Tim Pinet

B. Eng (Software)


Enterprise software engineer and project/program management.

Tim Pinet

B. Engineering (Software)

Email: tim@pinet.ca
Website: http://tim.pinet.ca

Profile


Related Proficiencies


Management

Technical

Publications


Java EE 7 with GlassFish 4 Application Server

Minimal Apache CXF2 web services deployment

TFS (2010) to SVN conversion

Code review with ReviewBoard

Experience


City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa: ITS - Project Services Solutions branch (Jun 2014 - Feb 2016), Business Applications unit (Mar 2016 - Oct 2016), Applications Management branch (Oct 2016 - ongoing)

June 2014 to current - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Program Manager
Team: Systems Integrations and Business Systems (SIBS) projects unit (2014-2016), Business Applications and Integrations section (2016 - ongoing), Applications Management 1 Unit (2016-ongoing)
  • Management and coordination of large, interdependent projects forming an IT program around integrations of enterprise systems and applications. Manage the teams and systems for: SOA/OSB, Elections IT, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Business Intelligence (BI), Database Administration (DBA), Web Services/Applications, Ottawa.ca website, and Business Applications (100+ applications across all City departments).
  • Manage and supervise a large team (50+) of project managers, staff, and professional resources.
  • Manage multimillion dollar annual operational budget, an annual non-Tangible Capital Asset (non-TCA) budget, and client based project budgets.
  • Take part in project intake process initiated by clients by consulting with clients, gathering requirements, and providing high level technical estimates of work.
  • Follow procurement and supply processes by creating, reviewing, and selecting solutions through RFI, RFQ/T, and RFP processes.
  • Assist with high level architectural plans and decisions.
  • Lead the development of a cross departmental QA Program initiative to bring structure and new tools. Initiated the creation of a shared service team that can be seconded onto large projects, consulted for QA advice, recommend tools, create test suites, regression/security/load/accessibility testing.
  • Championed push for containerization of applications and cloud hosting of applications. Assisted technology architects with hosting vendors and applications platforms.
  • Part of team to ensure AODA compliance for the IT department. This meant understanding the legislation and ensuring that applications were tested for WCAG 2.0 AA compliance or had a plan before the 2021 timeline.
  • Lead team through three major reorganizations (change management) in a 12 month period (2016).
  • Received two nominations for the City Manager Awards in 2017 (highest distinction for employee recognition).
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Projects/operational work:
  • IT wide QA Program (2016-ongoing): In mid 2016, Tim led the investigation into the current state of QA across all teams in ITS. It was found that there were various tools and processes being used and no continuity between teams. Time hired a Sr contractor to talk to all teams about their QA current and desired state and produce a recommendation. Tim worked with the CIO to secure funding for recommended IBM Rational tools (App Scan, RQM, RFT) and start the process of staffing a shared resource team and designing a QA Program. Some staff have been hired under Tim and more to be hired after a successful request to City Council and FEDCO for a Senior QA resource to be hired.
  • Ottawa.ca Rebuild 2016 (2016-2017) and operations (2016-ongoing): A large scale rebuild project was undertaken starting in mid 2016 with agressive timelines to complete before end of the year. A dedicated team was spun up including many contractor resources who were proficient in Drupal to completely recreate the Ottawa.ca website to provide a modern platform for citizens to do business with the City of Ottawa. The project was agressive however it completed in January 2017 and was nomimated for an award in 2017 (City Manager Award). The continued operations work for the site sees non-stop enhancements to keep up with the Ottawa 2017 / Canada 150 celebrations and management of an agile and dynamic group has required a lot of attention.
  • BIMS Upgrade (2014-2017) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) / Business Intelligence (BI) Team operations (2014-ongoing): Tim managed the Document Services section (ECM and BI) which included the project and operational work of both systems in the City. The ECM systems are legislated document management systems for both physical and electronic record keeping (both transitive records and official business records OBR). The BI system is used for Finance and other departments to create reporting and analysis cubes for their own business lines to make more informed decisions. Work involved new cubes for clients, major product upgrades, and custom feature enhancements. 2 large scale upgrades to the BIMS (Business Information Management System - City of Ottawa electronic records system) were done in 2014 to end of 2015 then again in early 2016 to mid 2017. These projects required negotiating with clients to upgrade the enterprise Oracle UCM system, migrate over 3 million records, and implement customizations to the COTS product. These were multi year projects that required significant funding for the product and contractor resources, large requirements matricies (1000+ requirements) that evolved over the span of the projects, large quality assurance and UAT phases, and eventually deploy out to over 1600 users. While the first upgrade project was eventually cancelled, the second project completed on time and under budget. There are new projects for full system replacement which will be multiyear endeavours.
  • SOA Infrastructure DR/HA project (2014-2015) and operations (2015-2017): Tim continued his involvement in the SOA/OSB DR/HA project seeing the completion of Phase 2 (public web service access and IDM) and Phase 3 (active-active across two datacenters) deployed into production in April 2015. The project was completed and ran in stable status from that point with zero (0) downtime even during the complete power failure of one data center. Tim guided the Project Manager through the project closeout and the infrastructure was put into operational mode. The infrastructure continues to be the backbone of the City of Ottawa's enterprise integrations architecture and Tim continues to manage this system in its operational state.
  • Mobile Web Framework project (2014-2015) and operations (2015-ongoing): As Tim was Senior Developer and Project Manager on this project, he continued on in those roles after being promoted into the Program Manager role. This included Project Management (contractors, budget, licenses, vendors, etc) and architecture. He continued working with his clients and his contractors to complete the Alphinat SmartGuide infrastructure portion and the two client implementations. The project was completed on-time, under budget, and the Forestry Hired Equipment Contractor Portal won City awards. Tim performed the closeout project documentation then completed the project. The platform continues to be used and considered for future public and B2B web based portal integrations. Tim continues to manage this system in the operational stage of this platform's lifecycle.
  • Licensing and Permits (2014-ongoing): In late 2014 the ITS management team wanted to create a platform where all future licenses and permits could be deployed. Tim provided architecture suggestions as did other groups and eventually Tim's suggestion of using the Mobile Web Framework (SmartGuide) was selected for the pilot project, Pet Registration. Tim provided resources and architectural advice over 2015 during the design, development, and testing of the application until its eventual deployment in 2015. Other licenses and permits will also be deployed to this platform.
  • Elections (2014/2018): As Tim came into the Elections 2014 project at the tail end (execution) he made sure all applications were ready and all resources assigned to their roles. Tim participated in materials distribution (3 days) and supervision of elections sites on 2 elections dates. The planning and resource allocation for the Elections 2018 project started in 2015 and technical work has been started. It is expected that Tim's team will be required for the IT portion of the project and they will continue to work closely with the clients.
  • Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) applications assessment (2015): In 2015 Tim managed a small team that took all of the Ottawa.ca applications and assessed them for accessibility compliance. This was part of the legislated requirements for AODA against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA standards. At the end of the year, a list of the applications and their compliance level was sent to the client application owners so that they can plan for work to be done on the applications before the cut-off date in 2021. This project required internal staff and contractors that are specialists in the field of accessibility to write the report and develop and ongoing program for the City of Ottawa to ensure development up to the WCAG 2.0 AA standard and how to maintain ongoing compliance.
  • Database Administration (DBA) Team (2014-2016): Tim managed the Data Services section (Database Administration) which included the project and operational work of all databases in the City. The team included Project Coordinators, Team Leads, Senior DBAs and DBAs. Work was completed on Oracle DB, MS SQL Server, and MySQL and included license management, upgrades, application support / troubleshooting, and project based work. As part of the IT Transformation project in 2016 the DBAs were moved to the Technology Infrastructure section and no longer report in to Tim.
  • Web Services Team (2016-ongoing): As part of the IT Transformation project in 2016 the Web Services team were moved to Tim's group. Tim manages the team that deal with the public Ottawa.ca site, MyServiceOttawa portal, and all of the web based applications. The work is both project and operational in nature for the City and includes dealing with numerous internal clients and interfacing with the citizens. Numerous web platforms are used (Apache, Tomcat, WebLogic, IIS, Drupal, Java EE, .Net, COTS, etc) which provides a great challenge for the team to standardize on a support model. This is a high performing team in the City.
  • Business Applications: In addition to the enterprise systems that Tim manages, his team also has 100+ business/client specific applications that require maintenance (bug fixes, patches, upgrades), enhancement, and lifecycles. This work requires splitting numerous applications across a single resource rather than a single enterprise application taking a team. This presents different challenges such as ensure there are always primary/secondary resources for all of the business applications, managing numerous clients, and increased number in small-medium projects.
  • Task planning/project intake: Tim watches the capacity of his team in order to ensure that no one is being over or under worked. He and his staff come up with operational initiatives throughout the year, negotiated funding, and track the use of resources to complete operational type work such as security audits, patching, administration, maintenance, deploys, and client requests. He also manages intake of client initiated projects coming through the ITS project intake processes and the department PMO and assigns resources to them. All of these operational and project items are tracked and reported on monthly so that senior management can keep an eye on project progress and general health of our infrastructure.
  • Other: Windows 7 upgrade (2014), IE 11 upgrade (2015), Windows Server 2008 upgrade (2015), member of the Change Advisory Board (CAB) for City of Ottawa IT change management, coordination of major maintenance outages, Hosted ePayment Service Solution "eCheckout" architecture and client management, demos to colleagues on agile project management and tools, technical advice on architectures and upgrades.
Human Resources / Financials:
  • Supervision: Tim managed his unit in a unionized environment and has always had a mix of full time staff (between 35-50 at a time) and contractors (between 5-15 at a time). The management and supervision tasks included: capacity and resource management ensuring that all staff are being used on either project or operational related work; staff hiring; performance management providing merit for high achieving staff and performance programs for under achieving staff; matrix management of other staff from other groups outside his own; training and skills management; vacation/leave/disability management; work with Human Resources and Labor Relations. He completes team meetings and 1 on 1 meetings with his staff frequently throughout the year and ensures that staff have all the information they need to complete their work.
  • Contracted Professional Services: Tim led hiring procedures for numerous contractors using the City's request for standing offer (RFSO) procedures which is a fair and transparent form of hiring. He has hired Project Managers, Team leads, developers, and QA (functional, accessibility, and usability). He manages the relationships with the recruiting vendors, handles timesheets and payment of invoices, tracking burndown on purchase orders, and onboarding/offboarding activities (badge access, NDA, network access, etc).
  • Budget / Licenses: Tim manages his own multimillion dollar operational budget annually, a fluctuating non-Tangible Capital Asset (non-TCA) budget annually, and client based project budgets. Tim's operational budget includes: Salary/Compensation (50+ staff), professional services (10+ consultants), equipment, licenses/support agreements, oncall/overtime, etc. The non-TCA is for Tim's ITS based operational initiatives projects. Lastly, the City departments that come to ITS with work come with budgets and it is up to IT to manage a part of their budget for any professional services, software, hardware, or any other work that is IT related. On top of budgets Tim manages a multimillion dollar list of software purchases and annual support renewals for the City's major enterprise systems. This includes ensuring the procurement process is followed correctly (obtaining approvals), working with Supply to have POs created on time for annual renewal, negotiating with vendors for prices (Oracle, IBM, etc), and managing enterprise/user licenses by removing and adding as needed throughout the year.
  • Change Management: In 2016 the IT team saw three re-organizations in February, July, and lastly in October; the last being very destructive and saw the dismissal of many managers in ITS reducing the team from 15 down to 3. The team was built back up over 2 months to 10 managers however the changes were large and impact staff greatly. It was my job to give clear goals to the new teams, ensure focus was continued on the work and value delivery to clients, and manage the number of changes to ensure continued morale. It was a very difficult year but the 2017 team is quite efficient.
  • Social events / Employee Engagement: Tim plans social event for his own unit and the ITS department. The events include employee appreciation picnics and barbeques, Christmas parties, fundraising events (United Way/Movember), Halloween events, lunches with his team, and other events. He is also a member of the Employee Engagement committee to try and find new and exciting ways to recognize employee accomplishments and also increase morale in the office.
Other:
  • City Manager Awards (2017): Tim and his team were nominated for two City Manager Awards in 2017 for their work on Ottawa.ca Rebuild 2016 project and the open311 projects. These awards are the highest distinction for employee recognition.
  • Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) group (2014-2015) and Service Duty Officer for the Office of Emergency Management (2015 - ongoing): Tim was part of the Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) group that focused on ITS' planning and preparedness of staff, resources, and locations to accommodate for emergencies and disasters. He is currently part of Service Duty Officer rotation for the Office of Emergency Management group where managers are oncall and representing ITS in City wide emergencies.
  • Developer Conference (2014/2015): Tim organized Developers Conferences annually for the City of Ottawa ITS staff where staff led presentations were done in an environment where other ITS staff could ask questions so that they could start using the technologies. Topics included the OSB suite, SmartGuide platform, GIS and EDRI web services, AODA, and developer best practices.
  • Volleyball league management: Tim also ran the volleyball league at work with 8-10 team for 70-95 staff and summer students each year from 2014-2015 with an end of year tournament and party. This initiative helped promote healthy lifestyles for staff members.
Advanced training/conferences attended:
  • MISA 2014 (Ottawa)
  • GTEC 2015 (Ottawa)
  • Gartner Catalyst 2016 (San Diego)
  • Red Hat Summit 2017 (Boston)
  • New manager training (City of Ottawa):
    • Occupational Health & Safety Awareness Training for Supervisors
    • Supervisor / Manager Health & Safety Training
    • New Manager Orientation
    • AODA Management Compliance Module
    • Finance 101
    • Leading a Diverse Workforce
    • Management & Leadership Skills for New Managers
    • Managing in a Unionized Environment
    • Coaching and Mentoring for Peak Performance
    • Performance Planning and Evaluation
Software/tools used in this role:
  • MS Windows 7, MS Office 2010 (including Visio and Project)
  • SAP HR and Financials
  • Markview invoice management
  • IBM License Metric Tool
  • CA Clarity PPM (project management)
  • Cisco WebEx conferencing
City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa: ITS - Project Services Solutions branch

Nov 2013 to May 2014 - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Project Manager
Team: Systems Integrations and Business Systems projects unit
  • Supervise staff and contractors with key project deliverables and operational goals. Perform HR related tasks.
  • Manage the Mobile Web Framework (SmartGuide) project continuing on from role as Senior Developer. Manage tasks, environments, hiring, clients, budget, licenses, etc
  • Manage the Oracle SOA Infrastructure Disaster Recovery / High Availability project including delivering project milestones and operational efficiencies, also a continuation of his Senior Developer role.
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Projects:
  • SOA Infrastructure DR/HA: As one of Tim's colleague PMs was required to act on another project, Tim was able to fill in as Project Manager on the long running project as he had previous knowledge from his Senior Developer involvement. Tim carried on with the operational and oncall duties for the SOA/OSB. Tim assisted the developers with tasks, QA with test plans, created architectural topology diagrams, created UML diagrams for documentation. Presented architecture and received approval from the IT Security team. He performed client/stakeholder communications. Tim coordinated the major cutover from the old single system to the new clustered and DR ready system in April 2014; managed all teams involved and all communications for a successful delivery. System was stable and Tim assisted with planning for Phase 2 and 3 for later in 2014-2015.
  • Mobile Web Framework: Continuing with the project from his Senior Developer role, Tim was promoted to Project Manager specifically for the Mobile Web Framework project. His role was PM but also lead architect. He led the hiring of 3 consultants, software licensing and server procurement, training for SmartGuide, and architectural documents for the infrastructure. Tim started installing WebLogic and SmartGuide in a development environment to test then gave the consultants the tasks of setting up the other environments. Architected and created an identity store for the system. In addition to setting up the infrastructure, there were 2 clients that needed implementations on the system (SAP-Forestry Hired Equipment Portal and the EAM-Structure Contractor Portal). A major goal of the project was to provide as responsive design based system that can be used on both a traditional desktop browser and mobile ready for tablet/mobile phones. The system used a customized WET framework for the City of Ottawa to achieve both usability and accessibility. Both system were used for contractors to manage their work tasks through a web enabled mobile device. He setup the project using Agile Scrum (with tools and 2-week Sprints) and managed all of the Project Management documents required as proper PMBoK practices (ex: Charter, Project Plan, Implementation Plan, Close-out, etc). The project was completed on-time, under budget, and the Forestry Hired Equipment Contractor Portal won City awards.
Other:
  • Management and HR tasks: In his new role as Project Manager Tim helped create new time reporting processes for oncall and overtime work in his unit and communicated to staff and other Project Managers. He was involved with the hiring process for contractors by interviewing and scoring them based on the City's procurement rules and managed monthly invoices for contractor professional services. He worked with other Project Managers to create a consultant job description for a "Web Services Developer" new role type. Also, he dealt with an employee's extended sick leave; managed employee/consultant security access to servers; managed employees performance evaluations; and purchase equipment and training for staff.
  • Volleyball league management: Tim also ran the volleyball league at work with 8 teams for 70-80 staff and summer students each year from 2012-2013 with an end of year tournament and party. This initiative helped promote healthy lifestyles for staff members.
Advanced training/conferences attended:
  • Developer/administrator training for Alphinat SmartGuide Designer and Server in Mar 2014 with the NovaBrain instructor.
Software/tools used in this role:
  • MS Windows 7, MS Office 2010 (including Visio and Project)
  • Trac + Agilo (project and issue management)
  • CA Clarity PPM (project management)
  • GoToMeeting conferencing
City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa: ITS - Enterprise Solutions

August 2009 to Oct 2013 - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Senior Systems Developer/Integrator
Team: Enterprise Solutions Branch (ESB) - Enterprise Integrations and Applications Development (EIAD) unit
  • Provide maintenance, bug fixes, and new development of City of Ottawa public web applications. The web applications accept credit card payments (and comply with PCI requirements), provide accessible user interfaces, integrate with third party applications, and interface with the City's various database and enterprise systems.
  • Design and implement the City's SOA platform; the central integrations architecture for enterprise applications. Also architected the disaster recovery and high availability phase of the project.
  • Assisted with the selection and procurement of the City of Ottawa's new search system: Google's Search Appliance. Lead the installation, maintenance, interface customization, and data management portion of the project.
  • Championed initiatives to bring in more software engineering best practices to improve the quality of the products and keep the cost down.
  • Integrated third party Web 2.0 systems into the City of Ottawa's portfolio of managed applications (TikiWiki and Moodle).
  • Administered the eService group's source control system (TFS), code building processes, black box vulnerability testing tool (Cenzic) and code review server (ReviewBoard).
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Projects:
  • Web application development: Tim worked on many of the City's web applications in both Java and .Net platforms. Some applications were existing and required maintenance or major feature upgrades while others were created from scratch using the newest development tools and libraries available. A notable list of applications that he worked on:
    • Event Central Calendar (2012-2013): The Event Central team is in charge of event planning for the City of Ottawa and coordinating with all of the other members of the Ottawa community such as City of Gatineau, RCMP, Provincial, Federal, Ottawa Police etc. For any event in Ottawa, be it a large festival or small street party, requires the Event Central team to plan. Tim was in charge of designing and implementing a public calendar system where stakeholders could log in to view the events throughout the city and what scheduled status they were in. After verifying that there was no system that existed with the specific requirements and bilingualism, he implemented the Calendar system from scratch using Java, JSF2 - PrimeFaces3, and Apache CXF2 web services. His roles involved project management (Agile Scrum), requirements gathering, implementation, testing, documentation and maintenance. The project was completed in late 2012 and enhancements added in 2013. He taught 2 other developers about the system so that they could continue with the maintenance and feature enhancements.
    • Payment applications: Tim was part of the team that managed the City's payment applications such as Sign Permits, Ice Booking, Pet Licensing, eRecruitment, and Parking Ticket payment. As PCI was a major focus in 2010, these applications were scrutinized heavily and new processes were put in to place to ensure best practices for development (logging, code review, build process), auditability, and security scans. Tim fixed bugs, provided enhancements, supported the applications, ran security and vulnerability checks and made major upgrades to interface with the PCI pay interfaces (see below) so that a third party takes the payment instead of the City.
    • PCI pay interfaces: Interfacing applications were created as a central connection point between numerous Ottawa pay applications and the City's credit card acquirer. This interface had a common API that applications could call to process payments and remain is a safe PCI zone avoiding security restrictions but putting the burden on to the payment interface. OnlineCheckout with Moneris (2011-2013) and eCheckout with Paymentus (2014-ongoing) were both created and Tim provided that architectures and development.
    • AirQuality: Tim took the third party C# ASP application from A-MAPS Environmental and formatted it to the City's web template, fixed bugs, and provided French translation. This application was then deployed for citizens to check historical air quality maps and data.
    • City (Departmental) Calendar: Tim was also given responsibility of the City (Departmental) Calendar system. The Calendar was an existing internal City web application using Java/JSP that allowed the creation of different calendar instances for the working groups in the City. Staff could log in using their LDAP/AD user accounts and administer their own events. This was an application built by consultants but still had numerous bugs. Tim's task was to make it production ready, maintain it, create new instances, and customer training.
    • Elections (2010): There were various forms and applications related to the 2010 elections. Tim assisted the developers by providing suggestions and technical support.
    • Web Services: Tim helped architect web service applications on the City's OSB to provide open services such as the BIMS document check-in, and also business specific services for Ontario 1 Call.
    • Others applications that Tim supported as a developer were: RoadBrowser, Graffiti, Wardlookup, PostingPlans, Development Application Search, Cleaning the Capital, TakeItBack, Ozone, RADAR, Library Fines, Internet Calendar, TrafficByLaw, Restaurant Inspections, Spotlight/Arts Calendar, CLASS
  • SOA Infrastructure (2011-2013): The City had committed to using SOA for a number of its critical integration projects and Tim's group was assigned the installation and administration duties. From 2011 he participated in the installation of the entire SOA suite including: database, JRockit JVM, WebLogic 11g Server, SOA Suite, and Oracle Service Bus (OSB). He enabled rigorous change management for both the QA and Production systems due to the high level of integrations of services and dependencies to ensure to no one service would break another. He attended numerous official Oracle training sessions for: SOA Suite 11g Composite Applications, SOA Hands On Workshop, SOA Suite 11g Design Integrated Services, SOA Suite 11g Administration. Using this knowledge Tim's group runs the administration of the SOA suite while other groups install their applications to it. Due to his knowledge of the infrastructure he was the primary support and on call for the system for 2012-2014.
  • SOA Infrastructure DR/HA (2013): In 2013 the second stage of the project was started and Tim was the architect for the next evolution of the SOA infrastructure to have both clustered High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) environment functionality to ensure maximum uptime. In addition to increasing the reliability of the system his team also added in the Oracle Service Registry (OSR), F5 Big IP features such as load balancing, SSL termination, ASM application gateway, external ports in the DMZ for services with the Province/Feds and other B2B services. This first phase of the project was completed in Q2 2014 and has been very stable with 99% uptime. The second phase introduced the public port in the DMZ (Feb 2015) and the third phase was having the system in an active/active state across the two major data centers in the City (Apr 2015). The client services on the system are a mix of public web services / applications and also private business-to-business services. This list includes services for GIS, MAP, SAP, Maximo, Lagan CSM, BIMS, etc. For this project Tim's tasks involved project management, documentation and high level architecture, implementations/installation/configuration, process/governance design and review, operational support, resource planning/management, and security/prevention controls. Due to his knowledge Tim continued as primary support on this system until he became Project Manager then led the project in that role.
  • Mobile Web Framework: In 2013 there was a requirement to create a new framework/architecture for form based applications on the web connecting to web services. Due to Tim's knowledge of both fields he was asked to provide architectural support and offer suggestions. He completed a solutions comparison and presented back to management. The top two solutions were a custom built Java/JSF2 based solution and a RAD tool called Alphinat SmartGuide. SmartGuide eventually won as it will allow non developers to create web forms. In October 2013 Tim was promoted to Project Manager to run this project.
  • Search engine (2010-2013): The City of Ottawa search engine was no longer being maintained by the original developer so it was decided to acquire a modern search engine to index the Ottawa.ca site and online applications. In 2010 Tim participated in the selection of the different vendors (Google, Coveo, Exalead, Solr, Blossom, etc) and worked with search consultant from SearchWarrant to identify requirements. During the RFQ he spoke with vendors about their products and set up test environments for the shortlist so that functional tests could be demoed. Once the vendor product was chosen (Google Search Appliance), Tim led the installation, maintenance, interface customization, and data management portion of the project. He created an XHTML accessible interface for the GSA and a French translation as well. He conducted load and vulnerability tests against the GSA and acted in the role of administrator which included creating new Front Ends, managing the collections, creating reports, and configuration until 2013. The City of Ottawa Google search solution is available at http://search.ottawa.ca
  • Ottawa.ca (2012-2013): Tim was part of the team that handled the Ottawa.ca site and content contribution systems on the internal network for departments to update their content. He assisted with server installs, look and feel design, traffic routing through nginx, connections to application servers. Tim provided support and maintenance for the system during its operational stage.
Other:
  • Software development process:
    • Part of Tim's duties from joining in 2009 was to administer the source control system and building process for the team. The first task involved the migration for all software projects to move from the older MS Visual SourceSafe 2005 to newer MS Team Foundation Server 2008 source control systems so that all history/labels were preserved.
    • The building system (internally referred to as "LoadBuild" and based on Ant) is used to make developers and QA ensure that they are creating a clean and versionable build package of web applications. This process ensures that Developers check in all of their code to source control and build reliably and consistently outside of their own development workstations. He also introduced a versioning system so that the builder can choose to build from a code line other than the trunk/head.
    • Lastly during the PCI project of 2010 the City was required to set up a code review tool that would log the changes done to a payment app and all comments from reviewers. This was a requirement in the PCI standard and would be used during an audit. Tim led the investigation of multiple vendors, installed the chosen product (Reviewboard), and maintained the server. He wrote custom scripts (PHP) to give the developers a front end to create new reviews easily through a browser and tied the product into the TFS source control since it did not natively support it. Tim acted as the TFS/Reviewboard/LoadBuild administrator from 2009 to 2013.
    • In 2013 Tim also expressed interest in creating a true "Java stack" for better tool integration instead of relying on Microsoft's TFS. He was given the go ahead to investigate a solution between Subversion SVN and GIT, and SVN ended up being the chosen technology. He ran a pilot project to migrate source and tools from TFS to SVN successfully however management chose to stick with TFS in the end.
    • In 2013 Tim pushed forward the City's first Tomcat 7 and Java 7 application. He drove the upgrade project for all applications to move up to the latest supported platforms.
  • Issue and Agile project management (2011-2013): The City's IT department expressed a desire to use Agile development methodologies for more of its projects to see if it better manage tasks and timelines. As a pilot project in 2011 for the PCI rework of the web payment infrastructure Tim suggested the use of Trac + Agilo to track both the project's tasks and issues as well as milestone and sprint management in full accordance with the Agile Scrum methodology. The project was a success as each developer could track their time and tasks and management could see the overall direction of the project. Tim performed numerous demos throughout the years after and created 15+ instances for other business groups in IT to manage their projects and tasks/bugs. Tim also customized task workflow for some groups that requested it. Having previous exposure to Agile from Tim's Nortel experience, he took it upon himself to be a subject matter expert for the Agile process and to train other staff how to best use the process. He acted as administrator and Scrum Manager for multiple projects from 2011-2013. Tim created full installation, configuration, and administration documentation and cross trained operation staff so that they could create new instances upon Tim's move to the Projects group.
  • Wiki System (2009-2013): The City of Ottawa required a collaborative environment to quickly share knowledge across business units. The process of storing documents on shared drives was causing issues for content searching and multiple-user access to files. In 2009 one of Tim's first tasks was to install/support Tikiwiki to provide a web based wiki environment for documentation and collaboration. The wiki system was a huge success with many business units signing up for wikis to help their teams share knowledge including Ottawa Public Health, IT, Security, Project Management Office, Media, Customer Service Center, etc. Tim created a backup process and coordinate/executed major upgrades of the system. Tim provided numerous demos to interested teams and even assisted them in setting up their content. Over the years Tim created and maintained 30+ instances of the wiki and was the administrator for the city staff wide Citypedia. Tim cross trained staff and handed over the administration duties in 2013.
  • Demos and Training: Tim provided training to other developers and to managers on technologies such as wikis, LoadBuild application builds, Eclipse and TFS development environment, Cenzic Hailstorm blackbox vulnerability scan, Trac + Agilo issue management and Scrum project management tool, IBM Rational AppScan whitebox vulnerability scan, WAPT load testing, Reviewboard code review tool, and Agile Scrum project management methodology. Tim also setup training for the development team for secure coding practices, accessibility, and usability.
  • H1N1 volunteering: During the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 Tim volunteered his technical services at the immunization clinics around the City during the evenings while still managing his responsibilities at work during the day.
Advanced training/conferences attended:
  • Web Usability training from NeoInsight (Aug 2009) and Macadamian Usability Training (2 week course with certification in Sep 2010)
  • Secure programming training (5 days) for defensive programming tactics against top web vulnerabilities.
  • JSF 2 Training (2012)
  • Oracle Middleware training:
    • Mar 2011 - Oracle SOA Suite 11g Composite Applications (5 day Oracle training)
    • Apr 2011 - Oracle SOA Hands On Workshop (1 day)
    • Nov 2011 - Oracle SOA Suite 11g Design Integrated Services (3 day Oracle training)
    • Dec 2011 - Oracle SOA Suite 11g Administration (5 day Oracle training)
    • Aug 2012 - Oracle SOA Suite clustering (Oracle)
    • Dec 2012 - Oracle SOA Suite 11g Training (Oracle)
    • Sep 2013 - Oracle Service Bus 11g: System Administration
    • Oct 2013 - Oracle WebLogic Server 11g: Administration Essentials
    • Oct 2013 - Oracle SOA Governance 11g: Lifecycle Management
    • Oct 2013 - Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c
  • Emerging Leaders for Service Excellence certificate (City of Ottawa):
    • 2009 - Improving Productivity
    • 2009 - Team Effectiveness courses through the Training Centre
    • Dec 2011 - Career Planning and Self Assessment (1 day)
    • Sept 2011 - Leadership Foundations (2 day)
    • Jan 2012 - Work Personality Index review (1 hr)
    • Feb 2012 - Meeting Effectiveness (1 day)
    • Mar 2012 - Communication Effectiveness (1 day)
    • Mar 2012 - Conflict Resolution Basics (2 days)
    • Apr 2012 - Delivering Service Excellence (1 day)
Software/tools used in this role:
  • Visual Source Safe 2005 / Team Foundation Server 2008
  • Eclipse IDE, Visual Studio 2008/2010 IDE
  • Java 6/7, Tomcat, Ant
  • .Net (C#)
  • Oracle database, MySQL
  • PuTTY / WinSCP / VNC / RDP
  • MS Windows XP/Server 2003/2008, Unix (Solaris), MS Office 2007
  • PHP / Apache / phpMyAdmin / Tikiwiki / Drupal / Moodle
  • Bugzilla / Marval / Trac + Agilo
  • Oracle Toad / SQLTools
  • Oracle WebLogic, SOA Suite, Service Registry, etc
  • Paint.net
  • Solr open source search, Nutch open source indexer, Google Search Appliance
  • Cenzic Hailstorm ARC penetration tool (black box), IBM Rational AppScan (white box) for web application vulnerability, soapUI web services testing platform
  • ReviewBoard code review server
City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa: ITS - Business Solutions

April 2009 to August 2009 - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Intermediate Systems Developer/Integrator
Team: Business (BSB) - Class Support
  • Provide application support and maintenance for the City of Ottawa Business Solutions Applications unit. Required to diagnose problems online, on phone, and travel to facilities to ensure that the City of Ottawa business centers were functioning.
  • Support member of CLASS (registration, facility booking, payment, and program management system for all City of Ottawa programs and facilities) and Telestaff (online and telephone scheduling system for Long Term Care and Ottawa Paramedic Service staff)
  • Oracle PLSQL and Crystal Reports maintenance
Expand details
Projects:
  • Class support: The different facilities around the City of Ottawa use ActiveNetwork CLASS to register clients into their respective programs, book facilities (such as Halls or Arenas), and take payments from individuals or organizations which is a major income system for the City of Ottawa. Tim's tasks were to ensure the day-to-day functionality remained available for these facilities. This required troubleshooting networking, payment processing, hardware/software, and database support to all staff departments. There was also a major upgrade from version 6 to 7 that Tim was a part of for beta testing and implementation.
  • Telestaff support: Used to automate staffing assignments and time allocation for Long Term Care (LTC) and Ottawa Paramedic Service (OPS) staff. Tim's tasks were to ensure that the software functioned properly and to manage upgrades.
Software used in this role:
Nortel

Nortel: Enterprise - SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) (now Avaya ACE)

December 2007 to Mar 2009 - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Software Developer, Product Verification (QA)
Team: SOA Application Core (Agile Communication Environment)
  • Developer, tester and lab support during the first release of Nortel's Agile Communication Environment (ACE) which is a web services based architecture that processes web requests to Nortel's (or other carrier provider) hardware communications equipment.
  • Responsible for design, development, maintenance, testing, and documentation of different services in vertical slices (from web request down to telephony hardware).
  • Agile Scrum software process (Sprint based iterations in the role of Scrum Member)
  • Integral part of primary release of a highly visible product in a highly competitive communications / telephony market.
  • Majority of work was done using Java and IBM's WebSphere and AST environment.
Expand details
Projects:
  • AudioCall and MultiMediaConference ParlayX web service implementation: Tim's team was tasked to create an AudioCall (caller initiates a call that plays a sound file to broadcast a pre-recorded message) and MultiMediaConference (host a conference call and automatically invite other participants via the web service) web services. The team handled design, development, maintenance, testing, and documentation for services.
  • Lotus Notes (Sametime) unified communication integration: Tim's team enabled functionality for Lotus Notes (Sametime) to access the ACE platform to take advantage of the Telephony API that IBM made available. The Lotus Notes (Sametime) users can initiate phone calls, video calls, or conference call with other users in their buddy list by using the ACE interface for the services. The status of the Telephony devices were visible in the client so that other buddies could see (such as a user on the phone). The Domino server (server for Lotus Notes and Sametime) connected to the ACE product which places the call via web service request. This activity involved documentation, implementation of server and client plugin code, PV testing and packaging / deployment strategy. The lead customers were HSBC and FirstEnergy.
  • Virtualization of servers: Tim assisted with the effort to increase the amount of development servers available to developers and to also reduce equipment costs. The virtualization solution allowed operation of several guest virtual systems. The need was to have developers make better use of idle systems. Tim was able to prototype a single RHEL server running multiple instances of Windows Server. The solution was deployed across more than 20 host servers. Tim created documentation and trained others to implement this solution.
Other:
  • Development environment modernization: The entire ACE team switched from an aging ClearCase / Clarify / eBuild solution to a suite that is accepted by the larger open-source community. This involved changing the source control software from Clearcase to Subversion, issue management, continuous integration, code inspections, and integrated wiki into the Atlassian suite. Tim had knowledge of these tools before the switch so he consulted with the merging of the code and suite setup.
  • Provide Training: Tim ran training sessions for new members to the team to teach them about ACE and the Agile Scrum process. Provided support and created documents for typical installation and configuration of common applications for the ACE team. Many of the documents created were used for multiple international teams.
  • Multi-site presentation: Tim led a 2 hour presentation to all of the SOA team across multiple sites including Ottawa (Canada), Maidenhead (UK), Galway (Ireland), and Beijing (China).
  • Promotion: Tim was promoted to Nortel's second level Job Complexity Indicator while in this role.
Advanced training attended:
  • Agile eXtreme Programming (Scrum) process
  • Proper JUnit test first programming and code coverage tools
Software used in this role:
  • Java 5 and 6
  • Windows and Linux (RHEL)
  • IBM AST (Eclipse based IDE) and WebSphere Application Server 6.1
  • Maven build management, JUnit test framework
  • ClearCase and Subversion source control management
  • Wireshark SIP trace tool
  • PuTTY / WinSCP / VNC
  • Mercury Quality Center / Clarify issue tracking software
  • IBM Lotus Notes / Sametime / Domino Server
  • JMeter / soapUI / SOAtest web service test suite software
  • Atlassian web based software management suite (JIRA, Confluence, Bamboo, Crucible, Fisheye)
  • Version1 (online Agile time tracking tool for Scrum teams)
Nortel

Nortel: Carrier Networks - IMS Regulatory Services (now Genband)

May 2007 to November 2007 - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Software Developer
Team: Lawful Interception in IMS Regulatory Services
  • Create and maintain the Delivery and Administrative Function Tool (DAFT) simulator application based on the Java programming language. This tool is used for the Lawful Interception (LI) feature of IMS. The function of the tool is to act as an endpoint simulator of the LI system, provisioning surveillance in one end (acting as an Administrative Function simulator) and receive captured call data from a target under surveillance on the other end (act as a Delivery Function simulator). The tool is used by developers and the product verification team to ensure the LI solution is functional.
  • Acted as a developer liaison to the product verification team during LI testing. Aided the PV team in black box testing for the PV period (roughly one month).
  • Maintaining developer for the LI solution. Handle change requests and feature additions.
Expand details
Projects:
  • DAFT (Delivery and Administrative Function Tool) software application creation: This tool was meant to simulate an authority endpoint (Police, government, etc) in order to test the Lawful Interception solution end-to-end. The Administrative Function part of the tool provisions the Lawful Interception solution with phone numbers to be under surveillance. The Delivery Function part of the tool will receive notifications from the Lawful Interception solution indicating that the target of surveillance is participating in calls. Tim was one member of a 2 person team to acquire the tool requirements from the design/PV teams, standards and design documents. The team designed and implemented the user interface (via Java Swing) and addressed the communications (SIP). Upon completion of the tool, all members of the LI and PV team used it in order to validate the LI solution. The tool was very well received and is currently used for the life cycle of the LI solution.
  • Product verification testing of the LI solution: Tim switched role from developer to product verification running test cases in a lab environment with the PV team to ensure that the LI product was ready for release. He opened CRs for failed test cases that the rest of the LI design team would fix. Designer patches had to be managed. The product verification cycle finished on time.
  • Maintaining developer of the Lawful Interception solution: After product verification completed, Tim worked with the LI design team to fix CRs. He made some major changes such as implementation of debug logs throughout the entire LI solution. All CRs were completed on time.
Advanced training attended:
  • Real Time Operating Systems / Networking
  • Quality Management
  • Lean Six Sigma process management
  • USDRP (Uniform Software Development and Release Program) process
  • Object Oriented Analysis & Design Using UML
  • Information Security Basics
Software used in this role:
  • Java 5 and 6
  • Eclipse 3.3 with Ant building
  • ClearCase source control management
  • Wireshark SIP trace tool
  • PuTTY / WinSCP
  • JConsole
  • Mercury Quality Center / Clarify issue tracking software
Emergis

Emergis (now Telus)

May 2006 to April 2007 - Kanata, Ontario
Role: Software Developer
Team: Tools and Framework
  • Developer for the Electronic Health Record solution, Oacis, that is based on Java technology
  • Part of the Tools framework team to create a user interface driven (Java SWING) configuration program for hospital IT staff to completely configure Oacis to their unique hospital setup.
  • Client-Server communication, persistence system (Hibernate), ODR (Oacis Data Repository)
  • HL7 clinical message standards
  • Bug fixes
Expand details
Projects:
  • Java Swing components Tim's role for this project was lead designer, implementer, and maintainer on 2 new Swing components: SmartComboBox (SCB) and SplitButton. These were extensions of a normal Java Swing components but with custom functionality such as added auto-filtering and a button/combo box hybrid. Tim designed, developed, tested, and supported the components.
  • Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007 rule change: The United States implemented new daylight saving time rules starting Mar 11, 2007. These timing changes impact all software elements (database, application, operating system, etc). Tim headed the team to research the impact on the product, patching strategy , aided Q/A team with the test cases, created patching instruction document for clients to ensure the production environments in the hospitals had little to no impact, and aided the client liaison field questions and concerns. The document included patching instructions for Java, Windows, and the Solaris systems.
  • Data Extraction Engine (DEE) tool: Tim's role was primary tool designer. The DEE is a java based engine to perform data manipulation similar to a lengthy SQL statement. The purpose of this was to bring the data manipulation and query logic into the application layer to avoid differences between "hard-coded" SQL based paradigms such as Oracle vs. Sybase. Although these 2 paradigms use a similar SQL core, the syntax could be different reducing the portability and interoperability of the code. His task was to build the GUI tool for the engine so end user could create their own data transformations.
  • Generate Site Defined Tables (GENSDT) tool: Tim's role was primary tool designer. Site Defined Tables are database tables specific to a particular hospital or health care provider. Since every hospital will have their own data, they can create their own tables and methods to link them to the customizable forms. This GUI tool allowed end users to visually set up tables / columns / meta data and then generate the table into the Oacis Data Repository (ODR).
  • Visual manipulation feasibility study: Tim had the prime role for this assessment. The project involved assessing the impact on the entire application suite visual layout if the cascading style sheets (CSS) are modified drastically.
  • Bug fixing: Tim participated in regular maintenance of code throughout the entire product. These include changes to the framework, functional changes, aesthetic changes, and logical bug fixes. All bugs were fixed and tracked through change management software. New features were also introduced as requirements to fix larger bugs.
Software used in this role:
  • Bugzilla bug/issue tracking
  • CVS source code and change management
  • Eclipse 3.2
  • Java 5 and 6 with JNLP
  • Sybase
  • Tomcat / Hibernate / XML
Computer Associates

Computer Associates (CA) office at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

April 2005 to July 2005 - Hull, Quebec
Role: IT Support and Help Desk Assistance
  • Project to deploy 250+ new and upgraded computers to Museum staff, managing and documenting changes, scheduling of deployments
  • Used Computer Associates Help Desk tools to complete tasks
  • Assisted Help Desk personnel on Tech support calls in the museum
Mark F Pinet & Associates

Mark F. Pinet & Associates Limited (now with AECOM) / Intelligent Infrastructure Installations Ltd (III)

2000 to 2004 (part time), May 2004 to Jan 2005 - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: FAST / RWIS Technician, IT Administrator
  • Maintenance on RWIS (Road Weather Information System) and FAST (Fixed Automated Spray Technology) winter weather systems, troubleshooting, communications troubleshooting, field repairs, minor maintenance, site assessments, maintenance management, station monitoring, server administration
  • Maintain computer systems, networking, telephones, servers, troubleshooting, primary IT technician
City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa - IBS Project (IT)

2003 summer - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: SAP Support, Data Conversions Technician, IT Support
  • Answered / filtered incoming SAP support calls regarding the SAP system
  • Made data conversions of different types using Access VB scripts to ready data for input into the SAP system
  • Supported installations and maintenance of hardware / software around the office
The Beer Store

The Beer Store

2002 summer to 2005 (part time) - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Cashier and Fridge Fill
  • Cashier to deal with customers of all ages and serve beer
  • Operated heavy equipment to move beer palettes and fill fridge
City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa - Surface Operations

2002 summer - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Database Applications Programmer
  • Created applications to maintain databases for Surface Operation data and another database for Graffiti strikes around the city
  • Provided quick technical assistance when needed by fellow coworkers
Nepean Minor Hockey Association

Nepean Minor Hockey Association

Sept 2000 to April 2003 (part time) - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Hockey Instructor (Lead)
  • Head Instructor in charge of 5 other instructors
  • Instructed 5-7 year old children basic hockey skills and administered games
  • Approximately 96 players in group (6 teams of 16 players) per year
SpaceBridge Networks Corporation

SpaceBridge Networks Corporation (now Advantech Wireless)

2000 and 2001 summers - Hull, Quebec
Role: Database Applications Programmer, IT Support
  • Created Accounts Manager program to help manage company accounts, contacts, documents, etc. For use by Business Department
  • Assistance of the IT Department to maintain systems and functionality of the Spacebridge Team technical issues

Sandy Vanier CGA

1999 summer - Ottawa, Ontario
Role: Bookkeeper, Data Administrator
  • Entered accounting data from client records, general bookkeeping

Education/Certification


Bachelor of Engineering - Software Engineering - Carleton University (2006)

User Interaction Designer, Usability, User Centered Design - Macadamian (2010)

Achievements


Personal Interests


References


The list below are the most recent contacts who directly supervised me. The most recent listed first:

University Transcript


For a downloadable transcript click here (PDF format).
For a detailed description of the courses and mark achieved visit the Academic page.