Jonathan Parkin

Following the successful spin-off of the Manchester University ABC team to form Assessment21 Ltd, I obtained a position as a developer with the new company. In this position I continue my previous duties developing and maintaining the ABC software, including familiarising new team members with the software, introducing new concepts, and increasing the usability and reliability of the system.

As part of the Assessment By Computer (ABC) team I was responsible for the development and maintenance of the ABC assessment-taking software, written in Java, and the installation and subsequent system administration of the team's Linux server. During this one year contract I:

• Introduced version control and bug tracking software (CVS and Bugzilla).
• Introduced use of a MySQL database for the storage of data and performed the migration of data from the previous file-based storage mechanism.
• Performed substantial refactoring and rationalisation of the existing code base to aid extensibility and maintainability.
• Added the concept of multiple administrative users and an access control list mechanism to control system access.
• Prototyped and subsequently developed PHP pages for administrative control of the system with a view to reducing the development cycle duration when maintaining or extending administrative functionality.
• Researched and created a mechanism for the integration of Campus Solutions, the University's student record system, with the ABC software.

During a 3 month contract as an Assistant IT Officer in the Integration Services team of Manchester University I made use of Oracle 9i and Calopus. My duties centred on the provision of a cross-faculty, centralised, data store of publications and other university outputs as part of the RAE 2008 submission process.

As a developer for Telecomplete Ltd. my duties centred on the maintainance and extension of existing systems. In this position I:

• Developed an extensible ClearCommerce credit card payment gateway library in Perl for use with Barclaycard's ePDQ MPI product.
• Created an online ordering system for new sign-ups with Catalyst, a Model-View-Controller framework for Perl.
• Helped diagnose and resolve some issues with a third-party SER authentication module (written in C)
• Created a Perl library to give access to BT's ADSL checking service.
• Performed general system maintainance and extension including modifications to the Direct Debit and invoincing systems and introduction of a new MS SQL Server driven product from a recenly acquired company into the main administration system.

Development and maintainance were primarily in Perl, though some investigation and maintainance made use of my PHP and C skills. In addition I performed some system administration work, such as installing, upgrading or configuring system software.

As a developer for Legend Communications Plc, now part of Thus Plc, I was responsible for the construction and maintenance of new and existing systems, both internal and client-facing. My main duties included:

• Administration and maintenance of system-critical PostgreSQL databases.
• Maintenance of the customer-facing control panel.
• Creation and maintenance of LDAP schemas and systems.
• Creation of new systems and migration of data from their legacy system counterparts.
• Creation of SOAP services and clients.
• Maintenance of legacy DNS and inventory systems.

Development and maintenance were primarily in Perl and PHP (4.3 and 5). In addition I assessed the second and third line technical support teams to determine areas where training would be of benefit, and the mechanisms through which training would be most effective.

Prior to my promotion and the acquisition of Designer Servers Ltd by Legend Communications Plc I held the position of Support Technician. Primary tasks included:

• Analysis and resolution of client issues by telephone, e-mail and an online tracking system.
• Installation of software onto client servers.
• Creation and maintenance of bespoke software for client and internal use.

Common issues included the configuration of the Apache web server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sendmail and DNS records (using BIND 9), and the registration, renewal and transfer of domains. Other duties included dealing with e-mail abuse complaints, participation in the on-call rota and the creation and maintenance of internal systems.