Just What Does Al Prosser Do For a Living?

Last Modified Ocotber 30, 2020, adding information about other work since 2010.

From June 2009 through at least August 2010, Al worked in non-computer related business.

Al moved from near Houston, Texas to West Des Moines, Iowa in October 1997.

There is a PDF resume at http://www.alprosser19.com/resume4web.pdf

Up until 1997 I maintained special computer applications to support the contract to supply software for the onboard computers for the Space Shuttle. I keep this page so that when someone asks what I used to do, I can tell them to look at my web page for details instead of talking for 5 minutes before realizing that they do not understand what I am talking about. Anyone capable of understanding, or at least appreciating what I do, is usually capable of reading it here.

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Al Worked at Iowa Student Loan

Iowa Student Loan is a non-profit that helps Iowa families find affordable ways to finance secondary education. Al worked as a Senior Software Devloper, mostly on the Java system to take Student Loan Applications over the web.

Al helped split off parts into microservices creating REST APIs to be used to communicate with other microservices. Used Java 8 (Amazon Corretto), groovy, Apache Tomcat, Spring-boot, Spring Framework, Hibernate, SQL, SQL Server, ActiveMQ, Javascript, HTML, XML, Json, Git, nodejs, maven, numerous other Open Source frameworks. Testing was done using junit, mockito, Spock, Fitnesse and Cypress. Used pair programming and Test Driven Development.

Al worked at Iowa Student Loan from May 2016 until August 2020.

Al Worked at TeamQuest

Teamquest was a small company selling comuter Capacity Planning and Server Performance monitoring software in Clear Lake, Iowa. It was bought by Help Systems soon after Al left.

Al develop and supported TeamQuest server monitoring agents, develop and maintain the database APIs between TeamQuest software and Oracle and PostgreSQL databases. Researched new technologies and plan how to incorporate or support them with TeamQuest software. Code was written in C++ running on Windows and several Unix/Linux platforms. Scaled Agile Framework methodology and continuous development and integration using Jenkins. Used some message passing rabbitMQ. Provided feedback to management on planning.

Al worked at Teamquest from September 2010 until April 2016 including time as a contractor.

Al Prosser later work history at EDS/HP

Most recently (May 2006 – March 2009) I was working for the EDS Program Office as a Software Metrics Subject Matter expert. I coached Project Managers and middle management on how to use metrics to support EDS software development processes.

November 2002 - May 2006 I was doing middle ware server side Java development for internet and intranet applications using Oracle, Java, and Struts. Also did some VB and Unix scripting in SQL Plus, CICS, and sometimes working on the systems from earlier (below).

July 2002- October 2002 - I was hired back as a temporary to work on some of the systems I worked on earlier.

From late October 1997 until October 2001 I was working at what is now EDS Business Process Management Customer Relationship Management Solutions Development, or EDS BPM CRM SD in Des Moines, Iowa. My most recent title was Information Specialist. It is intentionally generic.

Since mid-Summer 2001 I was doing maintenance to their customization of their Retek Order Management System, using PL/SQL and Oracle. When the process improvement effort was aborted in summer 2001, I took a quick PL/SQL course to refresh my memory since taking a course to use SQL Plus on mainframes a few years ago.

I am still a Software Configuration Management Subject Matter Expert, and in the first half of 2000 I was working on the Process Improvement team for the CRM Solutions Development organization (over 300 people at 5 sites). I was helping to develop and roll out common Configuration Management processes. I tailored the company standard CM Plan template so it could be used as a base for projects within the organization. I developed a checklist to make sure that CM Plans had minimal desired characteristics and acted as mentor for the local CM SMEs to be able to assist their own projects.

In the last half of 2000 I worked in a department that supports various third party software and spent some time developing training material.

In Summer 2000 I was a project manager for a disaster recovery test.

From late-December 1999 until mid-2000, I was working on improving efficiency of their mainframe system to reduce costs. I was also my own project manager and took PM training including MS Project.

Al Prosser earlier work history at EDS

From October 1997 - late 1999
I could not afford to work in the Space Program. I had already done just about everything there was to do in the department I was in. With Better, Faster, Cheaper, there was not much more for me to do, and not much room for advancement. I also needed to find a school system that was more up to date for helping children with communications difficulties.

The job offered to me was a contract to hire through Enterprise Systems Associates in Overland Park Kansas for EDS in the Information Technology department serving newly acquired Neodata. The company became part of EDS and was named Centrobe for Customer Centric Global Solutions. They do various kinds of customer service, order fulfillment, customer retention, magazines, and related services. They are now part of EDS Business Process Management and called Customer Relationship Management or CRM.

While I was still a contractor, I did maintenance, troubleshooting, and some enhancements on their order processing system, written in PL/I, JCL, and using IMS. I was mostly learning their application, a monster written in the early 1980s. There was nothing at the time that I could not have done 8-10 years earlier. I survived, showed that I could pick up and do the work, and became a regular EDS employee in June, 1998.

Since joining EDS, I have been gradually been using more of my skills.

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Where can you contact me?

E-mail

Current email alprosser19@yahoo.com

Home Page

http://www.alprosser19.com/