Date of birth

• 9th July 1946.

Education

• Ashby de la Zouch Boys' Grammar School.
• Trinity College, Cambridge, reading Mathematics.

Qualifications

• BA degree (class 2.1 honours) in Mathematics.
• BS5750 Internal Audit Certificate.
• TickIT Auditors' Training Course (continuous assessment and written examination).

Assurance of Professionalism

My qualifications and experience are recognised, and my conduct is regulated, through professional affiliations in:

• Quality Management: Institute of Quality Assurance member,
• Software: Chartered Engineer and British Computer Society member, and
• Scottish software business community: Member of ScotlandIS - the trade body representing the digital industries in Scotland.

1992 - Present: Software Quality Consultant

Consultancy in software quality management for computer software companies. Advice to clients on:

• Application of formal quality assurance (including ISO 9000/ TickIT) to computer software development.
• Documentation, Quality Manuals and Procedures - covering structure, format and essential content requirements.
• Specific Quality Management techniques such as Requirements Specification, Reviews and Configuration Management.

Quality Audit of Client's Process and System against the requirements of ISO 9000 or other client-specified target:

• Reporting strengths and weaknesses of client's Quality System.
• Recommendations on audit results and joint development (with client) of quality improvement plans.

Advice to client management on resolution of specific quality problems affecting processes or products, as requested by client.

Preparation and delivery of presentations and courses (including Quality and ISO 9001 overview and Internal Audit training).

Keeping up with the state of the art by background reading in quality management and software engineering, membership of professional bodies and by attending courses in:

• BS 5750 Internal Audit,
• TickIT Audit,
• Visual Basic Programming,
• Introduction to Java and
• Introduction to DSDM.

Carried out survey of Quality Management in the Scottish Software Industry and published report (at own initiative).

Membership of Quality Group of Scottish Software Federation, helping organise events to improve Quality awareness in the software industry.

1983 - 1992: Office Workstations Limited, Edinburgh - Designers, developers and suppliers of software products using "Hypermedia" technology

A founder member of the company, Director (until sale) and Secretary.

Quality Assurance Manager

• Introduced a basic quality system including planning, specification, implementing, testing, release, maintenance and support procedures.
• Planned and launched a full-scale quality programme. Established a Quality Committee. Involved management and staff. Supervised procedure writing. Wrote and published Quality Manual.
• Guided company through successful external quality audit.
• Attended formal training courses, read standard works on TQM and Software Quality, and pooled knowledge with other companies.

Test Manager

• Managed system testing of a new product. Planned and specified tests, organised staff, established procedures and advised on release.
• Jointly managed system testing of another major product. Introduced innovative methods to obtain better return on investment in testing.

Company Secretary

• Managed company's contracts, liaising with sales and company lawyers. Prepared standard contracts. Took part in negotiation. Handled contractual product liability and warranty issues.
• Assisted in sale of company to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Japan (owners of Panasonic and Technics brand names). Produced detailed response to purchaser's "due diligence" investigation. Liaised with company's lawyers over warranties, contract terms and documentation.
• Planned and delivered a training course for staff of a major customer.

1971 - 1983: ICL System Programming Division - Designers, developers and suppliers of computer hardware and associated software

Software Technology Manager (PERQ Workstation project)

Chief Designer (2966 DME/S4 emulation)

Designer/Implementer (2960 DME/S4 architecture)

Designer (Variable Computer System)

1967 - 1971: English Electric Computers, Bureau Division - Designers and developers of computer software application packages, and providers of computer bureau services

Team Leader (Interact 75 multi-access system)