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Past Roles
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Current Applications
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Current Platforms
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Experience:
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8/3/2001 - Present
PepsiCoChicago, Illinois
11/1/2008 - Present
Senior Specialist - PepsiCo Business Solution Group
Wrote adaptive routines to protect PepsiCo’s product locator from DDOS attacks.
- Rapidly implemented solution in ColdFusion using query of queries to reduce the incremental load on the database.
- Created new table to provide a record of the last 8 hours of activity.
- Used SQL to query and prune the MySQL table of prior activity without a noticeable drop in response time.
- Determined where and how to install rate-limiting routines without downtime.
- Determined business rules to differentiate between normal and excessive use, explained the problem, got buy-in for the solution and obtained proper text to use for the 'You have been rate limited' message. Later pin-pointed the origin of the attack after the countermeasures caused the perpetrator to become sloppy. Used that information to reduce wasted bandwidth on associated sites.
- Determined that there was a problem and where it was coming from without access to server logs or Google Analytics reporting.
- Protected application availability by keeping illegitimate users from accessing resource-intensive parts of the system.
- Gained experience in another facet of maintaining a publicly accessible web site.
Provided seamless hosting transition for Consumer Response web applications.
- Converted two publicly facing applications to ColdFusion 8 during a transition between hosting vendors.
- Recoded application to compensate for differences between versions of MySQL 5.0.
- Used SQL-based web services to synchronize data between tables on the old and new systems while both systems were in use.
- Designed and developed patterns to allow for real-time and near real-time movement of data between hosting environments.
- Tested conversion programs so that no data was lost and all transactions were performed using the same time base.
- Performed my part of the migration on time to enable the company as a whole to abandon the old vendor as scheduled.
- Troubleshot initial setup problems without access to a command line or logging.
Created a Google Maps-based presentation of Frito-Lay's product locator results.
- Used ColdFusion to generate device-appropriate pages and perform geolocation when the client was unable to.
- AJAX
- Technical Architect
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- External Hosting
- Application Security
- Product Locators
- Undertook this project to see if it could be done
Enhanced the maintenance system which enables PepsiCo's product locators.
- MySQL
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- AJAX
- SQL
- Technical Architect
- Gathered requirements for both the use and function of the prior maintenance system.
- Captured additional data to enable improvements to the voice interface being used by some brands.
- External Hosting
- Application Security
- Trainer
- Product Locators
- Developer
- Support (24x7x365)
Implemented 'Reply' forms to facilitate automatic routing of consumer responses.
- MySQL
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- External Hosting
- Progress 4GL
- Application Security
- Consumer Response
- Trainer
- Technical Architect
- Business Analyst
- Developer
- Project Manager
Implemented standardized but differentiated 'Contact Us' forms for all PepsiCo brands.
- Implemented new contact us forms for QuakerOats.com, Tropicana.com, and Gatorade.com as part of larger site refresh projects which involved ad agencies, marketing and consumer response managers.
- Determined business requirements for data capture and additional functionality for each of the 21 additional contact us forms and got their implementations approved by communicating with two dozen stakeholders.
- Extended the prior architecture to provide patterns for new functionality including remotely-maintained marketing surveys and progressive product identification.
- Wrote and tested the additional code to support the additional contact us pages including the new patterns used for marketing surveys and improved form logic invented by the Canadian call center.
- Supported the new implementations including late night work with ad agencies on both coasts. Only 15 minutes of downtime was needed to perform one upgrade, all other changes were made without downtime.
- Identified 40 steps needed to roll out each of the 21 additional forms and tracked progress against them. Worked with a dozen ad agencies and about two dozen internal contacts to gather requirements and approvals.
- Improved the quality and actionability of data captured for Consumer Response as well as the data provided to the quality data warehouse.
- MySQL
- Project Manager
- Consumer Response
- Created standards-compliant HTML which was rendered in differing combinations to create all forms. Created and modified CSS and graphics to skin a quarter for the forms which were not being done by ad agencies.
- The forms are created by ColdFusion 7 using metadata and code snippets. All validation is performed on the server and client Javascript is not required. On multi-page forms, previously validated field data in made tamper-resistant.
- The forms and supporting database reside on a third-party site accessible via FTP and HTTP. Data captured by the forms is delivered to the application via email.
Helped plan the outsourcing of hosting for PepsiCo's Consumer Response systems.
- Served as the application subject matter expert for the team that performed the evaluation.
- Identified how to fulfill current system functionality in a remotely-hosted environment.
- The outsourcing would involve all of PepsiCo's North American consumer response processing.
- The key success factor for this project is the continued capture of information for the quality data warehouse.
- Since the data is confidential, the review covered data security as it pertained to a remotely-hosted system.
- External Hosting
- Progress DB
- Technical Architect
- Team Member
- Windows Server
- Consumer Response
Provides enhancement to and 24 hour support for various UNIX-based batch systems.
- HP-UX 11
- Oracle
- PL/SQL
- Shell
- SQL
- Business Intelligence
- Support (24x7x365)
6/27/2005 - 10/31/2008
Senior Specialist - PepsiCo International
Created the back end which supports the product locators for all PepsiCo brands.
- HP-UX 11
- Oracle
- PL/SQL
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Business Analyst
- Systems Analyst
- MySQL
- SQL
- AJAX
- Technical Architect
- Cold Fusion
- External Hosting
- Product Locators
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
- Project Manager
Created network monitoring tools which led to the solution of performance problems.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- AJAX
- Identified the need for independent network monitoring as a way to improve the quality of service to remote call centers.
- Designed a network monitoring tool which would simulate the application's activity, avoid caching and accumulate measurements on a central server.
- Identified poor performance in individual network segments by deploying clients in a grid and analyzing comparing the data points.
- Implanted an AJAX-based monitoring client with an attractive and easy to understand front-end.
- Used the resulting tools to chase down network latency issues which impacted user productivity including replacement of a software VPN solution with a dedicated MPLS network.
- Informally led the Canadian networking team to discover that the trans-Canada network backbone had 50% packet loss which was promptly fixed.
- Improved remote Call Center support by getting the bandwidth-hungry Consumer Response application the infrastructure that it needed to run successfully.
- Perl
Implemented web-based quality reporting by building a report generator.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Cold Fusion
- Oracle
- Supply Chain
- Technical Architect
- Team Member
- AJAX
- SQL
- Developer
Performed programming to support pilots of a voice-response product locator.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Cold Fusion
- Voice Response
- External Hosting
- Team Member
- Application Security
- Product Locators
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
Reduced the PepsiCo product locator reload time threefold by using parallel processing.
- HP-UX 11
- SQL
- Shell
- Oracle
- Technical Architect
- Business Analyst
- PL/SQL
- Product Locators
- Developer
Designed and piloted new a process for receiving internet contacts from consumers.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Provided server-side validation to enforce the cleanliness of data being captured and fed to quality tracking systems.
- Created anti-bot features that require a consumer to follow the workflow and ensure the continued validity of data captured along the course of a multi-page form. Created reply forms that can only be used by the respondent.
- External Hosting
- Progress DB
- Progress 4GL
- Technical Architect
- Business Analyst
- Cold Fusion
- DOS
- Tester
- Application Security
- Consumer Response
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
Provided design and programming for the conversion of Frito-Lay Consumer Response.
- Progress DB
- Progress 4GL
- Consumer Response
- Business Analyst
Designed and implemented interfaces and conversion strategies for SAP deployment.
- HP-UX 11
- Shell
- SQL
- PL/SQL
- Team Member
- Oracle
- Business Intelligence
- Support (24x7x365)
- Tester
- Developer
Established a standard deployment for PepsiCo's Consumer Response systems.
- Progress DB
- Windows Server
- DOS
- WSH
- System Administrator
- Perl
- Progress 4GL
- Technical Architect
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Application Security
- Consumer Response
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
- Project Manager
Created an interchange system to assemble and publish sales and production data.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- PL/SQL
- Oracle
- Technical Architect
- Business Analyst
- Systems Analyst
- HP-UX 11
- SQL
- Shell
- Business Intelligence
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
Led the conversion of Quaker's Canadian Consumer Response system.
- HP-UX 11
- PL/SQL
- Oracle
- SQL
- Systems Analyst
- Progress DB
- Consumer Response
- Project Manager
- Developer
1/1/2003 - 6/26/2005
Senior Specialist - PepsiCo
Led the transformation of Tropicana's Consumer Response system.
- HP-UX 11
- Progress DB
- Progress 4GL
- Consumer Response
- Systems Analyst
- Project Manager
Created the since-retired http://snackfinder.fritolay.com product locator site.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- HP-UX 11
- Cold Fusion
- Oracle
- PL/SQL
- SQL
- Systems Analyst
- Linux
- External Hosting
- Shell
- Product Locators
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
Supported and extended PepsiCo's Wilke-Thornton Consumer Response systems.
- HP-UX 11
- Perl
- Progress 4GL
- Progress DB
- AJAX
- Technical Architect
- Systems Analyst
- System Administrator
- Shell
- Tester
- Consumer Response
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
Applied Quaker web contact processing technology to Pepsi web sites.
- Progress DB
- Progress 4GL
- Shell
- Systems Analyst
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Consumer Response
- Support (24x7x365)
Assumed support an out-of-maintenance business intelligence system.
- HP-UX 11
- Shell
- PL/SQL
- SQL
- Systems Analyst
- Oracle
- Business Intelligence
- Support (24x7x365)
8/3/2001 - 12/31/2002
Senior Systems Analyst - PepsiCo
Applied an architectural-level solution to change accounting calendars safely.
- IBM Mainframe
- DB2
- FOCUS
- Team Member
- Technical Architect
- SQL
- Tester
Supported and extended the Quaker Oats and Gatorade Consumer Response system.
- HP-UX 11
- Progress DB
- System Administrator
- Progress 4GL
- Business Analyst
- Shell
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- SQL
- Business Intelligence
- Consumer Response
- Support (24x7x365)
Built a simple-looking front end to create complex Business Objects queries.
- DB2
- AJAX
- Oracle
- Systems Analyst
- Team Member
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- SQL
- Business Intelligence
- Developer
- Trainer
3/1/1985 - 8/2/2001
Quaker OatsChicago, Illinois
1/1/2000 - 8/2/2001
Senior Systems Analyst
Built an internal product information system using internal and external data.
- HP-UX 11
- Java
- Oracle
- AJAX
- Shell
- PL/SQL
- Technical Architect
- Systems Analyst
- SQL
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Product Locators
- Consumer Response
- Developer
Built a multimedia intranet site for consumer response which included reporting.
- AJAX
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Consumer Response
- Team Member
- Developer
Stabilized a new [alpha-release] consumer response system and upgraded it.
- HP-UX 11
- Progress DB
- Progress 4GL
- Shell
- Systems Analyst
- System Administrator
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- WSH
- Consumer Response
- Support (24x7x365)
Served on the hand-picked Y2K SWAT Team.
- IBM Mainframe
- JCL
- FOCUS
- Oracle
- Team Member
- PL/SQL
- PowerBuilder
- SQL
9/1/1994 - 12/31/1999
Sr. Application Tech Support Analyst
Designed and co-implemented an automated trade claims approval system.
- DB2
- RDB
- COBOL
- PowerBuilder
- Oracle
- PL/SQL
- Technical Architect
- Business Analyst
- SQL
- Team Leader
- Statistics
- Trade Payments
- Decision Support
- Before replacing the new system's COBOL-based predecessor, learned VMS and made enhancements to the old system running on DEC hardware in order to gain familiarity with the application and build a relationship with it's users.
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
Created tax reporting to meet regulatory requirements and to realize tax savings.
- DB2
- IBM Mainframe
- JCL
- Systems Analyst
- Operations Research
- Supply Chain
- FOCUS
- Oracle
- SQL
- PL/SQL
- Tax Reporting
- Invoicing
- Developer
Provided ad-hoc accounts receivable systems to support a series of divestitures.
- DB2
- IBM Mainframe
- JCL
- Team Member
- Systems Analyst
- FOCUS
- SQL
- Tester
- Accounts Receivable
- Invoicing
- Developer
Created departmental decision-support environments using FOCUS.
- IBM Mainframe
- DB2
- JCL
- FOCUS
- SQL
- Team Member
- Technical Architect
- Decision Support
- Accounts Receivable
- Trade Payments
- Support (24x7x365)
- Trainer
- Developer
Supported FOCUS and trained others to use it effectively.
- IBM Mainframe
- DB2
- JCL
- FOCUS
- SQL
- Decision Support
- Accounts Receivable
- Trainer
9/1/1993 - 8/31/1994
Senior Systems Analyst
Created FOCUS reporting of various types against large DB2 tables.
- IBM Mainframe
- DB2
- JCL
- FOCUS
- Team Member
- Technical Architect
- SQL
- Accounts Receivable
- Trade Payments
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
10/1/1992 - 8/31/1993
Applications Consultant
Served on the Technical Architecture team for a conversion to a DB/2 environment.
- IBM Mainframe
- DB2
- JCL
- COBOL
- CICS
- Team Member
- SQL
- Support (24x7x365)
- Trainer
Co-developed and used a framework for the mass production of report programs.
- IBM Mainframe
- DB2
- JCL
- FOCUS
- Team Member
- Technical Architect
- SQL
- Support (24x7x365)
- Developer
3/1/1986 - 9/30/1992
Unit Manager
Managed 10-20 programmers and analysts, both contract and permanent.
- Burroughs
- COBOL
- Manager
- Trainer
Managed support of post-shipment processing including invoicing and sales reporting.
- Business Analyst
- Burroughs
- COBOL
- Accounts Receivable
- Trade Payments
- Tax Reporting
- Invoicing
- Manager
- Support (24x7x365)
Led the team that shook out the batch portion of a new order processing system.
- IBM Mainframe
- JCL
- Trainer
- Support (24x7x365)
- Project Manager
- Systems Analyst
3/1/1985 - 2/28/1985
Senior Systems Engineer
Led invoicing enhancement projects which generated over $1MM annual savings.
- Business Analyst
- Burroughs
- COBOL
- Team Leader
- Trade Payments
- Invoicing
- Support (24x7x365)
- Project Manager
2/1/1983 - 2/28/1985
G. D. SearleElk Grove Village, Illinois
2/1/1983 - 2/28/1985
Distribution Systems Manager
Made technical and administrative reforms to stabilize a small data center.
- IBM 8100 (DPPX)
- Manager
- Team Member
- Systems Analyst
- System Administrator
- Trainer
Managed the turn around of lot tracking for drug recall purposes.
- Statistics
- Operations Research
- Systems Analyst
- Supply Chain
- Manager
- Team Leader
- Trainer
12/1/1979 - 1/31/1983
W. W. GraingerNiles, Illinois
12/1/1981 - 1/31/1983
Senior Distribution Systems Analyst
Co-designed and tested a stock locator for new 1.2MM square foot facility.
- Used a FIFO tolerance to reduce fork-lift driver travel time.
- Designed inventory correction algorithms which allowed for accidental pallet substitution.
- IBM Mainframe
- CICS
- Systems Analyst
- Team Member
- Tester
- Trainer
- Reverse-engineered the data structure used for implementation to the point where a deadly embrace could be accurately predicted and demonstrated during testing.
Designed a warehouse floor scheduling and control system.
- Team Member
- Business Analyst
- Operations Research
- Supply Chain
- Team Leader
- Wrote simulations of picking and loading operations to prove that the algorithms would work.
- Used the Tektronics workstation to simulate warehouse operations using new scheduling algorithms.
12/1/1979 - 11/30/1981
Distribution Systems Analyst
Created a packaging optimization program which drew pictorial instructions.
- Team Member
- Developer
- Systems Analyst
- Supply Chain
- Wrote non-pruning tree search to determine the best way to pack rectangular solids inside a corrugated container and to present the solution as step-by-step pictorial instructions. If two solutions were equivalent, the one with the lowest center of gravity was used.
- Used vector graphics to render the solution with hidden-line removal. Used 1401-style program overlays to make the program fit in the 32K of memory by swapping subroutine code in and out. Created a calculate-only version which ran overnight reading from an input tape and writing to an output tape from which results were printed the next day.
Tested, rolled out, and upgraded the company's first automated work scheduler.
- Business Analyst
- Project Manager
- Tester
- Trainer
- Operations Research
- Trainer
- Supply Chain
- COBOL
- Project Manager
- Wrote simulations of the multi-warehouse loading schedule to prove that the algorithms would work.
- IBM Mainframe
- Used the Tektronics workstation to prototype and demonstrate the algorithms needed.
1/1/2000 - 12/31/2008
On my own
2/2/2008 - 12/31/2008
Web Development
Created an on-line art gallery, http://YvonnePitts.com, for a modern artist.
- Developer
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- AJAX
- ColdFusion
- External Hosting
Created a user-generated content site, http://EasyPhotoCube.com, as a dot com.
- Designed and built the site in about 2 weeks of spare time using Prototype and as much shared ColdFusion code as possible.
- Hand-coded the site using HTML and CSS. The whole concept was based on the use of CSS to apply offset backgrounds to the faces of the cube to automate a manually produced cube I had seen at a party.
- Learned Prototype to build the site but hand-coded the drag and drop in JavaScript rather than using something heavier like to Script.alic.us.
- The site is ColdFusion based on the server side with the exception of static HTML for things like Help and FAQ. ColdFusion dynamically adds newly created cubes to the Gallery without administrator intervention.
- Installed the site on a shared Linux server.
- Trainer
1/1/2000 - 6/30/2007
Server Administration
Created a load-balanced personal web server cluster based on OpenBSD machines.
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Designed a method to steer visitors to the least-loaded web server in the cluster using client-side JavaScript. Those running NoScript remained on the default web server and those which had JavaScript enabled were evenly distributed among the other servers in the cluster.
- Performed the UNIX configuration needed to set up a cluster of web servers serving remotely-maintained content on a shared NFS server.
- Used JavaScript on the browsing machine to cause it to initially seek the least-loaded web server of the group and to maintain that affinity..
- Wrote shell scripts to support the CGI component which let the browsing machine know which web server was the least-loaded.
- Demonstrated accumulated knowledge of BSD by building a load-balanced cluster of web servers all serving content from a single NFS server could be securely updated over the internet.
- Gave presentation of the project to the Northwest Suburban Chicago Linux Users Group.
Upgraded a Linux SAMBA server and revised the backup scripts for an accounting firm.
- Modified undocumented program to split backup tapes instead of buying larger tape drive.
- Determined how to modify an undocumented system to accomplish owner's objective.
- Systems Analyst
- Tested that the modified scripts created usable backup tapes.
- Created simplified scripts to add and delete users.
- Modified Perl script which controlled the backup process.
- Rebuilt the kernel to add support for a faster NIC which I installed.
Education:
Claremont McKenna CollegeClaremont, California
B. A. in Economics with emphasis in Quantitative Methods
My Senior Thesis explored cost vs. quality trade-offs for an analytical chemical lab.
- Identified the opportunity to retest a questionable assay when cost-effective.
- Determined the marginal cost of adding an additional sample to each of 20 different analytical procedures.
- Determined the variance of 30 different analytical tests, a closely guarded trade secret.
- This was a classic study comparing the costs of type 1 an type 2 errors with the costs of reducing variance.