95 The Crescent, Eastleigh, SO50 9BJ. · Phone: (07887) 928480
Web : http://www.dalelane.co.uk · E-mail : email@dalelane.co.uk

Dale Lane


Personal Information http://www.dalelane.co.uk/contact

  • Nationality: British
  • Date of birth: 4th May 1980
  • Driving License: Full/Clean with MiDAS certificate


Profile

  • A technically proficient software engineer who combines an investigative mind with a friendly, enthusiastic attitude. Motivated and positive, with a wide variety of interests and achievements.


Employment http://www.dalelane.co.uk/jobs

IBM Hursley Park, Hampshire August 2003 -
Motorola Swindon, Wiltshire August 2000 - August 2001
  • I have a wide background in formal software development, including work in Test, Development and Service teams in WebSphere MQ and work in Development and Service disciplines at Motorola on GSM Radio Sub-System software.
  • I have worked on enterprise level real-time software across the full software development life cycle, including design and development of new features, maintenance of legacy code, and providing technical customer support. This has included work at various levels, such as development of low-level networking protocol stacks, system programming for application middleware, and development of application-level end-user software.


Recent Technical Experience http://www.dalelane.co.uk/computing

  • Programming: C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Shell scripting
  • Development: Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Win CE, iSeries
  • Other Platform Experience: Palm OS, Win CE (Windows Mobile 5, Pocket PC)
  • Other: Eclipse, MS Visual Studio, JMS, Make, ant, MySQL


Technical Innovation http://www.dalelane.co.uk/innovation

  • Two patents filed with UK Patent Office
  • Nine technical invention disclosure articles published on http://priorart.ip.com
  • One article published with IBM developerWorks
  • Developed a Windows Mobile application which has been downloaded over 6,000 times


Education http://www.dalelane.co.uk/education

  • BSc (hons) - First class honours degree in Computer Science from University of Bath
  • Red Hat Linux Certifications - Red Hat Certified Technician
  • Sun Programming Certifications - Sun Certified Programmer in Java
    Currently working on assignment part of assessment for Sun Certified Developer in Java
  • BCS Professional Certifications - ISEB Certification in Software Testing
  • IBM Product Certifications - IBM Certified System Administrator in WebSphere MQ v5.3 & v6
  • City & Guilds Qualifications - Licentiateship of the City & Guilds Institute (LCGI) for work as a Software Engineer, and an Initial Certificate in Teaching


Working with customers
Service Roles for IBM and Motorola Experience in service roles, providing customer support from problem investigation to provision of software fixes.
IBM SupportPac (freeware) development Personally developed three successful applications to support WebSphere MQ customers, which were released as freeware. Ongoing development of these has been driven by feedback received both directly from customers and on message boards and forums.
Proof of concept work Involved in a number of investigative and proof-of-concept projects. These include investigating approaches for supporting Solaris Zones in WebSphere MQ, investigating migration scenarios, and integrating WMQ with a Tivoli product for the Extended Security Edition product.
Customer Briefings presentations Presented briefings about WebSphere MQ v6 to customers, and helped with a wide-ranging Q&A discussion about various implementation considerations.
User Centred Design work Actively involved in UCD sessions with a variety of customers during the development of WMQ v6. This was an iterative process of collecting feedback, reviewing and amending WMQ design, and presenting amended implementations, within a short timescale.
Technical authoring Written a number of well-received publicly-published articles in response to customer queries, as TechNotes on ibm.com and developerWorks.


Identifying and solving problems
Identifying a need in my local community With friends from a variety of professions, I formed and am now a trustee of a new independent youth charity, created to address a need that we saw in our community. We began by carrying out research and running pilot projects under the supervision and support of an existing charity, to confirm and validate our observations. The feedback from this work fed continued development and refinement of the ideas, which have been steadily grown over time. These are now successful projects run by six members of full-time staff of our now-independent charity, spending over £200,000 a year.
Identifying customer needs with WebSphere MQ usability Identified ways to improve the usability of WebSphere MQ, and developed an application to significantly extend the ability of the WMQ Explorer interface. 'Healthcheck' was released as one of the most downloaded WMQ SupportPacs of 2005/06, and its success led to it being formally developed and now included in WMQ for all customers. It further influenced Development with other teams adopting the framework for their new tooling.
Identifying ways to ease administration of large networks Designed and developed an extension to the Eclipse-based WebSphere MQ Explorer that provides search capabilities for network-configuration information. It has proven particularly popular with customers using clusters to search for cluster-related objects across large-scale networks.
Identifying areas of difficulty for developers Wrote a developerWorks article that guides customers to write Java applications for their WebSphere MQ environments.
Identifying customer difficulties with SSL configuration Developed an application which identifies common SSL configuration problems in secure customer networks. It has been widely used by WebSphere MQ Service teams in UK, India and the US, leading to it's release to customers as a SupportPac (freeware).


Team work and Leadership
Company director and charity trustee
"Solent Youth Action"		 I formed and am now running an independent youth charity. This has included work in recruitment, management and assessment for the six full-time and one part-time members of staff that we employ. It also involves providing strategic direction and guidance at an organisational level.
Team Leader
"IBM Blue Fusion"		 Involved in coordinating a one year project with a significant budget, delivering the largest single community event in the IBM UK calendar. I was directly responsible for a team of four new graduates, and jointly responsible for the whole Blue Fusion team of over a dozen members. I also identified ways to improve the event and led on a number of significant new initiatives.
School Governor
"Norwood Primary School"		 Responsible for raising school standards through setting strategic direction, working to ensure accountability and monitoring performance – helping to lead through a period of significant change. I also chair the Curriculum Committee and take a lead on overseeing ICT provision within the school.
Technical Mentor
"IBM Extreme Blue"		 Responsible for mentoring a group of university student interns developing a promising Software Group project. In addition to the technical role, this involved a significant coaching and teambuilding element, as well as providing support for the project management work of the project business student.
Charity trustee
"Samaritans"		 I am a Trustee for my local branch. I also have some day-to-day management responsibilities, as a 'Day Leader', responsible for the branch for a 24-hour shift. I also organised training for other trustees across the region.
Team Leader
"IBM On Demand Community Challenge"		 I was the Team-lead for a dozen IBM volunteers providing a Business Services consulting workshop for directors and managers of local charities and voluntary organisations.


Communication and Teaching http://www.dalelane.co.uk/teaching
IBM Customer Briefings Presenting about WebSphere MQ at customer workshop.
IBM Graduate Mentoring Mentoring new graduate recruits to IBM, providing support, guidance and informal training.
IBM Extreme Blue Mentor Technical mentor for a team of university interns, providing support, guidance and informal training.
On The Level (rethink and The Princes Trust) Long-term mentoring for young people leaving public care, supporting a transition to independence.
IBM Graduate Recruitment Involvement in a variety of recruitment activities within HE, from attending University recruitment fairs to helping at Recruitment and Selection events at IBM sites.
IBM School Link I led a new school link project between IBM and Bellemoor School. I worked closely with the school's Head of ICT to develop and deliver weekly computing classes for two years, planned and ran school visits to Hursley, and hosted a work experience student.
City College teaching I taught weekly evening college classes in basic adult literacy. I obtained a City & Guilds initial certificate in teaching for this.
Schools Careers Guidance Providing training, feedback advice on interview and CV-writing skills to local school students.
Samaritans Providing ongoing training to established listening volunteers, and management training to trustees of branches across the region.
Mentoring Plus
(Crime Concern)		 Mentoring on a crime prevention project, working with young offenders and those at-risk of offending.