-of-sale; and a military wideband communications outage record management system for the USAF.
• Beta-tested Windows 3.11, Windows 95, and MSN. Peer-to-peer systems such as Artisoft's LANtastic.
• Began my career in support of the USAF's Presidential/VIP radio network on state-of-the art computer-controlled communications. Earned an Inspector General's award for Professional Performance for work in three areas: managing installation of an advanced communications station, authoring of technical manuals, and replacement of obsolete monitoring equipment with specially programmed inexpensive home computers.
• Authored valuable FoxPro utilities that have been published by FoxPro Advisor.
• Detailed additional information available at http://www.cratchit.org/dleigh/bio/pro_bio.htm.

Personal Data

I'm happily married, with one 15-year old son and twin sons 5 years old. I enjoy recreational programming, boardgames, philosophy, recreational science, and recalling the thrill of discovery through my children's eyes. I'm currently involved in an effort to create a free open-source mid-range accounting solution that will run under Linux.

"There are no problems, merely challenges"

Technical Skills

Extensive additional experience with various office packages, communications tools and protocols, and other assorted software.