Gerald H. Curry, Jr.

Consulting Software Engineer

22 Howe Lane
Hollis, NH 03049

 

 

Professional Summary

Experience:

This resume will receive its long overdue update shortly. Please check back in a day or two. 25+ years in the software industry primarily as developer but with heavy involvement in QA and some project management and team leadership. Three startup companies. Six 1.0 projects. Self-employed contractor from 1988 to 2002. Four+ years experience working with offshore talent.

Languages:

C#, SQL, Perl, VB.NET, C/C++, VB, VBScript, and others (below)

Tools:

SilkTest, TestPartner, DevPartner Studio, Fiddler2, VMWare, SQA Robot, MS-Test

Platforms:

Windows NT 4.0 through XP, Server 2000 through 2008, Windows 9x, DOS, and others (below)

 

 

 

Experience

Principal QA Automation Engineer

Nuance Communications, Inc., Burlington, MA, August 2008 to February 2013

Led a team of offshore (Ukraine) and local engineers in creating automation for regression testing, performance testing, and API testing for several releases of PowerScribe, a speech-recognition and workflow product for Radiologists. PowerScribe includes a thick-client front-end for its primary users, a web front-end for administration, a back-end, and integration APIs. Tests were written for all user interfaces, all published APIs, and some unpublished APIs.

         Wrote regression automation in SilkTest Classic, and homegrown C# tools.

         Wrote performance automation in SilkTest Classic, SilkPerformer, and homegrown C# tools.

         Wrote web service API tests in C#.

         Designed a fully-automated automation system which keyed off of product build completion, created VMs, installed the product, ran automated tests, and published results via e-mail all without human intervention. Implemented with the offshore team. First prototype was cobbled together with batch files, PowerShell, and C#. Were improving it component-by-component over time.

         Collaborated in the design of a results repository for long-term storage of results and doing more sophisticated analysis.

         Worked with the manager and manual test team lead in establishment of QA processes and standards.

         Planned projects. Maintained project plans and schedules.

         Advocate for process improvement initiatives including Agile and CMMI.

 

Senior Software/QA Engineer

Nuance Communications, Inc., Burlington, MA, August 2007 to July 2008

Wrote the test harness and test automation for a Web Services API used for batch-mode speech recognition. Also functioned as QA lead.

         Test harness written in C#.

         Test cases coded in XML

         Back-end written in SQL

 

Senior Software/QA Engineer

Ajilon Consulting, Nashua, NH July 2007 to August 2007

Short-term contract writing GUI automation in Compuwares TestPartner.

 

Senior Software/QA Engineer

Compuware, Merrimack, New Hampshire May 2002 to June 2007

Senior technical contributor and occasional team lead for nine releases of DevPartner Studio, a suite of developers profiling tools.

         Wrote UI test automation using Compuware TestPartner and in-house tools.

         Wrote command-line test automation in Perl.

         Wrote test programs in C#, native and managed C++, VB.Net, VB6, VBScript, and JScript for testing the profilers against a variety of Microsoft technologies, including ASP, ASP.Net, ADO.Net, DCOM, Web Services, Object Remoting, and others.

         Mentored and guided the junior members of the team.

         Authored the high-level testing documents and some of the detailed testing documents.

Maintained three in-house support systems used by the whole lab:

         Administered the bug-tracking database, TrackRecord.

         Administered and did maintenance programming on the manual test repository, an in-house ASP.Net system written in C# using a SQL Server back-end.

         Administered and did extensive maintenance programming on the automated test results reporting system, including adding fully-automated execution and e-mail notifications.

And, other duties as needed

         Team lead for one release of DistributedAnalyzer.

         QA representative to the team designing the next generation of profiling tools.

         Backstop to customer support for DevPartner Studio.

         QA representative to the CMM team and often active in process improvement.

 

Senior Software/QA Engineer
NuMega / Compuware, Nashua, New Hampshire - November 2000 to January 2002

Worked on four distinct projects:

         Tested the 6.6 release of TrueCoverage and TrueTime (now part of DevPartner Studio), profiling tools for developers. Testing required writing and maintaining focused test programs in C++ and VB, and web pages, executing these test programs under TrueCoverage and TrueTime, and analyzing the generated profiling information. As part of a team of people testing the product, my focus was on the distributed (DCOM and Web) components. Also maintained the automated test system.

         Wrote test programs for the recently released Compuware DistributedAnalyzer, a developer's tool for finding problems and performance issues in distributed applications. Test programs were mostly in C++ and VB, with some JScript and VBScript, and they exercised a variety of technologies: IIS, ISAPI filters and extensions, COM interfaces, ADO, and SQL.

         QA lead (and initially the QA one-man-show) for DevPartner Profiler Community Edition - Compuware's first performance profiling tool for Microsoft.NET. Duties involved writing new programs and locating existing sample code for use in testing the new product's support for C#, VB.NET, and Managed C++. Overall, about a quarter of the work was producing new code, while most of the rest involved managing the QA effort and the team which by project end had 6 people doing manual and automated testing and test program writing. Also, I wrote the tutorial sample program in C#, VB.NET, Managed C++, and Native C++.

         Made two major contributions in preparation for the next major release of profiling tools for Microsoft.NET: co-wrote the QA test plan, and directed and participated in the ground-up rewrite of the automated test harness, written in Perl with an SQL back-end.

 

Senior Software Engineer
Dragon Systems / Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products - Waltham, Massachusetts - May 2000 to November 2000

Worked on two distinct projects:

         Tested the COM & ActiveX interfaces of the 5.0 Dragon Speech Engine. Testing involved writing test programs in C++ and VB to exercise features new to 5.0, maintenance programming on the existing 4.0 tests, executing the test programs, and reporting results.

         Participated in automating the installation tests, using Segue QA Partner (now SilkTest) for the complete 5.0 product in all its different western languages.

 

Senior Software/QA Engineer
NuMega / Compuware, Nashua, New Hampshire - September 1999 to May 2000

Tested the TrueTime and TrueCoverage components of the 6.5 release of DevPartner Studio. Testing involved writing sample programs, running them under TrueTime and TrueCoverage, and analyzing the results, then ultimately automating this process. As part of a team working on these products, my focus was on the language-centric issues, mostly with C++ and VB and to a lesser extent with Java.

 

Senior Software Engineer
Giganet, Inc., Concord Massachusetts - March 1999 to July 1999

Developed API test programs for a Windows 2000 Winsock DirectPath driver and did test harnesses and general toolsmithing for all other Giganet QA projects. "Automated the Automation." Software included MS VC++ 6.0, Win 32 Platform SDK, NT 4.0 DDK, Windows 2000 Beta DDK, and home-grown scripting tools.

 

Senior Software Engineer
Avid Technology, Tewksbury, Massachusetts - June 1998 to March 1999

Co-developed an automated test results reporting system comprising Web and SQL servers and the tools for posting results to it. My contributions were leading the database design effort and the SQL database implementation, writing the posting tools in MSVC++ 6.0, and coding the first Web interface prototype using ISAPI extensions. To a lesser extent, I was involved in the final Web interface ASP implementation, doing infrastructure (such as COM components and stored procedures) as well as writing about 20% of the final ASP pages. Software included NT 4.0 Server & Workstation, IIS 4.0, Visual C++ 6.0, Visual InterDev 6.0, Microsoft SQL Server 6.5/7.0, Sybase DataArchitect, ODBC, JavaScript, VBScript.

 

Principal QA Engineer / Release Engineer
Raptor Systems, Inc., Nashua, New Hampshire - November 1997 to May 1998

Wrote the QA test plan for and performed much of the testing of a VPN Tunneling driver. Set up its source control system. Automated the build process. Also did some guerilla testing of Raptors firewall products. Software included NT 4.0, Win 9X, Solaris, MSVC 5.0, and SourceSafe.

 

Principal QA Engineer
Avid Technology, Tewksbury, Massachusetts - September 1997 to June 1998

Worked with a QA tools group, developing QA tools, QA Partner test automation and QA Partner extension functions. Software included NT 4.0, Mac OS 7.5, MSVC 4.2 on NT, Code Warrior on the Mac, and QA Partner on both platforms.

 

QA Process Consultant
Homisco / Voicenet, Melrose, Massachusetts - May 1997 to November 1997

Brought QA and Release Engineering to a company that has never had either. Activities included QA training and some testing; installing and configuring the source control system and training in its use; and setting up a defect-tracking system. Software included NT 4.0, OS/2 Warp 4.0, PVCS.

 

Principal QA Engineer
Avid Technology, Tewksbury, Massachusetts - April 1997 to August 1997

Wrote QA Partner test automation and QA Partner extension functions for a multi-platform product running on Mac and Windows NT. Also, supported a team of other individuals doing QA Partner work, and consulted on QA process. Tools included MSVC 4.2 on NT, Code Warrior on the Mac, and QA Partner on both platforms.

 

QA Manager
Telequip Corporation, Nashua, New Hampshire - February 1997 to March 1997

QA Manager for a new venture being operated as a startup company until the parent corporation withdrew its funding. Was in the process of building the companys first QA department. Implemented processes for source control, testing, and bug tracking. Wrote test plan for product. Contributed to bringing consistency and sanity to the companys development processes.

Telequips business was secure co-processing, i.e. encryption hardware (PCMCIA cards) and software for Internet and network security.

 

Principal QA Engineer
Puma Technology, Westford, Massachusetts - June 1996 to September 1996

Sole QA engineer on a personal information manager product. Accomplishments included analyzing development specs, test plan writing, testing, and bug tracking process definition.

 

Senior Software Engineer
IBM, Winston-Salem, North Carolina - September 1995 to March 1996

Wrote VB applets which were a part of USAir's Frequent Traveler System. This was a large project where USAir was the customer, IBM was the primary contractor providing the computer hardware, system software, and non-workflow related software components. Wang was a subcontractor providing workflow software. My contribution to the project involved writing Visual Basic extensions to Wang's Open/Workflow product in order to perform specialized processing per USAirs requirements. Software included Windows 3.11, Visual Basic 3.0, Wang Open/Workflow, Wang Open/Image, and some Unix.

 

Principal QA Engineer
AI Squared, Merrimac, New Hampshire - June 1995 to September 1995

Sole QA for a software package, IDEA 5.0, which is used to produce custom diagnostic programs for the automotive and trucking industries. Duties included writing a QA schedule and top-level test plan, and managing a team of QA non-professionals comprising an administrative assistant and staff from customer support in order to get the lower level test plans written and the actual testing done. Platform was Windows 95.

 

Senior QA Engineer, QA Evangelist, and Project Lead
Avid Technologies, Tewksbury, Massachusetts - December 1994 to February 1997

As the first QA Project Lead on project Storybase for Windows 95, (12/94 to 4/95), I laid the groundwork for doing QA on the product, drafted the test plan and QA schedule, reviewed the initial prototypes and design documents. Also designed the SPR (bug tracking system) process, interviewed candidates to permanently take over the project lead position, and taught the "science" of QA to the division. I then took over the lead position on project MCXpress for Windows/NT (4/95 to 2/97) successfully reining-in an understaffed and out-of-control project, which at the time was late in the first release's development process. Activities also included manual testing, writing automated tests, representing QA at project-wide meetings, and working with other QA groups within Avid. Software included Windows 95 and NT 3.5 and 4.0, MSVC 4.2, and some use of QA Partner.

 

Senior QA Engineer
Wang Laboratories, Lowell, Massachusetts - December 1993 to November 1994

Wrote test plans and test scripts, performed code and spec reviews, wrote a test function library in C, wrote utility programs in C and Visual Basic, and played a key role in the establishment of QA procedures and methodology in Wang's Imaging and Workflow business unit. Also wrote SQL benchmark programs for evaluating various vendors SQL products. Software included Windows for Workgroups 3.11, MSVC 1.5, ODBC, Lotus Notes 3.0, SQA Robot, MS-Test 2.0.

 

Senior QA Engineer
Keyfile Corporation, Nashua, New Hampshire - August 1993 to December 1993

Wrote applications and test scripts in Visual Basic and Toolbook for testing Keyfile 2.2.

 

Senior Design Verification Engineer
Lotus Development, Cambridge, Massachusetts - November 1992 to June 1993

Tested the new Version Manager feature of 123 for Windows 4.0 (released in June 1993).

 

Senior Design Verification Engineer
Lotus Development, Cambridge, Massachusetts - June 1992 to October 1992

Solely responsible for verifying the correctness and precision of all numerical calculations done by 123 for Macintosh 1.1 (released in October 1992).

 

Software Engineer
Competence Assurance Systems, Inc. (now Whole Systems International), Cambridge, Massachusetts - October 1991 to February 1992

Designed and coded two custom software packages. Reverse-engineered and enhanced a third. Software included DOS 3.x, 4.x, Microsoft C6, Genus Graphics Library.

The first project entailed designing and writing a computer-based clinical reference guide. This guide makes available in computerized form a number of published pharmaceutical studies with all original formatting and graphics. The user may simply browse these studies or may search for references to key concepts. This guide was written in C for use on DOS-based laptop computers.

The second project was on database management system for tracking performance on computer-based tests. The project involved recreating the latest version for which the source code had been lost and then making enhancements to that version.

The third project was to develop a DOS-based scripting language for use in development of Computer Based Training (CBT) scripts. While this program was intended to satisfy the needs of a particular client of CAS, it went on to replace commercial CBT development programs in all of CAS's DOS-based projects.

 

Software Engineer
Lotus Development, Cambridge, Massachusetts - December 1990 to September 1991

Consultant to the 123 for Windows QA team. Accomplishments included installation and management of a SQL server based test management system, and developing Windows- and DOS-based reporting and test tools in C for QA's automation team. Software included Microsoft C6, Sybase SQL, Sybase DB-Library.

 

Senior Design Verification Engineer
Lotus Development, Cambridge, Massachusetts - June 1988 to September 1990

Hired originally as a Design Verification

An Engineer Consultant on a six-week contract, I was retained by Lotus for over two years for the purpose of developing automated tests for 1-2-3 releases 3 and 3.1. Early in the Release 3 project, the work involved writing 1-2-3 macros. Later, designing and writing test tools in C composed much of the work, as well as occasionally being pressed into service as trainer or supervisor. Software included Microsoft C5.1/6, MS-OS/2, Lotus 123, Lotus Notes.

 

Software Engineer (and jack-of-all-trades)
Agency Management Technologies, Gardner, Massachusetts - January 1985 to March 1988

Did detailed design and most of the coding of all of the company's products, supervised all R&D projects large enough to require more than one person, selected and installed all outside hardware and software, supported the company's Novell network, and performed technical problem solving.

Secondary responsibilities also included: customer "hot-line" support, on-site customer training and hardware and software installation, hardware repairs, and technical support for sales staff.

AMT began business in January, 1985 as a software developer, hardware dealer, and consultant to the insurance agency industry. As the first full-time employee, my experience has been extensive in both technical and non-technical areas. My technical accomplishments include a laser printing package to eliminate the need for pre-printed forms and an emulator program to allow running programs written for the Ethershare network to run unmodified on a Novell network. For non-technical background, I have at one time or another worked closely with people in every department within the company.

 

MIS Manager / Systems Analyst
Metromedia Paging Services (formerly Zip-Call/ICS), Boston, Massachusetts - November 1981 to January 1985

Worked my way up from part-time computer operator, through software engineering, and up to the dual role of Systems Analyst and Supervisor of Computer Operations in July 1984. Responsibilities included: installation and testing of vendor software updates, system tuning, hiring, training and supervising computer operators, and special programming and design projects. Also, from January 1983 to January 1985, supported sixteen hospital paging systems with: design and programming of enhancements to the general purpose system and custom programming for individual sites, hardware and database repairs, and telephone support.

Metromedia Paging provides pocket paging, or "beeper" service to all of the country. It uses outside vendor computers, beepers, and transmitters, combined with custom built software, telephone interfaces, and transmission control equipment. My major contribution to the field was the design and implementation of a fully automated alphanumeric paging system. This system was the first of its kind in new England and one of the first in the country.

 

Technical Skills Summary

Languages

         C#

         SQL

         Perl (And, Im pretty good at dealing with other people's Perl code.)

         Powershell

         C/C++

         Visual Basic

         VB.NET

         VB Script

 

Operating Systems and Networks

         Windows NT workstations 4.0 through XP, servers 2000 through 2008.

         Just getting started with Windows 7 & 8.

         Windows 9x.

         DOS

         Also a DOS and NT batch-file wizard.

 

Scripting and Testing Tools

         Compuware TestPartner

         SilkTest Classic, SilkPerformer

         MS-Test, SQA Robot

         SoapUI (limited)

 

Miscellaneous

         Visual SourceSafe, Perforce, Vault, ClearCase, PVCS

         Sybase DataArchitect / PowerDesigner

         Macro Programming for MS Excel (lightweight) & Lotus 123 (whiz)

         Lotus Notes database design (lightweight)

         HTML, IIS 4.0 thru 7.0, ISAPI, ASP, ASP.Net, ADO.Net

 

Education

Technical Training

         Microcomputer Communications and Networking, Northeastern University.

         RDOS Systems Programming, Data General, Westboro, MA.

University

         Two years at MIT in Aeronautical Engineering with many math and computer science courses.

 

References are available on request