Résumé of Phil Hill
© 1996-2006 Phil Hill
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ROLES
Throughout Phil Hill's 23 years of software development he has worked in only a few roles, though he has held many job titles. One company's Chief Technology Officer can be equivalent to another company's Product Manager.
Software Engineer 23 years
As a Software Engineer, Phil Hill has worked on the development team for dozens of software projects throughout their full lifecycles. Working with all sorts of customers, from the computer-illiterate to senior computer professionals, Phil has been responsible for the analysis and design of a wide array of products. Phil interfaces well with members of the sales and marketing staff, working on both pre-sales and post-sales support. He has earned a reputation for making accurate analysis and estimates, and designing systems that are efficient, powerful and easy to use. Phil works all the members of the project team, mentoring and coaching the junior members, interfacing and training the documentation and quality assurance specialists, and reporting to the project manager. Phil can also be a very effective one-man team, given the proper resources Phil can "lock him self in his cave" and come back with a well designed and debugged system several weeks later. Phil's co-workers often comment that is a pleasure to work with code designed by Phil; the code is logical, well organized and easy to comprehend.
Project Leader 11 years
As a Project Leader, Phil Hill has shown good leadership ability. He has a natural talent for assessing priorities and assigning people to different tasks. Junior programmers enjoy working with Phil because of the vast knowledge he able to share with them. Teams led by Phil work well together and get much more than average accomplished. The software industry is plagued by projects that go over budget and time deadlines, however Phil is usually able to deliver projects on time and under budget.
Software Manager 3 years
Phil is able to assume the added responsibility of being a Software Manager, though he maintains a "hands-on" approach to software development. Phil does a good job with the administrative work required to do a good job, though his talents are best used on the more technical aspects of the job.
Consultant 7 years
In order to be a successful Consultant, Phil had to assume all administrative and clerical responsibilities. Spending a large amount of time doing accounts receivable work, and looking for new contracts dramatically cuts the effective amount of Phil's output. Even with this tremendous handicap, Phil successfully ran his one-man consulting business for seven years, though he still wishes to this day that he could have hired an administrative assistant.
SKILLS
Tecnologies DHTML / XML / XSLT / CSS / ASP / IIS / DCOM / COM+
Phil has used dozens of different technologies throughout his career. Currently he focuses on Microsoft technologies (moving to the Microsoft.NET framework). He has written complicated application that work equally well in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Phil prefers to use DHTML and scripting languages over Java, Flash, Shockwave and ActiveX whenever possible, though he is proficient in these technologies.
Computer Languages Visual Basic / C++ / C# / JavaScript / VBScript
Phil likes to say, "I've forgotten more computer languages then most programmers know." Currently, Phil works on web-based products, so he spends most of his time writing code in scripting languages (JavaScript and VBScript) for both server side and client side programming. When scripting languages prove inefficient or underpowered Phil turns to COM objects and ActiveX controls. C# has become Phil's first language of choice for development of COM objects, ActiveX controls and standalone programs. Phil actually has more experience in Visual Basic, but he feels that Microsoft's new Visual Studio.NET gives C# the productivity of Visual Basic and the power of Visual C++ and the portability of Java (or, Phil hopes that Microsoft will deliver portability with C# where Sun has failed with Java).
Databasses Oracle / SQL Server / Access
Phil is an experienced database programmer, and his specialty is to design code that works independent of the back-end database. He has worked with practically all of the commercial database products, and is able to use many of the powerful features particular to a database while maintaining compatibility. Not only is Phil a database programmer, he has worked on the development team to produce a commercial database - which is used by hundreds of thousands of people each day.
Operating Systems Windows 95/98/Me & NT/2000/XP
Phil has worked in many different operating systems throughout his 23-year career. The most recent 11 years have been focused on Microsoft Windows (Windows 95/98/Me and NT/2000/XP). He has extensive experience in Unix/Linux and the PICK operating system, though a few years out of date.
WORK HISTORY
Senior Software Architect VFA, Inc. (South Boston, MA) 2000 -
  • VFA provides web-based software systems and business consulting services for professionals involved with facilities management. VFA pioneered the concept of Capital Planning and Management Solutions (CPMS) and is the premier provider of this innovative methodology for managing multiple-building property portfolios.
  • VFA's software products are written using Microsoft's ASP technology (JavaScript and VBScript), Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0, Component One's True DB List and Grid controls, Crystal Reports 8.0 and Microsoft InterDev. Databases used are Oracle (version 7 & 8), Microsoft SQL Server (7.0 & 2000) and Microsoft Access.
  • Phil Hill was the principal architect of VFA's long-range facilities planning (LRFP) tool developed for the NJDOE (New Jersey Department of Education). The LRFP is used by all school districts in New Jersey (approx 1300 users in over 600 districts). The LRFP worked in 5 phases: 1) "Existing Building and Site Inventory" gathers information about the current state of schools and buildings. 2) "Evaluative Criteria" gathers enrollment projections, and allows districts to create model or template schools. 3) "Existing Facilities Assessment" gathers information on rooms within the schools and evaluates the room against both the model school and the Federal Education Standards. Deficiency information about each building incorporated. 4) "Plan Development" allows the users to develop different scenarios and projects to repair existing deficiencies, build or demolish buildings or schools. 5) "Plan Submission" after developing different scenarios the districts selects a scenario for final submission and budget approval. Phil was the sole engineer assigned to the project, with the documentation and reports being outsourced.
  • Phil's second major project was the rewriting of VFA's core product "Facility." Facility version 4 was developed by a hodgepodge of internal engineers and outsourced contractors. The result was typical of such an approach, inconsistent interfaces and non-integrated code. Phil started the rewrite by developing a new client and server-side object library. The existing functionality was then converted to use the new framework, and many new features were developed. The result was a modular, well-organized and object-orientated product, which out performs its predecessor in both functionality and efficiency. After development of the core object library, two of VFA software engineers, a database specialist and an outsourced documentation specialist joined Phil working on the project.
Chief Technology Officer Filemark Corporation (Natick, MA) 1998 - 1999
  • Filemark was a software company specializing in enterprise records management, their product name is SMARTi (SMART Information), which included modules for imaging, COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk) automatic report distribution, media mastering (ability to take a snapshot of a portion of the database and indexed records and copy to a stand-alone viewer on a CD), and IFM (Intelligent File Management) - a service that moves and purges records according to scheduled retention criteria.
  • SMARTi runs on Windows 9X, NT 3.51 & 4.0. Is written in Powerbuilder 5.0 & 6.5, Visual Basic 5.0 & 6.0, Visual C 5.0 & 6.0, Install Shield 5.5, Kodak Viewer 1.1, Kofax Image Controls 3.0, IBM AFP Workbench 3.06, Pagetech PCLTool 5.1, Gentech Metacode 3.1. It supports Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server with direct database drivers and other databases through ODBC.
  • The first duty assigned was to hire a full development staff, (only one developer remained after a mass exodus of Filemark's development staff). Three engineers and two QA specialists where hired who then all reported directly to the CTO.
  • SMARTi has become a stable, controlled product with few problems, initially SMARTi was unstable, and uncontrolled with several "custom" versions at different customers sites (for which Filemark didn't have the source code for the customizations).
  • Imaging was re-engineered from a 16-bit minimum functionality product to a 32-bit full-featured product.
  • An API (Application Program Interface) was developed that allows SMARTi to integrate with other products (such as financials, or workflow)
  • Documentation for SMARTi was completed. When started documentation was 2 major versions (about two years) out of date.
  • The PCL print stream support for SMARTi was developed. Three major customers immediately installed and are using the PCL support now.
Chief Engineer / Architect MaxSol, Inc. (Concord, MA) 1997 - 1998
  • MaxSol's product was DbLive@web, a browser based ad-hoc query and reporting tool.
  • Written in Microsoft Visual Basic using the CGI interface of Microsoft Internet Information Server and/or Netscape Enterprise Server.
  • DbLive uses Dynamic HTML instead of Java or ActiveX, keeping MaxSol neutral in the wars between Sun, Microsoft and Netscape, avoiding massive downloads and security issues for the client.
  • Duties included design, development, debugging, documenting, customer support and quality assurance
  • Developed DbLive@web from "proof of concept" to a full-fledged marketable product in only four months.
  • Supervised MaxSol's engineering staff (3 people).
Consultant Miracle Computer (Framingham, MA) 1989 - 1997
  • Miracle Computer was the name of Phil Hill's consulting firm. Phil was in business for over 7 years performing many "Miracles" by solving problems and writing new software for a variety of clients.
  • Windows, DOS, Unix, uniVerse and many other software tools used.
  • Optimized a telemarketing software package that could originally support only 20 concurrent users to support over 200 concurrent. Within 90 days, desired performance levels were reached or exceeded, and my client's customer went from threatening legal action to becoming a reference site.
  • Found the cause of intermittent problems that causes a system that must be up 24/7 to lock up. It wasn't known if the problem was in Tandem's Beta version of Unix, Vmark's uniVerse, the client's application running under uniVerse, networking software, or DOS/Windows based software. The problem was isolated and fixed within three days.
Senior Software Engineer Vmark Software, Inc. (Natick, MA) 1984 - 1989
  • Vmark is a software company whose sole product was uniVerse, a post-relational database management system compatible with the Pick Operating System, Prime Information, Microdata (McDonnell Douglas), and Revelation. UniVerse is based upon the UPIX product purchased from Alfa Computer in '84.
  • UniVerse was written for the Unix operating systems in C, Yacc, and Lex. UniVerse supports a rich BASIC language, a user-friendly query language, and ProVerb powerful scripting language.
  • Vmark was founded in '84, and went public (NASDAQ) in '92. After several mergers and acquisitions Vmark is now doing business under the name Assencial Software, headquarters in Westboro, MA.
  • Phil was employee number 4 at Vmark.
  • Duties encompassed all areas of technical development, especially: development of the BASIC compiler and run-time, the ProVerb scripting language, performance enhancements, and porting to over 50 different hardware platforms.
Vice President Alfa Computer Enterprises (Buena Park, CA) 1983 - 1984
  • Alfa Computer Enterprises was an example of the proverbial "two guys working out of a garage." startup company.
  • Alfa designed and began development of a Pick-like DBMS environment to run under Unix, named UPIX.
  • Vmark Software bought Alfa Computer Enterprises and its principals in '84.
Software Engineer Dataworks Research and Development (Santa Ana, CA) 1981 - 1983
  • Dataworks is a custom software system reseller specializing in manufacturing and distribution systems.
  • Design, development, debugging, support to Dataworks technical staff, and documentation. Supervised three engineers and technical writers.
  • After salesman sold software that didn't exist, Phil was given 2 weeks to completely rewrite the Manufacturers Resource Planning system to meet the customer's specifications. After 2 weeks, my new MRP system was demonstrated and the customer signed (the largest contract Dataworks had ever landed) and commented that my MRP system was even better than expected.
  • Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Distribution System, General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets and Inventory Control.
  • Pick Operating System/DBMS, Pick/Basic, Pick/Assembler,
  • ADDS Mentor, Ultimate, IBM System/3, Microdata Sequoia, General Automation, and other systems, all running the Pick Operating System/DBMS.
Programmer / Analyst City of Irvine (Irvine, CA) 1978 - 1981
  • Design, development, debugging, end-user support and documentation of various software systems for the city.
  • General Ledger, Payroll, Revenue Reporting, Class Enrollment, Business License Tracking, Animal Registrations, Police Records, Police Detective Tickler Files, and others.
  • Phil was the senior programmer with 2 people under him. Systems were developed using a Microdata Reality and an Ultimate computer system, both running versions of the Pick operating system/DBMS.