Bill Richards Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Southampton, England, United Kingdom

Research and development of an MCU-based telemetry system. Transitioned from the Arduino framework to ESP32 development using Espressif ESP-IDF. These safety systems will help prevent Oil spills and tanker collisions, and will benefit ocean life and reduce pollution.Created IDF components with primary functions such as: locally stored configuration via the SPIFFS file system; IIC communications for round-robin data collection from multiple connected devices with varying data sizes; OTA firmware and file system updates through local Wi-Fi connectivity. Converted a Windows application from VB6 to .NET 8.0, enhancing functionality, and addressing bugs, including updates to data storage using SQL Server/SQL Express/SQLite and Entity Framework Core

Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom

Contracted as a .net expert to reverse engineer UL's existing RF testing automation suite in order to extend functionality and fix outstanding issues.Whilst engaged I enhanced pre-existing testing tools in order to automate testing for a new standard (EN303687) and updated them for the revised EN301893(6e) to support 5GHz transmissions. Initially, I reverse engineered the code using dotPeek, refactored it for better understanding, and made it more extensible by externalizing data points.

Winchester, England, United Kingdom

Assessed usability of various hardware items including processing modules (e.g. ESP32-WROOM-32/U, ESP8266), development boards (e.g., NodeMCU, Espressif ESP32 Dev Kit), sensors (e.g. IMU ICUs), and communication protocols/platforms (e.g. ESP-NOW, LoRa, Wifi, 433MHz radio).Made recommendations based upon assessments, and influenced the technical direction for the future of the company and it's product line.

Groß-Umstadt, Hesse, Germany

Instigated several architectural discussions in order to impart my knowledge and experience of developing composite applications using the PRISM framework.Updated existing solution to implement Inversion of Control (IoC) through Dependency Injection (DI).Ran knowledge sharing sessions extoling the benefits of and the best ways to implement IoC and other Design Patterns.

Camberley, England, United Kingdom

Advised and encourage industry accepted patterns and standards of developmentIntroduced git-flow development process for feature developmentLead workshops on Inversion of Control (IoC) and Dependency Injection (DI)Workshops for the use of the Prism Framework for WPF application developmentModernised the UI using WPF (updated from WinForms)Instigated devolving of the application from a monolithic architecture to micro-services to enable better re-useAssisted in better understanding and use of Agile methodologies: Scrum, Story Points, Story grooming, etc.

Portchester, England, United Kingdom

Development lead guiding technology uptakeMentored less senior development team members in XP practices including paired programming, SOLID principles, and object oriented design and implementation, Test Driven Development (TDD)Modernised development workflowIntroduced Continuous Integration (CI) and set up the associated development pipelineMigrated source control from Kiln to BitBucketMigrated development task tracking from FogBugz to JiraIntroduced the git-flow feature development cycleIntroduced DevOps practices and pipeline using Docker and TeamCityWorked closely with the development manager in hiring team leadership, performance reviews, and the hiring and interviewing processRan workshops with testers to create a Quality Assurance team who then worked more closely with the software engineers.Introduced the "Three Amigos", Workshops on User Story creation and backlog grooming, Sprint planning, and defining acceptance criteriaTook part in R&D work across sites within Europe and the USA. investigating the possibility of using microcontrollers and single-board-computers (ESP8266, Raspberry Pi) for hardware control

Addlestone, England, United Kingdom

Hired for .net expertise to cross-train a team of Java engineersImplemented microservices, using Azure for virtualization, and docker imagesImplemented RESTful servicesFrontend development using HAPI and Nunjucks

Farnborough, England, United Kingdom

Hired specifically to update and resolve issues with an existing applicationImplemented financial reports within SQL ServerSat on the steering group to determine the future technical direction of the software development teamAssisted DevOps team in setting up virtualization strategy using OpenShift, Docker, Octopus, Ansible, and PuppetProvided a sample microservice implementation to demonstrate choreography vs. orchestration

Eastleigh, England, United Kingdom

Hired as a .net expert to initially assist in a stabilization project whilst the company transitioned from a bespoke solution provider to a Product Vendor.After completion moved to the project team preparing for GDPR legislation conformanceIntroduced the team to and mentored the team on TDDWorkshopped on RESTful interface practices, fluent interfaces and composite application patterns and practicesThe front end is composed from of variety of technologies including WPF, HTML (driven by Angular.js) and C++ COM components. The backend is comprised of, C# WCF services, C# Web API driven RESTful services, SQL Server databases. The whole system is almost 100% configurable and driven by a configuration architecture realised through an Xml implementation -which presented a very step learning curve.

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Assisted drafting a Request for Tender (RFT) for the CRISP projectEngaged to provide guidance, mentoring and coaching for OSI and their selected service vendor whilst adopting Agile practices across the business in relation specifically to the CRISP project.Worked as an advisory consultant in respect of the tendered service provider's ability to meet both the requirements and expressed competencies, whilst guiding and mentoring.Ensured a test-driven approach through the implementation of acceptance tests, and specification by example by using SpecLog, SpecFlow, Confluence, and JiraWorkshopped and mentored all team members (developers, product owners, and stake-holders) in the various aspects of running an Agile development process: this included team roles, continuous integration, continuous deliver, how to test drive COTS based solutions, user story creation, backlog grooming, sprint planning etc.Setup Jira and Confluence on siteProvided the initial setup of a continuous integration pipeline using Jenkins as a build server and Gitlab as a source control system

Southampton, England, United Kingdom

Co-designed the architecture for a microservice based solution whose deployment would ultimately save the Land Registry Service millions of pounds in payments with respect to hedgerows and woodland on private farmland and estates.Prototyped the solution using Azure services, including Service Bus and virtualization.Provided an AMQP publisher/subscriber implementation using RabbitMQ.Consulted on test-driving a solution which incorporates COTS packages alongside bespoke servicesImplemented RESTful services as endpoints for COTS packages where remote endpoints were not exposedCreated microservices using Java and SpringbootAdvised and mentored a choreographed implementation, against the project assigned "designer's" original idea of an orchestrated solution using Eureka.Created a packaging and deployment tool (similar to Windows Installer) using Ruby, to enable continuous delivery into a Linux (Debian) environment.Mentored less senior developers in Agile and XP practices, OOP, and general engineering:Java 8, Springboot, YAML, RSpec, Ruby

Alton, England, United Kingdom

Working with one of our partner consultancies I laid out a specification for the test strategy to be utilized on the “Address Lookup” project for United Utilities –a million pound GIS project anticipated to run for the at least the next twelve months. Creating a presentation based around behaviour-driven-development (BDD) and test-driven-development (TDD) and how this can be achieved whilst implementing a solution utilizing COTS packages and working alongside a third party supplier of testing resources.Assisted in shaping of the both the initial set of User Stories and the initial set of acceptance Tests, specified in Gherkin using SpecLog.

Southampton, England, United Kingdom

Re-engaged to assist Information Services' transition to using Agile practices and to assist with the high profile GenIE projectWorked within DevOps building virtual machines using Vagrant, and provisioning using Puppet, to create a "continuous environment", enabling both continuous integration and continuous delivery.Moved into the team responsible for building a system through bespoke software development and integration of various COTS packages, making use of the continuous environments as provided by the DevOps team.Implemented a solution responsible for change notification between the main geodata storage and management system and the GenIE system.Took part in User Story definition, backlog grooming, and sprint planning.

Alton, England, United Kingdom

Prepared tenders for various governmental and Utilities provider contracts, Created sales leads, and formed strategic partnerships. Became partners on the SpecLog Ambassador program.Built a business offering “plug-and-play” Agile development solutions, both in house and outsourced. Our aim was to provide on-site, hands-on coaching and training, helping businesses to understand, take on, and properly implement Agile methodologies and techniques, such as team forming, Scrum, DDD, BDD, and TDD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, backlog management, etc.

Southampton, England, United Kingdom

Worked on the Enhanced Conflict Resolution Workflow (ECRW) project as an Agile Software Engineer/Coach and MentorThis was a high profile project whose effect was felt in meeting customer SLAs.The project needed to be and was completed in time for the 2012 London OlympicsMoved to the Multi-Resolution Data Programme (MRDP) as a hands-on agile coach Combined multiple (60+) individual Jenkins build jobs, into a more manageable an efficient number; removed build logic from Jenkins and into PowerShell scripts; removed third party tools (Maven, etc.) from the deployment process. Re-assessed continuous delivery around database development/deployment Reduced deployment times from six man days to approximately 30 minutes Restructured team into smaller more manageable Scrums; assisted with sprint planning and backlog refinement (differences between Story points and Sprint estimates, etc.); helped the Scrum Masters to grow into their roles by offering support and expertise in Agile methodologiesSat on the steering group for the uptake of Agile delivery across the Information Services departmentAided in producing the roadmap for future projects and their approach to continuous integration and continuous delivery. The output was an identified suite of tools and development practices for the GDMS teams and ultimately the entire IS development department.Mentored some assigned junior team members in software development tools, techniques, and concepts, including general object oriented design and development, .net,TDD, BDD, and DDD

Hammersmith, England, United Kingdom

Hired as a composite application expert to bug fix and extend a tool used internally to annually generate millions of pounds in revenue by monitoring and managing live betting data.Removed a "broken" bespoke framework for loading plugins and replaced it with PRISM managed modulesDefined an upgrade path to remove WinForms, ASP, OCX, VBScript, JavaScript, and Java components and replace them all with WPF controls and Prism modules.Introduced the team to asynchronous development and introduced the Task Parallel Library (TPL)

Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom

Hired as a composite application expert to bug fix and extend a tool used by the sales team to annually generate thousands of pounds in revenue.Corrected XAML databindingRetro fitted a suite of unit tests to enable faster and less error-prone extensibility; saving cost on future product enhancementsProvided workshops for developing composite applications and more specifically using the PRISM frameworkIntroduced the team to multithreaded task management.

Maidenhead, England, United Kingdom

Designed and lead the development of a sales aide to be used across the entire company structure of an external client (Konecranes) with branding dependant upon each subsidiary company using the tool.Introduced the company to WPF, styling, and the model view view-model pattern (MVVM): the original proposal was a WinForms application.Created a framework to enable branding and internationalisation (I18n) utilising the PRISM frameworkProvided workshops on Composite Application development, WPF and MVVMMentored junior staffIntroduced "Uncle Bob" and "Clean Code"

Staines-Upon-Thames, England, United Kingdom

Amended existing application to incorporate OFGEM requirementsProvided composite application expertise in the delivery a new application to assist Centrica engineers in their delivery and maintenance of Smart MeteringCo-provided the architecture specification for a new suite of tools for use by Centrica Service and Repair Engineers whilst out in the field running on occasionally connected devicesProvided Presentation and workshop describing best practices for Composite Application Development using the Prism FrameworkProvided Presentation and workshop based around test driven development

Addlestone, England, United Kingdom

Architected and implemented an application which self compiled at start-up according to a message specification provided as configuration. The application served as a message broker between various medical devices found on different wards and in different departments within a hospital- CodeDOM- .net reflection- RhinoMocks- Agile Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

Farnham, England, United Kingdom

Addlestone, England, United Kingdom

- CodeDOM- ,net reflection- RhinoMocks- Agile Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

Hampton, England, United Kingdom

Guildford, England, United Kingdom

Farnborough, England, United Kingdom

Farnborough, England, United Kingdom

Guildford, England, United Kingdom

Southampton, England, United Kingdom

- Java- nAnt

Teddington, England, United Kingdom

- traditional ASP- VBScript- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe

Farnham, England, United Kingdom

Slough, England, United Kingdom

- VB 6.0- traditional ASP- embedded C++- MSMQ- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe- Rational Unified Process (RUP)- Rational Rose

Egham, England, United Kingdom

- VB 6.0- traditional ASP- VBScript- .net beta release- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe

Guildford, England, United Kingdom

- VB 6.0- Java- JSP- tradition ASP- DHTML- MSMQ- SOAP- Perl