WebSphere MQ Developer
IBM
Aug 2003 – Jun 2007
I worked in Test, Development and Level 3 Service teams on WebSphere MQ – “middleware” software used by enterprises for the reliable, secure and scalable transfer of data across disparate networks.
Development
I worked on enterprise level real-time software across the full software development life cycle.
I was actively involved in user-centred design sessions with a variety of customers during the development of WMQ v6. This was an iterative process of collecting feedback, reviewing and amending WMQ design, and presenting amended implementations, within a short timescale.
I was also a developer of the WMQ Explorer – a Java-based graphical user interface tool for the administration, management and problem determination of large-scale corporate networks.
System Test
I worked as a test engineer on WMQ. This included:
Developing tests for new features – Designing, documenting, automating and scripting tests for new features in WebSphere MQ from a holistic, system-wide perspective. In particular, considering different hardware and software environments, different workloads and stress levels, and exception and startup/restart handling.
Maintaining regression tests – Maintaining, reviewing and extending the regression test suite for WebSphere MQ.
Developing test infrastructure – Developing the in-house test automation tools, including maintaining and extending the Perl-based Stress Test framework and developing a new interpreter for scripting MQ tasks written in C.
Document Reviewing – Reviewing new documents and revisions made to WebSphere MQ manuals.
“Level 3” Technical Support
I worked as a service engineer, providing advice, support, and code fixes for corporate customers using WebSphere MQ.
This was a Senior Service Engineer role, which meant that I was responsible for driving the resolution of customer technical problems, providing support for IBM customers in a 24/7 Service team, including call-out for urgent and critical situations.
This spanned technical problem investigation to the development and provision of software fixes.
My SupportPacs
I developed a number of successful applications to support WMQ as personal projects, which IBM initially released as freeware before later formally adopting them.
Department blog
I started and coordinated the department blog, and wrote dozens of popular technical posts used by our customers to help administer and diagnose their systems.
More info…
I’ve mentioned WMQ several times on my blog. The official site for the product is on ibm.com.
Reason for leaving
I was invited to join a new team being established in my office, for the development of a different software product which I had no experience in (WebSphere Process Server) on a platform I had no experience in (z/OS mainframes). After nearly four years focusing on one product, the challenge sounded like fun.
