Personal Details
Mark photo
Name
Mark Lines-Davies
Nationality
British
Marital Status
Married with adult children
Address
KIngston, Surrey
Telephone
07818 095101
E-mail
mark@lines-davies.net
Qualifications
13 O-levels, 4 A-levels (Kings School, Chester)
B.Sc (Hons) Computer Science, 2.1 (Warwick University)
Preferred Location
City, Central London, Surrey, Berkshire, Hants
Summary
Mark is an IT professional with wide-ranging experience as a technical architect, developer and business analyst.
He has worked in a wide range of sectors including Travel, Banking, Broadcast, Government, Mobile, Pensions, Retail and Manufacturing, and also has extensive Software House experience.
Mark has specialised in distributed, multi-tier OO systems based on Windows technology since 1993. His skills and experience include:
  • Architecture, design and analysis for major clients such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Sony Broadcast, Defra and Dealogic.
  • 28 years OOA/OOP/OOD including C#, C++, Java, UML and BPMN.
  • Extensive middle-tier experience including Windows Services, Web Services/WCF, Web API 2, etc. Extensive traditional UI experience (WinForms, MFC), WPF/Silverlight and MVC 3-5.
  • 22 years RDBMS including SQL Server, Oracle and Sybase.
  • 20 years Internet experience including ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, XML, XSLT, HTML, Javascript, CSS, XSD, Schematron, VML, SVG, jQuery, Handlebars, Backbone and ELM.
  • Full life-cycle experience on over a dozen systems.
Recent Employment History
Oct 2012 - Aug 2018
Title
Software Developer (permanent)
Skills
.NET 4.5, C#/VB.NET, ASP.NET, VS 2013, SQL Server 2012, Redis, jQuery, NUnit, Castle Windsor, Backbone, Handlebars, MVC4, T4MVC, EF. Mercurial, Git/Stash/SourceTree, CCNet and TeamCity.
Responsibilities
Development work on TR's Flights Framework which is a distributed, service-oriented, multi-threaded C#/WCF/Web Api 2 framework using NHibernate and Castle Windsor that provisions TR's web sites with flights. Build of "flight provider" APIs for Olympic Holidays, Avro, Balkan Holidays, Norwegian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Sunway, Just Sunshine, Flybe and Air Malta via OTA-based WCF/web services & web scraping. Extending the APIs wrapping Ryanair, Thomas Cook, Thomson, Monarch, Aer Lingus, Jet2 etc to maximise product sales. Design and build of database Resource Provider subsystem to enable language internationalisation. Design and build of online complaints subsystem with Razor email templates; extending Customer Service issue handling; design and build of availability baggage pricing subsystem using RabbitMQ and WPF/MVVM.
Design and build of Flight Changes subsystem in F#: a multi-threaded rule-based automated email routing and manipulation service. New screens for internal website using ELM and JSON / Web Api 2. Unit & Integration Tests using Continuous Integration (TeamCity & Cruise Control) with Castle Windsor as an IOC for dependency injection.
 
Aug 2010 - Jul 2012
Title
Lead Developer (Contractor)
Skills
C# / .NET 4, Visual Studio 2010, ASP.NET/ASP, some MVC 3/Razor, WPF/MVVM/Prism, RESTful WCF, SQL Server 2008 & SSRS, Sybase 15, WiX. VSPackage/MEF/TPL. Jira, Confluence. UML via Sparx Enterprise Architect.
Responsibilities
Project #1: Team Lead on a contractor team working on the DealAxis suite of investment banking software for equity and debt capital markets, e.g. IPO bookrunning. User Interface, middle-tier and database development work (mostly on the fixed income side of the product), technical architecture followed by WPF/MVVM/Prism/WCF/SSRS development on a Diagnostics Reporting subsystem. Wix Installer for iConference, an extranet for IB conferencing.
Project #2: Technical Architecture and proof-of-concept development in MVC 3/Razor for iConference, followed by RESTful WCF server-side development
Project #3: Conversion of iConference to 64-bit. Development of a new Wix Installer for the main DealAxis suite of applications, including a managed code Wix Extension providing custom markup for extended IIS configuration and database-persisted properties for load balanced servers.
Project #4: Migrating a TSQL-based inhouse DB schema repository (autogenerating install/upgrade scripts for Sybase & SQL Server) to a new solution based on TFS with VSPackage/MEF extensions. WPF/MVVM, TPL, SMO, OpenXML SDK.
 
Oct 2009 - Aug 2010
Title
C# Developer (Contractor)
Skills
C#, .NET, Visual Studio 2005/2008, SQL Server 2008, Nant, Subversion, Cruise Control, Castle ActiveRecord, NHibernate, ADO, Jira, log4net. Multi-threaded Windows services & Winforms/WPF test harnesses. ASP.NET. Web services.
Responsibilities
Working closely with the Chief Architects to build the core services and supporting stored procedures for a new mobile 'provident loan' application for client International Personal Finance which will be rolled out to 27,000 users across Eastern Europe. Mainly multi-threaded middle-tier C# work on Windows Services and SQL development, with additional Web services and some GUI work: ASP.NET pages for SSRS security, Mobile/Winforms screens, and multi-threaded test harnesses in a mixture of Winforms and WPF.
 
Oct 2008 - Sep 2009
Title
Requirements Analyst (Contractor), at BSkyB in Osterley, West London
Skills
OOA/OOD, UML 2.0, BPMN 1.1, Sparx Enterprise Architect.
Responsibilities
Requirements analysis, workflow analysis and end-to-end process re-engineering using UML and BPMN, for the Studios and Post Production workstreams of Sky's H1 TFO project. This is a technical fit-out project to equip a new flagship building, Harlequin 1, with 8 broadcast studios and associated galleries, sound control rooms, edit suites, audio suites, new media production rooms, IT systems & networks, high volume DAM/MAM systems. This is currently the largest UK broadcast infrastructure project. Jointly facilitated requirements workshops with broadcast Architects, following up with 1-1 interviews with senior Sky staff, and workflow analysis on live News and Sport programmes. As-is and to-be Use Cases and BPMN workflow & process modelling from end-to-end, and assisting Design Engineers in producing technical specs via Enterprise Architect.
 
April - Sep 2008
Title
Architect/Developer (Contractor)
Skills
Visual Studio 2008, .NET 3.5, C# 3.0, VB.NET (VB9), ASP.NET, LINQ. SQL Server 2005 & Reporting Services (SSRS). HTML, Javascript. Infragistics. Jira.
Responsibilities
Development, refactoring and re-architecting the web version of SWG's flagship Facilities Management product, QFM, in C# &VB.NET. Redesign and rebuild of key webpages and underlying web services to increase stability, reduce page load time, add functionality, reduce outstanding bugs and give a consistent UI look-and-feel, whilst still producing fortnightly releases to key clients. Design and build of integrated charting & reporting suite using SSRS 2005.
 
Nov 2006 - Mar 2008
Title
Solution Architect (Contractor)
Skills
OOA/OOD/OOP, UML 2.0, Enterprise Architect. Visual Studio 2005/2008, .NET2/3 & C# 2.0/3.0, XML/XSD .NET Remoting & Web Services. Winforms. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS). WPF/XAML. BPMN & BPEL, SOA: OpenESB/Netbeans/Glassfish, Intalio/Ode/ServiceMix/Geronimo. WiX.
Responsibilities
Project #1. Requirements analysis, workflow analysis, documentation and high-level design using UML 2.0 (112pp) for an XDCAM/Petasite-based acquisition/archiving solution for Sony?s client RaceTech. The company operates OB trucks from UK racecourses, covering over 1400 race meetings per year.
Project #2. Requirements &workflow analysis, and high-level system design (236pp) for the refurbishment of ITN?s newsroom & master control room software including the rebuild of the core line/space/SNG booking system and integration of applications from BT, SISLink and Avid, via Web Services & .Net Remoting. Design & build in C# 3.0 of: migration utility (Oracle 8i to SQL Server 2005), database proxy generator, middle tier caching & refresh mechanism (via asynchronous web services), core UI, dynamic reporting, experimental 3D WPF prototype.
Project #3. Audit document (84pp) for ITN?s Digital Asset Management (DAM) archive system built by Sony, to determine whether DAM is operating within design limits. Supporting work including report building in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.
Project #4. Research document (90pp) for an internal strategy project aimed at defining a standard strategy for project architecture from 2010 onwards. Responsible for two layers: Business Process Automation / Languages (BPMN, BPEL, XPDL, WS-CDL, ebXML, BPSS etc) and Message Frameworks (SOA, ESB, etc). Evaluation of BPM/SOA stacks from IBM, Oracle, MS, Tibco, Sun, etc and open source stacks: Open ESB/NetBeans, Intalio with Apache Ode/ServiceMix/Geronimo, Fuse, JBoss etc.
Other work: oversight of architecture documents (in French) for proposal by Sony France to La Poste for large-scale digital signage system. Design and build of XDCAM control application for Italian broadcaster RAI. Design & build of Smart Documents system for Solution Proposal documents. Design & build of C# barcoding program for RaceTech.
 
Oct 2005 - Oct 2006
Title
.NET2 Developer (Contractor)
Skills
Visual Studio 2005. .NET2 & C# 2.0, Team System (VSTS). SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS). Scrum/Agile. WinForms. XML/XSD. WiX.
Responsibilities
Reports, process guidance, testing, utilities, installers for the Scrum for Team System plug-in for VSTS: download v1.1 at http://scrumforteamsystem.com/en/ . SSRS reports, e.g Sprint & Product Burndown, developed in C# 2.0 and SQL Server 2005. Utilities (project import/export, history loaders, n-tier demos, migration) in C# 2.0, WinForms, Web Services, ADO.NET. Installers in WiX. Design & build of Scrum Explorer, a VS Add-in providing a Scrum-oriented façade to VSTS. End-user support via scrumforteamsystem forum.
 
Nov 2003 - Oct 2005
Title
Project #1: Analyst/Designer on Exotic Disease Control System
Project #2: .NET Developer on Project Phoenix (import/export of endangered species under the CITES convention, plus licensing of wild bird keepers)
Skills
OOA/OOD using UML 1.5 via Select Component Architect 4.5 &Sparx Enterprise Architect. OOP using .NET, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET & WinForms, ADO.NET, XML/XSLT/WSDL/XSD/Schematron, .NET Remoting, Web services, VS .NET 2003. Win2003. VSS. ClearQuest. Security clearance.
Responsibilities
Project #1: UML Analysis and Design work (280+ use cases) on ExDCS, a new system for Exotic Disease Control (Foot & Mouth, Avian flu etc) for the State Veterinary Service. ExDCS is a 5000-user multi-tier distributed system based on an IE/ASP.NET front end, Web services, .NET middle tier, SQL Server 2000.
Project #2: Project Phoenix (ASP.NET/Web Services/SQL Server) for the Global Wildlife Directorate: comprising 430 ASP.NET screens. Lead developer on CITES Refactoring team (4 man team: 107 screens). Design & build of Payments subsystem. Refactoring of Reference Data subsystem. Build of UI for Bird Fates & Transfers. Build of middle-tier objects for Reports & Permits. Design and build of Plant Taxonomy subsystem.
 
Oct 2001 - Oct 2003
Title
Project #1: Business Analyst then Senior Developer (Contractor)
Project #2: Business Analyst/Technical Architect (Contractor)
Skills
OOA/OOD using UML with RSI (Requirements/Service/Interface) extensions, Visual Studio .NET 2003 (C#, ASP.NET, .NET Remoting, WMI), Rational Rose. Visual C++ 6.0 (MFC, ATL, STL), XML, XML schemas (XSD and Schematron), XSLT via Apache Xalan, Apache Xerces 2, Java (JDK 1.4), JBuilder 6, Tomcat, JSP, Jacob (Java/COM interface), Javascript, SVG, IE6. Visual Sourcesafe. Oracle 8i. SQL Server 2000. Clearquest. Windows 2000.
Responsibilities
Project #1: Requirements analysis, specification, architecture, design and implementation of an XML-over-HTTP interface between Sony?s MediaBroker suite (an automated playout/broadcast engine) and Antenne, a broadcast traffic system developed by Canal-Plus, the French television company. Implemented in Java under Tomcat, with Visual C++ DLLs using Jacob (a Java/COM jar).
Responsible for: requirements analysis and modelling using UML with RSI extensions; liaison with the client on-site (in Paris); development of XML schemas (XSD and Schematron) to define the Antenne-MediaBroker interface, MediaBroker?s interface with all future traffic systems, and Antenne's transport XML (via their EAI, Forté Fusion); class designs and architecture; liaison with Sony?s Solution Architects; implementation of business functionality in Java with a JSP interface; implementation of a lower level C++ layer to interface between the Java business classes and Sony?s existing MediaBroker database API, logging and notification services; implementation of an ancillary GUI for Asrun scheduling (in VC++) and a web-based test harness (DHTML, JSP, SVG).
In addition to Antenne Exchange, responsible for: the analysis, design and implementation of StateManager, a VC++ component used by the key parts of MediaBroker to manage the state of filing, purge and transfer requests; the analysis, specification and design of SyncRec, a VC++ server-side component to synchronise live recordings with playlist changes; the editing and retranslation of machine-translated specs by reference to the French originals.
Project #2: Requirements Analysis (Word, UML, Rose, 170pp) for a transformation project for Music Choice Europe (MCE), who broadcast music channels via Sky and 26 other networks. The project migrates a mixture of legacy systems & technologies onto a Win 2000/ASP.NET/SQL Server platform, producing a single company-wide system catering for all MCE?s IT needs. XML and .NET Remoting are used for inter-application data transfer. Responsibilities include: liaison with MCE technical, marketing and production staff, and senior management; and assisting Sony senior management in formulating the proposal document.
Produced a high-level Systems Design document (Word, UML, Rose, 111pp) for the MCE project based on .NET Remoting and using WMI for remote control and monitoring, and ASP.NET for all user interfaces; and an Acceptance Test Schedule document (106pp) to form part of the contract between Sony and MCE. Responsibilities include continued liaison with MCE technical staff and CTO, evaluation and proof-of-concept work in C#.
Other responsibilities (1 month in all): evaluation work in San Jose, CA, to transfer ownership of a VC++/MFC MOS-based(XML) news support system, ServerMirror, to Sony BPE, followed by bug-fixing and development work on ServerMirror for German client NDR.
In 2004, following the end of the contract, provided part-time consultancy to MCE, including C#/VC++/DirectX development work on migration utilities.
 
Feb 2001 - Sep 2001
Title
Product Integrator (Contractor)
Skills
XML, Java, JSP, Tibco iFinance servlets, ESL chart server, HTML/DHTML, Javascript, MS XSL 2.5, XSLT inc. Oracle DOM v2 (XDK), iPlanet & Tomcat web servers, JBuilder 4, Visual C++ 6.0, VSS, some Perl. Windows 2000 & NT.
Responsibilities
Product Integrator with sole responsibility for developing the UK Corporate Treasury Service, a subscription-only extranet for corporate treasurers.
Responsible for: all design and development of the system, working directly with business colleagues in Marketing Services. Liaised with SWAT (a departmental technical architecture function) and ASP ops (operations); liaised with TUI, a graphics design company, to establish the site's look-and-feel. Provided assistance to colleagues in Europe, to create German and Israeli versions.
Data feeds of news and quotes (Tibco) and charts (ESL) are manipulated via a mixture of client-side MS XSL and Javascript DOM processing and server-side XSLT, Java DOM, and taglib processing. Features of the system include a Forwards FX calculator (Java & JSP), personalisation (DHTML & Javascript & IE5 behaviours), and on-screen editing of Editorial, which is then FTPed via VPN to staging & Production via an ActiveX component (VC++/ATL/MFC).
 
Aug 2000 - Feb 2001
Xtempus, Drury Lane, London
Title
Senior Developer (Contractor)
Skills
Java, XML (Apache Xerces), XSLT/Xpath (Apache Xalan), WAP, WML, WBXML (encoded WML), JSP using Tomcat 3.2, JBuilder, Installshield (Multi-platform edition), Clearcase, various WAP phones. Win 2000. BugCollector Pro.
Position held
Senior Developer on the Xtempus Reach project: a customisable Java/XSL middleware component for use with Web servers and WAP gateways.
Responsibilities
Key responsibilities included the design and construction of the majority of customisable Java modules, including a key feature of the product: WML deck splitting. This encodes WML (into the WBXML that WAP phones receive) on the fly in order to determine if the deck will fit on the target device. If not, the deck is split automatically: the first part of the deck is returned to the target device and the other portions are cached, for later delivery.
Build of test Webs and example Webs, which are installed along with the product; liaison with technical authors to productise Reach; build of utilities, such as Xtempus WebTest, a proxy Web server with recording and playback facilities; and an installation program (via Installshield).
 
Aug 1997 - Aug 2000
Title
Technical Architect,1997-98, Senior Developer, 1999-00 (Contractor)
Skills
MS Visual C++ 6.0 (MFC/ATL), Windows NT, HTML, Javascript, XML, XSL, VML, ASP, Client/Server distributed systems, CORBA (Orbix), Rational Rose, OOA/OOD/OOP, Rational Objectory Process, UML. Oracle 7.3 & Sybase.
Responsibilities
Project #1: Technical Architect in the Corporate and Institutional Bank (CIB) within RBS. Re-engineering CIB?s systems around an architected, service-based distributed model using Windows NT. Started by evaluating and modelling all CIB systems. Following extensive liaison with CIB and Treasury project managers and the central Technical Strategy, Corporate Architecture and IT Services divisions, established a strategic technical and application architecture, and a migration plan for tactical systems. Evaluated competing technologies in use within the Bank, building proof-of-concept systems & eventually recommending a multi-tier architecture comprising browser, Web layer (IIS/ASP), Business Services layer (Orbix on NT), Data layer (Oracle on Unix).
Project #2: Senior Developer on Project Bridge, a strategic CRM system. Design and build of the Customer Service (a group of NT Orbix processes); a COM wrapper for ASP and VB access; consultancy for the data and UI layers. After roll-out in Sept 1999, design and build of further middle-tier components: XML-based Facilities & Utilisation Services, which interfaces to a Group Risk datamart with links to RBS mainframes and Treasury. Design/build of Customer Daily Positions intranet, using classic ASP and XML/XSLT/VML/CSS. Deputised for project manager; managed all roll-out work.
 
Summary of Earlier Career
1994-97
Citibank, Lewisham, London SE13. MS Visual C++ 4.2, MFC, Windows NT, Client/Server, OOSE/Objectory, OOA/OOD/OOP. SQL Server. Senior developer on RBCS (Regional Balance Control System): a pan-European multi-currency transaction approval system. Design and programming of business objects, component library, GUI and Report Server; liaison and planning with user representatives; establishing C++ standards; deputising for Project Manager.
1993-94
Centre-file Ltd, London EC1. MS Visual C++ (1.5, 2.0), MFC, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Rumbaugh methodology, OOP and OOD. Documentation to BS5750. Set up a company-wide Object Library for Centre-file, a subsidiary of NatWest. Designed and built OlyView, a graphical Windows object repository and automated documentation tool for VC++, VB and OLE objects. Released as a packaged product by Centre-file's successors as Object Publisher.
1990-93
Hand Held Systems Ltd, Marlow. Microsoft C, Glockenspiel C++ and CommonView, Penright Pro, Codebase, OOP and OOD. Technical Director. Design/build of first UK pen-based system for Estate Agents, shown on Tomorrow's World 1991. Rights sold to Birmingham Midshires Building Society, 1992; later became IBM Easymove. Management of small team.
1986-90
Towers Perrin Forster & Crosby, Inc. London, Woking, Newbury. Lattice C, Dbase III+, DOS, OS/2. Design and build of Pensions Administration system for over 60 client schemes. Management/mentoring of small team.
1983-86
Lambart Retail Systems Ltd, Maidenhead. Basic, DOS. Product Development Manager, with small team. Design and build of first UK point-of-sale system to link PCs and cash registers (Casio 7100).
1979-83
Application Programming Techniques Ltd, London. VAX/Basic, Basic+, VMS, RSTS. Retail Systems. Inventory Management and Production Control. In-house ISAM for RSTS. In-house text editor for programming.
1977-79
SPL International, London. RTL/2, PL/I, MVS, MVT, DOS/VS. In-house RTL/2 compiler development. QA programs at IBM Greenock, Scotland. Banking programs at Morgan Guaranty, Stratford, East London.
1976-77
Cadbury-Schweppes, Bournville. Cobol, OS/VS1, VSPC. Nominal & Purchase Ledger, Fixed Assets.