Ben Wheeler

I’m a freelance bespoke website developer. I design, create and develop websites for SMEs throughout the UK and Europe. I also get subcontracted by other agencies on a white-label basis.

I graduated in 2003 with a 2.1 BEng (Hons) degree in Electronic & Computer Engineering. After a few years developing Windows and Web based software for Agresso, I progressed to be QLSV4 Team Leader; I then moved on to Digital Virtue as Development Manager before starting Beach Software in 2008.

History

Digital Virtue Ltd
November 2007 saw me joining Digital Virtue, a web solutions company in Cardiff, as the Development Manager for the company. My role covers all aspects of the company, including:

• Software development of bespoke solutions
• Managing the technical infrastructure of the company
• Project management of the web solutions and customer liaison
• Personnel management of the development team

Agresso Ltd
The company is part of Unit4Agresso. It was formerly Distinction Systems Ltd which was part of MicroCompass. I was the ‘QLSV4 Team Leader’. I managed the QLSV4 product and nine developers.

I started as a trainee developer along with 8 other graduates in July 2003. We were brought in to convert an existing Student Management System written in Uniface 7 to Microsoft .NET 1.1 using VB.NET. We were put on an intensive Microsoft training course for 8 weeks and then let loose on the product. After four months I was promoted to a Systems Developer. I developed my skills in VB.NET, ASP.NET and Javascript. My knowledge of the product grew and I developed my skills in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and Oracle 9 and 10.

I was given responsibility for writing the standards documentation to ensure the new QLSV4 product met the ISO9001 standards. I was then audited on behalf of the company in a major audit and several minor audits as well. In June 2006 I started being given responsibility for managing the product, I was dealing with customers directly and organising the work for them development team.

This grew and I was unofficially promoted to the development team leader. In October 2006 I was officially given the title and we had a department re-organisation. As the development team leader I had responsibility for ensuring the work is delivered on time to the customers in releases that are set by senior management. I produced the internal development and testing builds and produced the actual release builds and installers.

I had direct contact with all customers but particularly those which are deemed critical or sensitive customers. One of the customers I was in contact with I managed to bring onside and had stopped them from moving away from our product. I am the main link between the rest of the company and the product development team, I organised how developers assisted other departments such as Support, Testing and Sales. As a manager of nine people I also ensured their welfare. I monitored individual and team performance and ensured both the company and the individual was achieving the best they could.

I had written many tools to assist in my management position, such as work analysis tools which analysed the amount of work assigned to a developer taking into account a weighting assigned to that person on productivity and it alerted me to people who are unlikely to achieve the goals set. Another tool I had written produced a report of referral analysis for the amount of times a piece of work has been failed by the testing department. This has had a massive positive impact, two of the nine developers reduced their referral rate from above 60% to under 15% everybody else was keeping their referral rate under 20% which has elevated a lot of work off the testing department.

BBC Transmission
During my first year at uni I was browsing the Internet and came across an advert by the BBC for ‘Summer Vacation Trainee Broadcast Engineers’ and I thought why not? I was accepted and spent 6 weeks at BBC Television Centre learning how the BBC Broadcast Engineers did their jobs, I learnt about how programmes were broadcast, Analogue Transmission, Digital Transmission and the BBC structure.

Out of the 12 trainees, I was one of 3 who was offered sponsorship for my second year of university. During my second year summer I spent another 6 weeks at BBC Television Centre learning about future developments (There was a demonstration of HDTV to the BBC bosses that summer) and how the satellite system worked. Again I was offered sponsorship for my third year at university.

I was offered a job as a Broadcast Engineer at the BBC when I graduated but declined as I didn’t think the London commuting life was for me. During my second year at university I discovered that BBC Children In Need was to have a section based in Portsmouth so I used my BBC contacts and went down there are learnt about how OB’s (Outside Broadcasts) worked (plus Philippa Forrester was presenting and I got to meet her and some pop bands).

Enext
Just before going to uni, another business venture of the pub owner was a local IT company called Enext. They had just had a new system installer as an upgrade to the existing system and I was asked if I would do the acceptance testing. Over 4 weeks I tested the new system and compared it to the old. It was an interesting experience, but I was glad it only lasted a few weeks!

University
I studied at the University of Portsmouth for a BEng (Hons) Degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from 2000 to 2003 for which I was awarded an Upper Second (2:1). The subjects I studied were: Engineering Analysis, Digital Electronics, Micro Controllers, Analogue Electronics, Electronic Communication Networks, Programming (C, C++, Java and Haskell), VHDL, Formal Computing, Software Systems, Evolutionary Systems, Digital Audio and Video Electronic Systems Design.

My second year group project was entitled “Airline Ticket Booking System” for which I was the Project Manager. My final year individual project was entitled “Collection, storage and analysis of data over the Internet, using PHP and MySQL” for which I received a grade A.

School
While at JHGS I played the Tenor Saxophone in the Jazz Band and Wind Band, helped backstage in school productions, completed Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award and participated in the Engineering in Education Scheme and was a prefect during sixth form. For six months in the lower sixth form I lead a team of four in the Engineering in Education Scheme, part of the Engineering in Education Continuum. We worked with RHM Technology to design a system to produce ‘pocketed pastry dough’. As part of the scheme I went to Portsmouth University for a week to experience engineering courses at a university.