Piran Montford — Curriculum Vitae
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Personal Details |
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Name: |
Piran Montford |
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Phone: |
+44 (0)7092 022 033 |
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E-mail: |
(please call) |
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Address: |
(please call) |
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Date of Birth: |
1 August 1970 |
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Nationality: |
British Citizen |
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Summary |
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I am a senior developer with a solid grounding in OO design with strong experience in internet technologies, especially Java and ATG Dynamo. I’ve worked with a wide range of products and systems, allowing me to quickly ‘get inside’ new concepts and techniques, and can hit the ground running when joining a new project. This, combined with my experience as a team leader and my project management skills, makes me an effective senior developer.
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Key Skills |
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Industry Experience Technical Team Lead Architecture Project Management Internationalisation Interviewing Skills |
ATG Dynamo 4, 5 and 6 Internet Object Oriented Design Object Oriented
Programming Non-OO Languages Unix, Linux and
Open-source Agile Development |
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Employment History |
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Developer (Contractor) |
Jun 2004 – Oct 2004 |
Website Development (http://www.newarkinone.com/)
Newark InOne, part of Premier Farnell, sells electronic components online and through catalogues. Their Dynamo 5.6.1 installation provides four localised sites selling half a million products. I was originally asked to complete a specific project using Vertex tax software, but external delays meant that I was involved in general site development and maintenance.
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Developer (Contractor) |
Aug 2003 – Nov 2003 |
The Javelin Group is a specialist in retail sales consultancy and technology.
Backoffice Systems for Screwfix.com (http://www.screwfix.com/)
After Javelin Group developed Screwfix’s public website, they were then asked to help in redeveloping the backoffice system. The system was developed on ATG Dynamo 6 using a mixture of B2Bcommerce and B2Ccommerce modules, presented inside an ActiveX web control inside PowerBuilder. The system relied heavily on JavaScript and DHTML capabilities of IE5.5. As traditional static web testing would be insufficient, I developed a library that drove IE via COM from within JUnit tests. Testing of the Dynamo components was developed using Apache’s Cactus. I also implemented code quality checks using the PMD source code analysis tool.
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Developer (Contractor) |
Jun 2003 – Jul 2003 |
e2x are a project leadership consultancy, bringing project management, architecture, quality, and development environment skills to projects.
Internal Product Development
I worked as part of a close team developing a product, written in Java. The development environment made full use of all the Extreme Programming practices, including pair programming and test-driven development, including automated acceptance testing, We worked in their London office, or used remote pair-programming.
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Developer (Contractor) |
Aug 2002 – May 2003 |
Lastminute.com is one of the most noted international e-commerce life-style sites. They now have sites serving nine countries.
Website Development (http://www.lastminute.com/)
Lastminute.com needed the ability to sell extra ‘options’ with their current hotel and holiday offerings. These options would cover such items as ski hire, or airport transfer. This had to be fitted into their existing Dynamo-based e-commerce system. I was responsible for the shopping basket implementation, and fulfilment. Reservations and orders then needed to be communicated to third-party suppliers.
bfeed – A Batch Feed Framework
As part of Lastminute.com’s integration with their partners, there are many external feeds that need to be processed. I designed and lead a team developing ‘bfeed’, a framework for writing feeds. The framework was able to take data from XML or other sources, convert this into a re-usable object representation, and manipulate those objects converting them into database commands. A loosely coupled design and extensive unit-testing, enabled an evolutionary development. A hierarchical transaction system tracked individual tasks, ensured data integrity, and greatly helped in tracing problems with feeds.
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Short term contracts |
Feb 2002– Jul 2002 |
General Motors (http://www.europe.opel.com/)
I was called in by developers Modem Media Ltd for a short contract to help sort out problems with project set-up, and help blitz outstanding bugs. The site is a Dynamo 4.5 installation.
Application Service Provider start-up (http://www.onlinebizbuilder.com/)
Provided development and security advice to a new internet venture. I developed the invoicing system, membership trial and upgrade system, and batch emailing systems. Written in Perl and PHP, deployed on Linux, Apache, and MySQL.
Natural History Museum and 24 Hour Museum – Mission Explore
(http://www.nhm.ac.uk/interactive/kids/missionexplore)
An on-line game designed for children, allowing them to explore the work of the museum, from finding and collecting the object to identifying and conserving them. Written in Perl, generating DHTML and JavaScript pages, with Java applets.
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Senior Developer (Contractor)
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Aug 2001 – Jan 2002 |
Philips (http://www.consumer.philips.com/)
Modem Media are developing a global solution for Philips’ internet presence, built on Dynamo 5. Development is spread across five teams, using an agile software process based on XP.
Initially I was involved in general site development, developing requirements from the client’s representative. I then became technical lead on incorporating Norelco and Walita into the platform, two of Philips’ brands in America and Brazil. This involved identifying requirements and constraints with the two clients, the site’s creative team, and the ongoing platform development as part of Philips’ internet strategy. Development had started with a team of 10 developers, when the project was moved from London to Eindhoven in Holland.
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Technical Lead |
May 1999 – Sep 2000 |
Icon Medialab were an international internet consultancy and development company, working in mutli-disciplinary teams on large web projects. Across several projects, my roles were team leader, architect, developer and technical project manager.
Motorola Direct (http://www.motorola.co.uk/)
After officially leaving Icon Medialab in July 2000, I returned on a 6-week contract to cover unexpected staff absence. My task was to kick-start the Motorola Direct project, developed in conjunction with Perot Systems. The aim was to develop a new UK e-commerce site to sell Motorola’s mobile phones, and to use this as the basis for an international rollout.
I was technical project manager: overseeing the establishment of the technical team, the development infrastructure and the office space. I worked with Motorola to gather information on their existing systems, and was technical consultant for the usability and artwork models. The client chose InterShop’s enfinity EJB application server, and I worked with InterShop to map Motorola’s complicated product line onto the software’s data model.
Sony PlayStation (http://www.playstation-europe.com/)
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) are responsible for the marketing and distribution of PlayStation everywhere outside Japan and North America. They came to Icon Medialab looking to re-engineer their existing pan-European and local territory websites, with ATG Dynamo as the chosen software platform. We developed a core set of multi-lingual and locally customisable components for use by HTML designers.
I developed the first Dynamo components for the site, setting a template for the later developers to follow. The team grew to 10 Java programmers, for whom I acted as architect and team lead, with some project management duties. I was the Dynamo mentor for this and other projects. I also set-up the deployment of Dynamo on the hosting systems.
I was also the technical liaison working with Accenture, who were simultaneously building a Dynamo e-commerce site for SCEE.
World Interactive TV’s Astrology website (http://www.liveastro.com/)
The site provided on-line astrological consultations, with the customer paying to see the astrologer through Real Video and entering questions to be answered.
When I joined the project as technical lead, the method to synchronise the customer’s and astrologer’s browser with the video feed had yet to be discovered. I had to devise a robust system and then implement it with a COM component added to the Real Server running on Linux, and then used JavaScript on the customer’s browser, with a Java application controlling Real Producer on the astrologer’s workstation. I then took over the ASP development of the site both to provide the web pages, and to provide the backend server for the astrologer’s application.
Other Duties
Icon Medialab were in the process of introducing a stronger process culture, and this included applying the Rational Unified Process (RUP) to the technical part of projects and beyond.
I undertook all first interviews for new technical applicants. I also acted as mentor, teaching new programming skills and techniques to my existing team.
I was involved in many successful bids, for such clients as Hewlett Packard.
My in-depth technical knowledge meant that I was often involved in some areas of system support for unix and networking systems, for example setting up an emergency Linux firewall when the existing Solaris firewall’s hardware failed.
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Senior Programmer |
Sep 1995 – Jun 1998
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Cognitive Applications are a multimedia consultancy, working with a number of large world-renowned organisations. The company relied on a highly-optimised cross-platform proprietary delivery system for producing CD-ROMs and kiosk systems. I was responsible for developing internet systems, maintaining and enhancing their Windows delivery system, and also acted as technical support for members of the public.
For Microsoft: Microsoft Wine Guide CD-ROM (now Oz Clarke’s Wine Guide) and three foreign language editions of Microsoft Art Gallery. I was responsible for maintaining the Windows C++ engine and databases, and liasing with Microsoft and the translators.
I undertook similar work on other CD-ROMs and installations, including the London Science Museum’s Challenge of Materials, Washington DC National Gallery catalogue, and the Complete Illustrated Catalogue of the London National Gallery.
I introduced the company to the internet, which now forms a major part of their business. Websites included the Cable & Wireless’ history site and the London Science Museum’s website. Having identified a need on their intranet, I developed a simple cross-platform web database publishing tool. Running on Unix and WindowsNT, the program was written in CGI/Perl and in Java (Servlets/JDBC). The program has migrated from the intranet to become a powerful extranet tool for communicating with clients, and is used on the Science Museum’s website.
The main project of my last year was Manchester United’s museum’s Man-U-Net system, containing details of every player, match, competition and opponent in the soccer team’s history. I was the database architect, trained the customer, and also helped install the final system.
The work necessitated a lot of client interaction, investigating emerging technologies, and the use of a diverse set of packages.
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Consultant |
Oct 1993 - Sep 1995 |
I was responsible for the order-taking module of Rover’s multimedia car showroom sales system: Discus – a client/server system within the dealership, with WAN connections to Rover & Land Rover implemented in C++.
Initially presented with a brief project outline, I carried the project through to design and implementation. This involved a lot of contact with Rover and their suppliers, such as AT&T Istel. Prototypes were developed using Visual Basic and Delphi. Presented with a tight project deadline, the module was delivered on time, long before Rover’s back-end systems were ready.
Rover requested that I scope the next part of their ordering system: the much larger and more complicated international and non-retail ordering. This required me to enter almost every part of Rover’s organisation. During most of this time, I was Parallax’s project manager for these projects.
Besides technical roles, I was also called upon to write a training video, for graphic design, and to author a successful competition entry and press releases.
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Schlumberger Test & Technologies Ltd, Bournemouth, UK |
1991 |
C programming and software testing. Industrial placement for my degree. (1 year)
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4th Wave Technologies Ltd, Brighton, UK |
1988 |
Parallel processing and artificial intelligence start-up. (9 months)
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Travelling |
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Dec ’03 - Jun ’04 |
Florida, Patagonia, Brazil, California, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. |
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Oct ’00 - Jul ’01 |
China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Australia and New Zealand. |
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Mar ’00 |
Australia. (3 weeks) |
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Jun ’98 - Apr ’99 |
Italy and Slovenia. |
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Aug ’97 |
North Eastern USA and South Eastern Canada. (3 weeks) |
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Feb ’97 |
Hong Kong, Malaysia and India. (4 weeks) |
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Qualifications |
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Degree |
First class BSc (Hons) Computer Science, University of Brighton. |
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A-levels |
Double Maths (A, B, Merit), Physics (A, Distinction), Computer Science (A). |
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O-levels |
Eight, including English. |