Professional Resume of Richard D. Blaze

Professional Experience

meltmedia
-Tempe, AZ
2011 to present

meltmedia, a leading interactive agency, 60+ associates strong, and manages brands in excess of $10 Billion, and is further recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies for 2009, 2010 and 2011. meltmedia does interactive design and software development that creates brand-intelligent long-term sustainable brand strategies and customized high-impact interactive solutions for Fortune 500 and mid-size companies such as Genentech, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Right This Minute, Aetna, Johnson & Johnson, and Virgin Records).

Quality Assurance Test Specialist
Conducted extensive testing for web application HTML5 and CSS3 solutions based on the AWS platform; Wrote test cases and test plans, provided testing metrics using JIRA and Greenhopper; Promoted Scrum, Agile, Test-Driven Design, unit testing, quality process methodologies and insisted on company-wide Scrum and Product Owner training; Revamped quality in requirements resulting in clear user stories, introduced the concept of strong acceptance criteria, and promoted the reduction of technical debt; Designed and implemented automated testing environments using Selenium, WebDriver, Eclipse, and Maven to promote automated continuous integration and deployments; Used VMware Fusion and VirtualBox to test in virtual environments with multiple Windows operation system platforms; Retrieved source code for compilation and testing from GitHub; Conducted tracking validation in Google Analytics and promoted expansion into analytics for additional revenue streams; Created product training documents for clients; Manually tested developed mobile apps on a variety of iOS and Android phones and tablets.

• Created automated test setup and validation scripts using Selenium 2 server that shortened testing time and improved project quality delivery and wrote WebDriver scripts in Java under Maven to test HTML5 websites continuously.
• Promoted a centralized repository for company and industry standards, guidelines, code examples and lessons learned that expedited development, thorough validation for product releases, and usage of static code analyzers for governance of code quality and testability.
• Worked closely with Scrum Masters and Product Owners to revamp requirements gathering and documentation through improved user stories thereby implementing a strong approach to acceptance criteria that resulted in a general 35% reduction in product rework and project delivery timeframes.
• Tested and validated developed products such as large pharmaceutical websites, CMS applications, statistics to graphical displays, video sharing (upload, translation, storage and display), newly developed mobile apps and kiosk web apps for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, and metrics in Google Analytics and SalesForce.

Sanction Solutions
-Tempe, AZ
2009 to 2011

Litigation support software company and Microsoft partner whose document management and digital presentation system facilitates civil litigation involving billions of dollars, used by the U.S. Department of Justice, federal and local agencies, and thousands of law firms nationwide. Sanction Solutions is owned by Esquire Solutions, an Alexander Gallo Holdings Company, the leading privately-owned court reporting, litigation support services and staffing company in the United States.

Senior Quality Assurance Testing Engineer (Tempe office)
Wrote test cases and product test plans providing testing statistics and test/fail ratios and provided test metrics using Team Foundation Server and Sharepoint; Conducted extensive testing for a leading litigation support solution based on a C#, WPF, and .NET platform that includes database synchronization; Promoted Scrum, Test-Driven Design, and quality process methodologies; Wrote all product release notes; Used VMware to design and test in virtual environments with multiple operation system platforms.

• Created automated case movement validation scripts for product database synchronization technology that shortened testing verification time from fourteen minutes per case down to 30 seconds per test case in SQL Server 2008.
• Implemented a centralized library for examples of all possible media import materials to promote expedited development, thorough validation for product releases, and shortened support recreations.
• Promoted usage of virtual testing environments in VMware Server to enhance development thoroughness and cut equipment expenses while ensuring that all possible Microsoft operating systems are tested for every release and allow creation of virtual environment "snapshots" of previous testing installations to provide quick access to issue recreations.
• Drove a Test-Driven Design (TDD) approach through presentations, gathering and centralizing material, and recruiting a TDD expert to provide on onsite lecture to the development team and promoted test-driving unit-testing that saved hundreds of hours in defect corrections.

March Networks, Inc.
-Ottawa, CN
2007 to 2008

ISO 9001 certified company serving the video and retail data-mining needs of leading financial, retail, transportation, and government/homeland security agencies in approximately 50 countries.

Quality Assurance Testing Engineer (Scottsdale office)
Wrote test cases and providing test metrics, maintained the testing server/database environment while conducting extensive testing for a leading retail loss-prevention data-mining web portal solution based on .NET serving the largest supermarket chains, such as: Albertsons, SuperValu, United, Pick’n Save, Scolaris, Buschs, Giant, A&P and many others.

• Designed and implemented an extensive test bed database 4GB in size with over 400,000 customer retail transactions that improved testing and support productivity by 40%.
• Designed all testing processes, wrote test cases, and created test metrics reports in Seapine's TestTrack and created/delivered training to the entire test team which enhanced development cycle performance.
• Implemented open-source automated test tools such as WET, WatiN, Ruby, and researched Agile and SCRUM development methodologies to increase productivity of development and testing cycles.

DHL Express
- Scottsdale Data Center, Arizona
2004 to 2007

The largest worldwide shipping and logistics solutions provider serving 120,000 locations in more than 225 countries and territories.

Senior Testing Engineer (2006-2007)
Senior Instructional Designer (2004-2006)
Supervised three contract testing engineers, wrote test cases and providing test metrics, conducted testing assurance for DHL’s two accounting MVS mainframe systems. Earlier designed and delivered internal training to incorporate CMMi and PRINCE2 principles for all available project management, configuration management, productivity tools, and also technical standards to an IT staff of over 350.

• Performed lead Quality Assurance testing with mainframe technical expertise in JCL, PROCs, TSO/ISPF, COBOL, FileAid, Abend-aid, PanValet, CICS and batch applications.
• Designing and delivering training in fundamental Mainframe technology concepts, off-shore staffing research and industry standard testing methodologies to the entire 26-member testing team.
• Performed testing project estimations with an accuracy rate of 95% and negotiating testing schedules with project managers in a variety of business domains.
• Responded to a knowledge gap by becoming the sole SME and classroom instructor for 90% of the available productivity tools, including HP Service Desk, TeamTrack, ClearCase, FileNet and PlanView.
• Designed and produced six instructor training guides to successfully address trainer dependencies and created dozens of quick step-by-step web pages to address technical and procedural knowledge deficiencies.

Pegasus Solutions
- Scottsdale, Arizona
2004 to 2004

Pegasus Solutions provides worldwide reservation, distribution, financial, and representation services and is the largest third-party marketing and reservation provider in the world.

Quality Assurance Tester (Contract)
Wrote all software product test plan, design, case, and summary documents for DHL’s complex sales-pricing application based on Excel with Visual Basic, processed all test cases into Mercury TestDirector, tracked defects with Serena TeamTrack and TechExcel DevTrack, and provided document version control with Rational ClearCase.

• Designed and implemented new testing documentation standards to improve communication and validity which reduced defect resolution time by 35%.
• Implemented Pegasus Solutions' first online Holidex technical manual for internal research via Intranet access.

DHL Express
- Scottsdale Data Center, Arizona
2004 to 2004

The largest worldwide shipping and logistics solutions provider serving 120,000 locations in more than 225 countries and territories.

Quality Assurance Tester (Contract)
Wrote all software product test plan, design, case, and summary documents for DHL’s complex sales-pricing application based on Excel with Visual Basic, processed all test cases into Mercury TestDirector, tracked defects with Serena TeamTrack and TechExcel DevTrack, and provided document version control with Rational ClearCase.

• Proactively reviewed and rewrote all existing 240 regression test cases to correct and validate for accuracy and readability thereby validating all regression testing.
• Analyzing and improving scripts for Mercury WinRunner's automated testing tool that increased performance for regression testing by 30%.

Sybase, Inc.
- Dublin, California
1992 to 2003

Sybase, an ISO 9001 certified company and the inventor of MS SQL Server, is the industry leader in business intelligence (BI) software including expert systems for database management, data warehousing and data mining.

Staff Course Developer (2000–2003) – Dublin, California
Quality Assurance Engineer ((1995–1997) – Boulder, Colorado
Technical Support Engineer ((1992–1995) – Boulder, Colorado
Created customer training classware, designed and implemented Intranet eLearning solutions, drove ISO guidelines for the development tesm, wrote all software product test plan, design, case, and summary documents for Sybase's mainframe data-replication products, provided high-quality customer technical support for Sybase's mainframe access products.

• Redesigned the curriculum and updated the courseware for Sybase Education’s second-best selling customer course series resulting in a 20% increase to $1.2MM total annually in classroom revenue.
• Performed cross-departmental project-management for company-wide internal technical knowledge transfers for eight major product releases.
• Designed and maintained specialized CICS and batch COBOL II programs while using database and mainframe skills to conduct installation, performance, capacity, stress, data translation, and negative testing for intensive data transfers from large mainframe databases (DB2 and IMS) to LAN servers.
• Resolved by phone: mainframe installation of MDI software, mainframe configuration, CICS abend, DB2, CICS system tables, VSAM, DB2 DRDA, and other issues plus currently holding highest recorded number of successfully closed customer issues in MDI Tech Support (1600+).

Viaserv, Inc. & Polarsoft, Ltd.
- Boulder, Colorado
1997 to 2000

Viaserv and Polarsoft are middleware solutions and consulting service providers.

Senior Systems Consultant
Performed on-site customer system analysis, installations, configurations, and performance tunings on a variety of Sybase middleware products for the MVS, VSE, AIX, and NT platforms against a variety of databases such as MS SQL Server, DB2, SQL/DS, Ideal, DataCom, and Adabase.

• Designed and implemented an internal web-hit reporting webpage using HTML, Forms, and Perl-CGI to query statistics from the company's web-server logs and implementing an inexpensive web-based technical knowledgebase using MS Index Server which enabled direct customer problem resolution and decreased customer calls by 60%.
• Designed, coded, and implemented CICS COBOL II programs (RSPs/CSAs) for customers to verify VSAM, SQL/DS (DB2), Ideal, DataCom, and Adabase access solutions via Viaserv products.
• Designed, coded, and implemented Visual Basic in an Excel spreadsheet system to automate retrieval of mainframe VSAM data for complex financial calculations on the desktop.

Updated: April 30th, 2013
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Personal and Professional References available by request.
(references not posted for privacy reasons.)

•	Created automated test setup and validation scripts using Selenium 2 server that shortened testing time and improved project quality delivery and wrote WebDriver scripts in Java under Maven to test HTML5 websites continuously.
•	Promoted a centralized repository for company and industry standards, guidelines, code examples and lessons learned that expedited development, thorough validation for product releases, and usage of static code analyzers for governance of code quality and testability.
•	Worked closely with Scrum Masters and Product Owners to revamp requirements gathering and documentation through improved user stories thereby implementing a strong approach to acceptance criteria that resulted in a general 35% reduction in product rework and project delivery timeframes.
•	Tested and validated developed products such as large pharmaceutical websites, CMS applications, statistics to graphical displays, video sharing (upload, translation, storage and display), newly developed mobile apps and kiosk web apps for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, and metrics in Google Analytics and SalesForce.

•	Created automated case movement validation scripts for product database synchronization technology that shortened testing verification time from fourteen minutes per case down to 30 seconds per test case in SQL Server 2008.
•	Implemented a centralized library for examples of all possible media import materials to promote expedited development, thorough validation for product releases, and shortened support recreations.
•	Promoted usage of virtual testing environments in VMware Server to enhance development thoroughness and cut equipment expenses while ensuring that all possible Microsoft operating systems are tested for every release and allow creation of virtual environment "snapshots" of previous testing installations to provide quick access to issue recreations.
•	Drove a Test-Driven Design (TDD) approach through presentations, gathering and centralizing material, and recruiting a TDD expert to provide on onsite lecture to the development team and promoted test-driving unit-testing that saved hundreds of hours in defect corrections.

•	Designed and implemented an extensive test bed database 4GB in size with over 400,000 customer retail transactions that improved testing and support productivity by 40%.
•	Designed all testing processes, wrote test cases, and created test metrics reports in Seapine's TestTrack and created/delivered training to the entire test team which enhanced development cycle performance.
•	Implemented open-source automated test tools such as WET, WatiN, Ruby, and researched Agile and SCRUM development methodologies to increase productivity of development and testing cycles.

•	Performed lead Quality Assurance testing with mainframe technical expertise in JCL, PROCs, TSO/ISPF, COBOL, FileAid, Abend-aid, PanValet, CICS and batch applications.
•	Designing and delivering training in fundamental Mainframe technology concepts, off-shore staffing research and industry standard testing methodologies to the entire 26-member testing team.
•	Performed testing project estimations with an accuracy rate of 95% and negotiating testing schedules with project managers in a variety of business domains.
•	Responded to a knowledge gap by becoming the sole SME and classroom instructor for 90% of the available productivity tools, including HP Service Desk, TeamTrack, ClearCase, FileNet and PlanView.
•	Designed and produced six instructor training guides to successfully address trainer dependencies and created dozens of quick step-by-step web pages to address technical and procedural knowledge deficiencies.

•	Designed and implemented new testing documentation standards to improve communication and validity which reduced defect resolution time by 35%.
•	Implemented Pegasus Solutions' first online Holidex technical manual for internal research via Intranet access.

•	Proactively reviewed and rewrote all existing 240 regression test cases to correct and validate for accuracy and readability thereby validating all regression testing.
•	Analyzing and improving scripts for Mercury WinRunner's automated testing tool that increased performance for regression testing by 30%.

•	Redesigned the curriculum and updated the courseware for Sybase Education’s second-best selling customer course series resulting in a 20% increase to $1.2MM total annually in classroom revenue.
•	Performed cross-departmental project-management for company-wide internal technical knowledge transfers for eight major product releases.
•	Designed and maintained specialized CICS and batch COBOL II programs while using database and mainframe skills to conduct installation, performance, capacity, stress, data translation, and negative testing for intensive data transfers from large mainframe databases (DB2 and IMS) to LAN servers.
•	Resolved by phone: mainframe installation of MDI software, mainframe configuration, CICS abend, DB2, CICS system tables, VSAM, DB2 DRDA, and other issues plus currently holding highest recorded number of successfully closed customer issues in MDI Tech Support (1600+).

•	Designed and implemented an internal web-hit reporting webpage using HTML, Forms, and Perl-CGI to query statistics from the company's web-server logs and implementing an inexpensive web-based technical knowledgebase using MS Index Server which enabled direct customer problem resolution and decreased customer calls by 60%.
•	Designed, coded, and implemented CICS COBOL II programs (RSPs/CSAs) for customers to verify VSAM, SQL/DS (DB2), Ideal, DataCom, and Adabase access solutions via Viaserv products.
•	Designed, coded, and implemented Visual Basic in an Excel spreadsheet system to automate retrieval of mainframe VSAM data for complex financial calculations on the desktop.