| A modern computer executes billions of instructions per second and stores billions of data bytes. | You need a system developer who can make each instruction and each byte correct. |
Themes of a Career
Documentation Experience
Software Development Experience
Management Experience
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BGTask LLC documents, supports, and builds computer software and systems, emphasizing Microsoft Windows applications. We have extensive experience with pension systems and dealing with complex business rules, calculations, and data. Our experience is the experience of our owner, Martin L. Buchanan.
In 35 years of computing experience, I have emphasized best practices, software as a literary work, and supporting business needs.
Best practices means that we study continually to keep up with software engineering techniques and tools, via books, journals, and online information. It means looking for the universal rules of good software development, as well as mastering the technical details of each language, operating environment, and problem domain.
Software as a literary work means that good software must be comprehended by many human beings as well as many machines. User interfaces, design documents, code comments, and code itself should all be designed for easy and reliable understanding by users, developers, and other stakeholders. Literate software leads to major reductions in software maintenance costs.
Supporting business needs means following the same commonsense rules that apply to every other part of business. Deliver reliable products on schedule or early, meet budgets or spend less than budgeted, spread knowledge around the team so nobody is indispensable, work well with others, and focus on those technologies that add the most value for the enterprise.
12 years as a full-time technical writer or manager of technical writers. Wrote several operating system and microprocessor manuals, a C programming language reference manual, and an introduction to an object-oriented system architecture, totaling more than three thousand pages of documentation. Managed teams of writers and briefly managed a 30-person technical publications department. Recruited and trained writers, created and enforced standards, did extensive copy-editing and structural editing, wrote and reviewed publication plans, and defined documentation requirements with our users. Have written magazine articles, public policy papers, and one non-technical book. Have written software requirements, many software specifications, and extensive internal documentation of API's and data structures when working as a software developer.
20 years as a full-time software developer or technical lead. For 13 years built, enhanced, and supported multiple enterprise pension administration systems using a three-tier architecture, C++, and SQL Server. Took lead or senior developer roles in every part of the software development life cycle, from requirements through implementation and support. Identified and documented system requirements, business rules, and calculation rules. Wrote complex financial calculators in C++. Worked in teams of five to 75 associates. Developed coding standards and standard libraries. Carried out a successful international outsourcing project. Created a 400-book technical library for software developers. For the last two years worked on five systems concurrently as technical lead or senior developer.
In seven years of prior software development experience, created simulations in FORTRAN, embedded military systems in assembly language, process control systems in Pascal, PL/M-80, and assembler, and operating system program examples in Ada. Also built two-tier client-server systems using Microsoft Access and SQL Server.
Earned multiple Microsoft certifications (for 32-bit Windows products): MCSD, MCDBA, and MCSE.
6 years as a team lead or technical lead, three years leading writers and three years leading software developers. Set standards, recruited writers and developers, designed and reviewed work products, set schedules, and estimated costs. The associates whom I trained have often gone on to be managers, technical leads, and software architects themselves.
BGTask LLC
545 Broadway #31
Denver, CO 80203
MartinLBuchanan@gmail.com