CHRISTOPHER L. HAMMONS

3004 Canyon Rd

Chaska, MN   55318

(952) 201-7096

www.communitychoicellc.com

 

 

CAREER SUMMARY

An entrepreneurial minded software engineer with extensive experience in Microsoft tools especially VB 6.0, VB.NET, ASP and vbScript.  Worked in law enforcement, retail, e-commerce, and telecommunications industries.  Acted as a software consultant and project lead.  Specialty is configuration management.

 

Ideal position is a key member of a development team in an organization that is committed to improving or automating work flows between business owners, support, development, quality and deployment teams.

 

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Development Skills: Visual Studio, VB, VB.NET, ASP, ASP.NET, vbScript, CSharp (C#), XML, XPATH, XSLT, Web Services, HTTP, DevXpress, Verity, LDAP, MQ Series, VC++, MFC, Java, jScript, IBM C-Set, Borland C, SCO C, Visual Interdev, Pascal, Perl, VXRexx, LEADTOOLS

 

Database Skills:  SQL Server, Oracle, Access, Btrieve, DB/2, dBASE, ERWin

 

Version Control and Build Tools: VSS, Perforce, Cruise Control, My Generation, nAnt, CCC / Harvest, PVCS and Configuration Builder

 

Process / Methodologies / Testing & Deployment Tools:  SCRUM, nUnit, FIT, Fitness, Install Shield, Wise, JUnit, Telnet, pcAnywhere, RTPatch, Virtual PC, XcelleNet

 

Platforms:  COM, dotNET, Windows, DOS, Solaris, Unix, OS/2, Telxon (Embedded System)

 

While at Best Buy completed 80 hours of VB.NET and ASP.NET classroom training.

 

While at BORN received SmallTalk training and earned certifications in VB and MS Windows architecture.

 

 

The following graph shows length of work experience in key skills.

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Community Choice, LLC                                                     11/2004 – Present

PO Box 15,   Chaska, MN 55318

 

Independent Consultant

 

United Health Group                                                                    4/2008 - 7/2008

·         Fully accountable for stability and enhancment of entire learning management web site applications and servers for all employees using ASP, ASP.NET, VB.NET, VBA, vbScript, JavaScript, XML, Stored Procedures, SQL Server, Visual Interdev and Visual Studio.

·         Integrated web site application with Office applications Outlook, Excel, and Access.

·         Found inovative solutions to long standing problems resulting in much quicker development and automation of manual tasks.  (Removed need for Excel on server and automated HTTP downlaod and import of Excel file)

·         Identified issues, communicated recommendations, and implemented solutions to improve database and server performance.

·         Accountable for testing strategy and working within change management guidelines for implementing changes to database and website applications.

 

Boston Scientific                                                                          1/2008 - 1/2008

·         Completed software changes for a deflation tester ahead of expectations.

·         Project involved real time monitoring of volume, pressure and other inputs, controlling valves and charting results.

 

TCGRx                                                                                       1/2008 - 1/2008

·         Hired to do a C# code review , find issues and access their development  process.

·         Traveled to Lake Geneva, WI and created comprehensive trip report with source code and process recommendations.

 

Masys Positron 911                                                                 11/2004 – 12/2007

·         Developed Records Management and other software for law enforcement agencies.

·         Maintained and enhanced massive proprietary framework written in VB6, VB.NET, MS SQL Server.

·         Rich Screens generated with My Generation and XML, DevXpress and custom controls.

·         Data objects and many base classes using Object-Relational Mapping, My Generation and XML.

·         Exported XML and performed multilevel validation before sending to Web Service.

·         Mastered the National Incident Based Report System (NIBRS), a comprehensive set of rules for exporting crime statistics to the FBI.

·         Improved the development processes by implementing SCRUM, Cruise Control, Perforce, nUnit driven development, FIT and Fitness automated testing on Virtual PC environments, continuous builds, continuously releasable source code mainline, and pair programming.

 

Thomson West Publishing                                                            2/2006 – 8/2006

·         Sole technical support for resource allocation and forecasting web based reporting system.

·         Programmatically generated Excel spreadsheets in ASP and vbscript with both SQL Server and Oracle data sources.

·         Impressed client with significant performance gains on some reports.

 

 

Best Buy Enterprise                                                          11/2000 – 4/2004

7601 Penn Ave S.   Richfield, MN 55423

 

At Best Buy I had three different positions starting as a Project Lead and ending with Senior Developer.  A brief summary follows.

 

Senior Developer in the Software Engineering Center of Excellence    2/2003 – 4/2004

 

As a team member of Best Buy’s internal software consulting organization I was required to juggle a wide variety of projects and to be skilled in many Microsoft technologies.  Projects included:

 

·         Several Telxon handheld barcode scanner related efforts.

Created design documents and implemented changes primarily in MS Visual C++ 6.0 and Wise installer language.  The scanner communicated with a store server through a telnet session and in turn corporate servers through a variety of means.  I coded new MQ Series channels, direct SQL connections and finally a simple web service.  I coded the server side of the web service in ASP.NET, vbScript and inline SQL.  The C++ client simply called a COM object to do an HTTP post of text data.  I also wrote MS SQL Server stored procedures for some queries.

One of the Telxon projects required implementation of a user login and timeout feature.  User authentication was done with LDAP and authorized by sending job codes a corporate Retek process over MQ Series.  The user was asked to log back in if a time amount specified in the Windows system registry had passed.

Another Telxon project involved replacing the scanner and wireless label printer hardware.  Several printer commands had to change as well the method used to link and capture the printer.

·         Found and corrected a Microsoft VC++ 6.0 bug that showed up after upgrading platform to Microsoft Windows 2000.  Volunteered to help solve this show stopping problem of a critical project while still meeting obligations of other projects.  Was the only person in the Center of Excellence qualified and willing to do it.  I did what it took to save the day.

·         Worked to decommission a corporate application and database server.  This server was a single point of failure for many store and sign system applications.  This required coordinating with several teams and digging into the code of the applications and stored procedures.  Fixed several Microsoft VB 6.0, VC++ 6.0 and SQL Server stored procedure bugs.  Also modified many Wise installer scripts.

·         Quick delivery of a Gift Registry experiment written in ASP.NET and VB.NET.  Because this was an experiment we needed to complete this project from drawing board to pilot in two weeks!  Was primarily responsible for store code used to scan gift items and send data to corporate.  Since the stores are not running the .NET framework I used VB 6.0 and HTTP POST to send XML data to the .NET corporate server. Stored procedure development for a large enterprise wide project.  Worked with DBAs and Data Architects while coding MS SQL Server 2000 stored procedures for about a month.

·         A simple intranet application to send messages to stores.  Coded HTML and ASP pages using Microsoft Visual Interdev and SQL Server.

·         Developed an experimental Microsoft Access 2000 database application used to trade in old electronic equipment at the point of trade.  This application used many of Access’s advanced relational views and grids.

 

 

Developer on the bestbuy.com Stabilization Team.                       1/2002 – 1/2003

 

·         Responsible for ensuring 24/7 operation of the bestbuy.com websites.

·         Primary point person for all Verity search engine issues and order fulfillment.

·         Wrote MS SQL Server queries to perform data corrections.

·         Provided troubleshooting, fixes and enhancements for Visual Basic, ASP and SQL stored procedures.

 

 

Project lead in the Release Management department, bestbuy.com. 11/2000 – 1/2002

 

·         Responsible for implementation of CCC / Harvest version 5, an advanced configuration management and workflow modeling tool.

·         Coordinated and documented change process flows of many groups including Release Management, Build and Deployment, Quality Assurance, ePublishing, Development and the business teams.

·         Designed, documented and helped code forms and processes in HTML, VBScript, Java Script, Java, Perl and Oracle Triggers.

·         Created training program and presented to developers and other users.

 

 

Net Perceptions, Inc.                                                        7/1999 – 10/2000

7700 France Ave S.   Edina, MN 55435

 

Senior Software Engineer at a real-time personalization and precision marketing software company.

 

·         Coded server side Java modules for an e-commerce personalization manager and real time marketing tool.  Also participated in the product’s design which made extensive use of XML to translate business rules defined by marketers into executable Java code.  Target platforms were Solaris or NT and MS SQL Server or Oracle.

·         Worked on personalization product for call centers written in Visual Basic and Visual C++.

·         Wrote NT installation package for an e-commerce recommendation engine using Install Shield.  This involved seamlessly integrating several external and internal products through OEM interfaces.  Extending Install Shield was necessary using Visual C++.

 

 

BORN Information Services                                                 6/1994 – 6/1999

294 East Grove Lane, Suite 100   Wayzata, Minnesota   55391

 

Consultant for a company known for the most sophisticated staff in the region.

 

Several miscellaneous clients                                                       3/1998 – 6/1999

·         Visual Basic developer for a health care management company.  This client used Oracle to perform advanced data replication.

·         Extended Visual Basic using COM and Visual C++.

·         Used LEADTOOLS and Visual Basic for advanced image processing.

·         Acted as a version control and process management consultant for a health insurance company.  Wrote a “white paper” titled “Visual Source Safe Procedures” and was recognized as a key resource in version control management.

 

 

Cenex / Land O Lakes                                                                 4/1996 – 3/1998

·      Contributed to the development of AgriSource, a POS / Inventory Control and Decision Aid System for Agronomy Centers.

·         Developed a scalable (Access or SQL Server) three-tier architecture multiple SDI framework.

·         Designed much of the data model using ERWin and coded much of the data layer using Access and DAO.

·         Utilized Visual Basic and Windows 95 / NT 4.0 to it’s limits, making extensive use of Active X client server technology, COM objects and custom controls.  The new 95/4.0 interface features were taken advantage of especially Explorer List and Tree View controls.  Sheridan’s Data Widgets third party controls were also used.

·         Developed Visual C++ 5.0 (MFC) data migration programs from legacy Btrieve / Pascal code.

·         Developed automated build, release and distribution procedures using Visual C++ 5.0 (MFC), Visual Source Safe 5.0, pcAnywhere and RTPatch.

 

 

Deluxe Corporation                                                                     6/1994 – 6/1996

··    Developed OS/2 applications in C, VXRexx and DB/2 for a Plant Order Management System (POMS) which eliminated redundant data entry and other manual tasks.

·      Designed and developed programs using client/server methodology that communicated which each other via APPC, semaphores, pipes, queues and shared DB/2 tables.

·         Evaluated Configuration Builder, a system build utility that integrates with Intersolv's version control software, PVCS.  Prepared and presented persuasive demonstrations and training which resulted in Deluxe adopting the utility on a company wide basis.

·         Developed and maintained build scripts using Configuration Builder and PVCS.

 

 

Funco, Inc.                                                                                                               9/1993 - 6/1994

10120 West 76th Street

Eden Prairie, Minnesota   55344

 

POS Programmer for a rapidly expanding retailer of new and used video games.

 

·      Maintained and developed C code for Surpass, a specialty store POS system originally written by Dataserv (a Bell South company) in conjunction with Post Software International (PSI).  Surpass required strong knowledge of inter-task messaging, concurrent processes, DOS, PC LAN and asynchronous remote communications.

·      Primary person responsible for XcelleNet, a sophisticated communications and polling package running under OS/2.

 

 

System Management Software, Inc.                                                                   8/1992 - 9/1993

2845 North Hamline Avenue, Suite 231

Saint Paul, Minnesota   55113

 

Software Engineer for a growing telecommunications software and consulting company.

 

·      Used C to develop UNIX, XENIX and DOS custom data gathering, processing and PBX reporting programs.

·      Integrated PBX and PC hardware through the use of Digi-Boards, modems and custom software.

·      Developed documentation standards and implemented a Source Code Control System (SCCS) which resulted in an effective and efficient team environment.

·      Created user documentation and sales literature.

·      Met 3M requirements for correcting and enhancing a microfiche database system that linked to their reader/printer hardware.

 

 

University of Minnesota, Department of Chemistry                                               8/89 - 12/92

1300 South 2nd Street, Suite 549

Minneapolis, Minnesota   55454

 

dBASE Programmer for three stockrooms.

 

·      Developed inventory control systems and interface to central accounting while attending college full-time.

·      Received a promotion to lead an inventory control project which saved the department $25,000 in consulting fees.

·      Impressed department by meeting university dead lines ahead of schedule. 

·      Continued to provide system support as a consultant for several months after graduation.

 

EDUCATION

University of St. Thomas                                                                                    9/2004 - 11/2004

Minneapolis, Minnesota

FastTrac I – “New Venture” Business Training

 

University of Minnesota                                                                                        9/1987 - 6/1992

Institute of Technology

Minneapolis, Minnesota

B.S. in Computer Science

 

University of Wisconsin                                                                                       9/1986 - 6/1987

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Major: Management Information Systems (MIS)

 

Course work included database systems, networking, operating systems, parallel computers, economics and accounting.

 

OTHER

In May 2008, received the YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolos Community Hero Award for in part helping out with Camp Icaghowan’s Winter camping program.  I also founded and operate  www.godscountrycanoeing.com