Rich Allen

Current

CoFounder at LeaveWizard
Software Consultant at Fitness First Group Ltd

Past

Senior Web Developer at Immediacy
Software Team Leader at High Integrity Solutions Ltd
Software Engineer at High Integrity Solutions Ltd

Senior Software Engineer at Evtacon Productions Ltd
Senior Software Engineer at WRA Software Solutions Ltd
Software Manager at WRA Software Solutions

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Education

Bournemouth University

Recommended

16 people have recommended Rich

Connections

109 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Websites

Rich Allen’s Summary

An agile software developer with a passion for technology and the skills to deliver high quality applications on time and to budget. I am an advocate of design patterns and writing high quality maintainable code following agile principles by responding to change, delivering working software frequently whilst testing early and often in a collaborative and cooperative approach.

An experienced scrum master mentoring a range of different teams in agile development techniques and best practices but also have exposure to managing teams on waterfall projects.

An active community member and co-ordinator of the Next Generation User Group - Southampton which allows me to keep up to date with the latest technologies.

Rich Allen’s Specialties:

C# 3.0, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.5, ASP .NET, Linq, Design patterns, Agile methods, Scrum, Visual Studio Team System, Test Driven Development, WatiN, MS Test

Rich Allen’s Experience

CoFounder

LeaveWizard

(Human Resources industry)

October 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

Staff holiday planning made easy, LeaveWizard provides an on line leave management system that removes the pain and headaches associated with managing staff holiday.
Software Consultant

Fitness First Group Ltd

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

July 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)

Developing an enterprise ASP .NET membership management combined with Windows Forms Point of Service (POS) application combined with supporting configuration tools.
Development tools include VS2008, .NET 3.5, Linq, SQL Server 2005 , WCF, Composite UI application block.
Test driven development performing using Rhino Mocks, VS Test Edition and WatiN for automated web application testing.
Senior Web Developer

Immediacy

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

October 2006 — July 2007 (10 months)

I joined Immediacy as a member of the Professional Services team in a customer facing role responsible for gathering requirements, producing functional specificaitons, designing solutions and leading small teams of developers to implement solutions using an iterative approach.
After successful delivery of several short-term projects, I was selected to join the company's Core Product Development team to develop and enhance the company's flag ship product - Immediacy CMS a UK market leading Web Content Management system.
I am now a key member of this team playing a major role in the introduction of structured development processes using Agile development methods focused around Scrum. Technologies include Visual Studio Team System, C#, ASP .NET 2.0, AJAX, SQL Server 2005, Enterprise Library, CSLA and NUnit for unit testing.
Software Team Leader

High Integrity Solutions Ltd

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

November 2005 — October 2006 (1 year )

Responsible for managing and mentoring a team of 11 developers involved in all aspects of the software lifecycle whilst still maintaining a hands-on approach. The role includes creation and maintenance of project plans and I am also responsible for maintaining communication between other teams within the company including support, test and quality.
I have played a key role in the introduction of new agile management techniques including daily build and smoke tests, daily scrums, and iterative and incremental development.
I keep a keen eye on new technologies such as Microsoft Patterns and Practices Application Blocks and more recently .NET 3.0 technologies including Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Presentation Foundation.
Software Engineer

High Integrity Solutions Ltd

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

March 2003 — November 2005 (2 years 9 months)

I was a key member of the design and development team for the company’s flagship product, the “V” Design System - an innovative environment for the development of high integrity software applications. I was responsible for the development of a comprehensive XML based document generation application, which massively reduced document production time and is one of the major selling points of the “V” Design System. I was also responsible for the development of other windows forms and web applications which involved intensive use of XML technologies. Liaison with the primary client, a major aerospace company, also formed part of my role.
Senior Software Engineer

Evtacon Productions Ltd

(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

December 2001 — January 2003 (1 year 2 months)

Evtacon productions were the technology arm of MotionPoster PLC. I developed applications and tools to enhance the ‘MotionPoster’ product (moving image advertising in underground rail systems), including a Delphi 6 train simulator that interfaced with a custom developed hardware ISA board. The simulators provided a stable test bed allowing system calibration to further develop positional feedback algorithms.
I evaluated the .NET framework and ASP .NET as a potential technology for the production of a reporting system allowing customers to obtain online feedback of system statistics. Presented a proposed solution to management and gained approval for development.
I also developed the web based data reporting and document management system using ASP .NET, Web Services and ADO .NET, which provided clients with online access to train statistics. This included an automated email system, which aggregated weekly results and sent emails to configurable mailing lists.
Senior Software Engineer

WRA Software Solutions Ltd

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

November 2000 — October 2001 (1 year )

I returned to WRA Software Solutions Ltd after a trip to Australia. This role involved a closer correspondence with clients to analyse and design bespoke software. Responsibilities included overseeing a small software team together with production of project plans and analysis, design, implementation and testing of software systems. Projects included the integration of bar coding systems and stock control databases with the client’s existing accounts and stock control processes. Consultancy was also provided for the Environment Agency with regard to the Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) to help prepare for the introduction of new contaminated land regulations.
Software Manager

WRA Software Solutions

(Computer Software industry)

1999 — 2001 (2 years )

Rich Allen’s Education

Bournemouth University

2:1 BEng (Hons) , Microelectronics and Computing , 1996 — 1999

• Four-year course accredited by the IEEE.
• Covered practical and academic aspects of microelectronics in industry.
• Core subjects included software and hardware design using C, C++, Java, Assembly Language, VHDL and VLSI.
• Introduced development of real-time software systems using structured design methodologies such as Yourdon and UML.

Activities and Societies:

I was a member of the university badminton team and was voted most valuable player in my final year of study. I also took part in Zen Shorin Do karate lessons.

Additional Information

Rich Allen’s Websites:

Rich Allen’s Interests:

I have a keen interest in sleight of hand magic tricks using cards and coins. I like to socialise with friends and family. I enjoy gardening and DIY and I also enjoy going to Microsoft conferences to keep up to date with the latest technologies.