Richard Harriss

• Software development team management, including hiring and training new team members, setting goals and objectives, and ensuring that the team is working effectively and efficiently.
• Lead, mentor and manage a remote software development and QA team of ten based in Romania, providing technical guidance, performance management, and career development opportunities.
• Overseeing the entire software development process, including planning, design, development, testing, and deployment, ensuring that projects are completed on time, within budget, and meet the required quality standards.
• Providing technical leadership to the development team, helping to guide the technical design and implementation of software products, and ensuring that the code base is of high quality.
• Liaise with account managers for the external development team, agreeing budgets and sign-off with Finance Director.
• Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in software development and incorporate them into the development process.
• Track and use Key Performance Indicators to measure, improve and report on the performance of the development team. Regular monitoring and analysis of metrics such as cycle time, lead-time, team utilisation, team productivity, throughput, code quality, incidents and project timelines, to identify areas for improvement and to make data-driven decisions. Responsible for communicating the KPIs to the team, setting goals and targets, and implementing strategies to achieve them.
• Ensure that the development team is working in an agile and collaborative way. Implementing and refining agile methodologies and continually improve the ways of working, working closely with other departments to ensure that the software development process is aligned with business goals.
• Collaborating with other stakeholders such as Product Owner, Product Marketing Manager, IT Manager and Customer Support Manager, to ensure that software products meet business goals and customer needs.
• Identify and mitigate risks in the software development process to ensure that projects are delivered successfully.
• Continuous improvement of the software development process, including identifying areas for improvement and implementing best practices.
• Create a culture of code quality within the development team and establish processes and tools to ensure that the software meets the required standards.
• Establish processes and tools to identify, prioritise, manage, communicate, and prevent technical debt.
• Ensure that technical documentation and specifications for the software products is developed and maintained.
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, empowerment, and continuous improvement within the team.

Achievements:

• Led project to create the first public-facing API for the business, allowing customers to access their data for integrating into 3rd-party systems. Included creation of Swagger documentation and a Postman collection, and presentation of project to board members.
• Drove the transition of the development team from delivering quarterly releases to monthly releases, improving efficiency and time-to-market and aligning deliverables with customer and business needs.
• Co-led a project to redesign and rebuild two existing mobile applications, transitioning from Xamarin to React Native. Responsibilities included recruiting additional developers from an external vendor, integrating them with the existing team, and managing day-to-day operations.

• Responsible for the high level of output of the development team, aligned to key business objectives, providing context, setting expectations clearly, and acting as a hub for critical information.
• Designed and scoped software development projects, in conjunction with the Business Analyst team and other key stakeholders in the business.
• Excellent people manager, helped engineers develop their careers, mentored and evolved their skill levels and implemented professional development plans.
• Communicated cross-functionally and drove engineering efforts.
• Lead technical discussions with strategic influence, driving key decisions and outcomes.
• Operated in an active, constantly evolving environment, adapting quickly to new information and re-prioritising as needed.
• Developed, implemented and enforced coding standards.
• Collaborated with all other departments and stakeholders within the organisation, providing solutions to their requirements in a timely manner.
• Drove the redevelopment of legacy applications to reduce the technical debt of the organisation.
• Developed new applications, features and integrations that met functional requirements.

Achievements:

• Migrated Hochanda's iOS and Android mobile applications from Xamarin to MAUI, modernised the UI and added new functionality, resulting in an increase of new customers to the business.
• Delivered updates to the company e-commerce website that contained new functionality to allow customers to better manage their accounts, payment preferences and transactions.

• Head of IT Department at Hochanda, responsible for all aspects of IT within the business.
• Managed team of between 5 and 12, covering development, web design, testing, database and technical.
• Also acted as Development Manager, introduced Agile processes such as 2-week sprints and daily stand-up meetings to improve productivity, planning and reporting.
• Key knowledge holder for internal system, including e-commerce website, web API and database.
• Worked closely with other departments and stakeholders to ensure that required functionality was delivered in a timely manner, streamlining and improving business processes where possible.
• Mentored team members and managed their personal development and training goals by setting measurable targets, reviewed regularly.
• Encouraged collaborative teamwork approach so that every voice was heard and ensured all team member contributions were noted and appreciated.
• Reported to the Managing Director, liaised with other Senior Managers and stakeholders to ensure the needs of other teams were met from an IT perspective.
• Supported internal users with their IT requirements and issues.

Achievements:

• During company buy-out of competitive business in 2022, managed IT integration of customer data, e-commerce website and branding within an extremely restricted 6-week deadline.
• Managed multiple successful releases of e-commerce website used by 450k customers.
• Lead development project to implement 3DSv2 standard for payment processing, adding additional security to e-commerce transactions and meeting strict regulatory requirements.
• Improved reputation of IT team within the business through direct communication with other departments and colleagues using an open-door approach.

• Managed a team of between 3 to 5, both locally and off-site, that developed and maintained multiple products written in ASP.NET MVC, Delphi and Python on various platforms.
• Mentored team members, provided advice and guidance, assisting with development hands-on where required.
• Provided on-site software installation and training for customers when required in various locations throughout Europe and the USA.

Achievements:

• Managed re-engineering of flagship product to support additional database back-end, refactored code, improved user interface and overall design, performance, and usability.
• Adopted Agile methodology for project management using Jira, holding daily scrum meetings with remote Senior Development Manager.

• Managed a team of between 3 to 6 developers responsible for all Windows/AIX/Linux based products within the business, including both on-site and external contractors where necessary.
• Worked closely with customers to determine requirements and establish key deliverables.
• Provided pre-sales technical consultancy where required, assisting the sales team in product demonstrations on-site to customers at all levels as well as writing bespoke development proposals.

Achievements:

• Principal architect of multiple business-critical systems management and monitoring solutions, used by many Fortune 500 organisations and managed service providers in multiple countries.
• Designed and developed end-user reporting application based around custom data warehouse, part of a project that resulted in the successful completion of a $100,000 order from a large American enterprise customer.
• Worked on numerous products on the Windows, IBM i and AIX platforms using both C#/ASP.NET MVC and Delphi.

• Responsible for managing all computer hardware and software.
• Provided technical support to staff and shop-floor users.
• Maintained and enhanced IBM AS/400 BPCS MRPII software using RPG, making numerous custom modifications to the package.

• Part of a help desk team that supported users of a large IBM AS/400 in the UK and across Europe.
• Responsible for documenting errors, corrected RPG code where necessary and worked with other members of the support and development team.
• Liaised with internal users in various countries.
• Acted as cover for the PC Support Specialist, assisting users with hardware, software and networking issues.

• Assisted colleagues in all aspects of their use of computers, including hardware and software installation.
• Wrote training documentation for maintenance engineering applications.
• Worked as first line help desk support for all computer users.
• Part of a team that selected the IBM AS/400 and BPCS MRPII software.
• Self-trained in RPG programming language in order to tailor and update the BPCS software to fit company requirements.

• Responsible for the preparation of computers prior to delivery.
• Installed and configured software and provided on-site user training.
• Worked with sales team to demonstrate computer hardware and software.
• First-line customer support both over the phone and on-site.