Paul Johnson

www.pjcj.net paul@pjcj.net

Technical leadership, management, QA.
Systems analysis, design and programming.
Design and implementation of commercial testing tools.
Native English speaker, with some German and French.

Interests

The production of, and the processes which lead to high quality software.
Fostering a culture which emphasises quality throughout the entire software process.
I contribute to open source projects, including Perl, Vim and Zsh.
I enjoy leadership, building proficient and motivated teams and helping others learn.

Perl

I have been an active member of the Perl community for many years.
Contributed numerous patches to the perl core, core modules and CPAN modules, most recently a core patch to reduce memory usage by up to 2.5%.
Various modules on CPAN.
Presented a paper at the 2002 European Perl Conference and two papers at the 2003 conference.

Devel::Cover

I am the author of Devel::Cover, a code coverage module for Perl.
I maintain and am constantly improving the module and integrating patches I get sent.
This involves ensuring the accuracy of the results, ease of use, provision of features and optimisation of the code to reduce the coverage overhead as far as possible.
The module is currently being used for CPANCover and as a part of the Phalanx QA project for Perl.
Other users I know of include UBS, Morgan Stanley, SpamAssassin and Bricolage.

Experience

I have a broad range of experience and a flexible attitude gained from founding and working in a startup company for eight years and also from working in large companies.
Understanding of software development processes and ability to manage teams to ensure the production of high quality software delivered on schedule and to a budget.
Equally comfortable managing a team, working as a team member or working on individual projects.
Balancing of business requirements, user expectations and technical best practices.
Devised, driven or managed the QA process in a number of companies.
Very familiar with the technical aspects of software testing and QA having written commercial code coverage tools, test harnesses and the Perl coverage module Devel::Cover.
Experienced software designer and developer.
Comfortable working with both technical and business teams. Used to making presentations to both groups.

1992 - 2000 : TransEDA Ltd

Provider of code coverage tools for hardware design languages

I was a founder of this company, which had a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange. TransEDA was the first company to bring code coverage analysis to the EDA market.
Responsible for all aspects of product development, including management, planning, specification, design, implementation, testing, documentation and maintenance.
Worked closely with customers, field engineers and support staff, managed sub-contractors and conducted recruitment interviews.
Researched new technologies and techniques and investigated whether they would be beneficial to the business. Determined how best they should be deployed and devised strategies for their use.
Designed and implemented large sub-systems of various EDA products, including:
- Code coverage tools
- A VHDL front end to synthesis tools
- Synthesis algorithms
- A technology mapper
These were all OO designs written in C++ and Perl on Unix.
Created QA strategy and infrastructure and built or selected the tools necessary to ensure high quality products. Provided training and support in this area as required.
Designed, implemented, and maintained the build, test and licence generation systems. These were written entirely in Perl and worked across multiple operating systems.
Responsible for the introduction of Perl into the company, first for internal programs and then for products, for which it became the major development language. As this happened I conducted many internal training sessions for the company engineers.
Designed and implemented GUIs in C++/X/Motif and Perl/Tk.
Ported software products between various versions of Unix, including Solaris, SunOS, HP/UX, AIX, Ultrix and Linux, and to other Operating Systems including VMS, DOS and Windows.
Wrote user manuals for early products. Proof read later manuals and promotional material.

May 2000 - June 2000 : contracted to Ordnance Survey

Britain's national mapping agency

Debugged and extended the suite of Perl programs that was the backend to the National GPS Network.
Put in place a testing system. Analysed and reported upon the entire project.

July 2000 - August 2001 : Olsen & Associates

Research into and supply of high frequency financial data

Formalised the QA process, updated and extended the tests and standardised and documented the entire test system.
Worked closely with the quality engineers to ensure the integrity of the data and the correctness of the software.
Maintained, supported, enhanced and documented the build system. Designed, implemented, maintained and extended Perl and C++ libraries and wrote interfaces between them.
Upgraded the infrastructure of Perl, its modules, gcc, apache, mod_perl, SWIG and other related software, modified internal software as appropriate and provided support to users during the change.

October 2001 - : UBS

Swiss bank

Responsibility for integration and production testing of a large project unifying credit systems and involving numerous internal groups and external companies.
My work involves:
- Ensuring that software is fit to go into production and providing ultimate sign off.
- Coordinating the activities of the QA teams in the various groups. Providing support and advice as required.
- Making process improvement recommendations to the development and production teams and assisting in their implementation.
- Setting up automated testing suites using Perl and commercial packages.
- Introducing monitoring and reporting tools for the various applications under test.
- Ensuring that installation processes are complete and accurate.
The introduction of automated testing, monitoring and reporting tools, coupled with process improvements, has lead to an increase in the availability of the testing systems from an estimated 75% to over 95%.
The working language is German, and I am able to effectively perform my work although I cannot claim to be fluent or even particularly proficient in German.

Other Experience

A web site ( http://www.compactcard.com/quote.html) providing on-line quotes for CD replication and allowing all of the company administration to be performed via a web interface. I designed and created the site using Perl, apache and mod_perl on the server, and dynamically generated Javascript and DHTML on the client. (The site has changed somewhat from the original.)
A program to help improve the reading and spelling skills of dyslexic children. It is written in Perl/Tk and uses sonic and visual clues to present phrases to children, which they then type in. It runs on Linux and Windows and is currently being used in a very successful teaching programme.

1990 - 1992 : Roke Manor Research

Research into CAD tools for VLSI design

Responsible for the development and implementation of logic synthesis algorithms, and for the development and optimisation of low-level modules to facilitate this.

Qualifications

M.Eng. (Software Engineering) Class II(1) Hons. Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.
3 A levels (Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics), and 11 O levels including English Language.

Technical

OO design and programming in Perl, C++ and other languages, the use of debuggers, memory checkers, profilers, code management tools, shells, Unix utilities, build systems and other development tools.
Proficient in many dialects of Unix, and familiar with a number of other Operating Systems.
CGI, apache, mod_perl, Javascript, DHTML, CSS and other web technologies.
Always keen to learn new technologies and improve my skills.