Logica-Aldiscon's main product was a Short Messaging System for mobile communications and they were a market leader in this domain. The SMS product had a huge engineering team and generated a revenue in the order of 100 million Euros per year. Initially on joining Aldiscon, I worked on bug fixing and testing of both the core SMS product and SMS applications. I then became involved in the design and development of SMS releases and for the last couple of years had been combining this role with that of an internal consultant.
In my time in Logica I became familiar with almost every aspect of the core SMS engine. I initiated, designed and performed major internal overhauls of some of the core product's weakest components. I designed, developed and tested several modules and contributed substantial technical input into others. I analysed performance on various components of the system using Rational's Quantify tool and made enhancements based on the results of this.
From the technical perspective, I worked on HP, Linux, Stratus and Tandem UNIX platforms. I developed in C/C++ and used most UNIX system features including the socket interface, TCP, semaphores, timers, shared memory and signal handling. I used debuggers (XDB, GDB and DDE) and Rational's Purify tool while developing, and this resulted in robust, bug free code.
With regards to databases, Logicas Telepath SMS could use both ORACLE and INGRES and I worked extensively with both interactive and embedded SQL. I also initiated and was heavily involved in the development of an automated test harness which can combine both a powerful scripting language called TCL and a source code debugger. I measured the test coverage of this harness using Rational's PureCoverage tool. I had used Perl scripts on occasions such as for the automation of a source code tidy-up procedure.
The development of the core messaging product required familiarity with mobile protocols such as GSM. It also required understanding of some of the WAP standards as WAP functionality was supported on the SMS using SMPP as the tunnel protocol. As Logica is ISO 9000 certified I am familiar with following a quality control process and have used the RCS, CVS, CCC and Continuus source code control systems. I have used both the DDTS and Remedy systems for the logging and tracking of bugs and have written product specifications and design documents which conform to internal standards.