Software Development Manager

I was a Software Deveklopment Manager at Walker Interactive for ten years. My group was started as a development SWAT team, responsive to Sales and Marketing’s short term needs.

My group worked on a project basis, building products and features that took around 6 months to build (from initial customer requirements to on-site installation). We frequently had multiple projects running at the same time. At any one time I was responsible for between 4 and 6 software developers, depending on project (including the use of off-shore resources for later projects).

During my tenure, I:

Started the group and pioneered methodologies that enabled a 6 month product life cycle (from conception to customer installation), compared to the 18 month life cycle of the full Walker product line
Brought seven products and features to market
Represented Walker at User Group meetings
Pioneered the use and distribution of 3rd Party Software as a VAR
Was responsible for the full product life cycle, from conception and initial requirements definition through the design, construction, QA and testing phases, to early customer installation and product release
Was a hands-on manager whose roles (which varied by project) included: Project Management; Business Analysis; Technical Coding; Documentation; QA; Instructor; Course Developer; Customer Support Analyst.

I was responsible for the following products and features:

Analysis Cubes, a financial reporting tool that allowed an accountant to drill down to multi-dimensional financial data (developed partly with offshore resources in India)
InfoView, middleware based on EDA/SQL (data warehousing, web based front-end)
WIN, an Essbase based financial reporting tool (WIN/TEL architecture – early adopters included Western Resources)
Responsibility Reporting, hierarchically based financial reporting (early adopters included Central Illinois Public Service and Canadian Forest Products)
Encumbrance accounting addition to the Procurement systems (early adopters included the Smithsonian, Memphis City Schools and the Tennessee Valley Authority)
Support for the Prompt Payment Act (early adopters included the US Postal Service and the Tennessee Valley Authority)
Expense Reporting addition to the Accounts Payable system