1. Richard John Potts
Curriculum Vitae
30 Hazelwood Drive, Maidstone, Kent ME16 0EA
Mobile: 0797 4707 683 Email: richard@mccl.org.uk
Personal Statement
I am a self-motivated professional with 30 years of experience in the IT industry, with the last 17 years
specialising in Software Testing. I have experience of full lifecycle projects in a range of business areas, and of
the practices and standards required to deliver projects successfully.
I am a strong communicator with good analytical skills and works effectively under pressure either individually
or as part of a team. I readily accept new responsibilities and challenges to ensure that the project delivers
within the required timescales.
I hold the ISEB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing.
Personal Information
Memberships British Computer Society
British Computer Society Specialist Interest Group in Software Testing
Certificates ISEB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing (candidate number 8274)
Qualifications Civil Engineering (Honours) Degree Grade 2.2, 4 ‘A’ levels and 7 ‘O’ levels
Career History
INTEGRATION AND SYSTEMS TESTER Sep 2011 – Oct 2016
IBM Global Services, London
A large government programme of work delivering multiple solutions to meet core business requirements.
Agile software development using JIRA with Zephyr Test Management extension, Eclipse, Selenium
WebDriver automated testing using Java, IBM Rational Functional and Performance Test Tools, IBM
Rational Team Concert, Quality Manager, ClearQuest and ClearCase
Responsible for the manual and automated testing, and for leading the performance testing of a major release of
the business’ core application together with verifying the successful migration of three major applications to
new servers:
• Wrote and executed a comprehensive sets of manual test scripts to validate the business requirements of
the client’s critical legacy systems covering System and System Integration Testing.
• Organised and executed the required OAT and supervised the UAT.
• Developed and executed manual integration and system test scripts to check the functionality of an
application developed using the Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF). Test
Suites/Cases/Scripts were held and maintained using JIRA Zephyr Test Management.
• Developed and maintained automated tests using Selenium WebDriver by scripting using Java to validate
the application and to record its performance. Test results output to Excel for analysis.
• Recorded defects found and tested their resolution.
• Used Rational Functional Tester to develop a regression pack of tests for an earlier version of the client’s
system.
• Used Rational Performance Tester to stress the application for over 1,000 concurrent users for a range of
test scenarios.
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2. Richard John Potts
MoD, Reading, Berkshire
Project to update the British Armed Services IT infrastructure.
Borland StarTeam, HP Radia, SecureWave Sanctuary, Active Directory, Microsoft SQL Server, HP Quality
Center, Microsoft Access
QA TEST ANALYST – Application Hosting Team Nov 2008 – Sep 2011
Responsible for the Functional Testing of a number of key capabilities to allow the migration of backend
applications on to supported server hardware.
• Determined the requirements, system functions and other features to be tested.
• Developed test plans with test conditions, test cases and test scripts to Functional Test the business
functional requirements.
• Executed test scripts on virtual and physical hardware, recorded test results in HP Quality Center,
executed regression tests and tested the resolution of defects.
QA TEST TEAM LEADER – Migrated Application QA Team May 2005 – Nov 2008
Responsible for leading the Migrated Application QA Team to Functional Test COTS software applications
packaged using HP Radia and authorised by SecureWave Sanctuary.
• Defined procedures to be followed by the Packaging QA Team.
• Used manual scripts to perform Functional Testing of the installation, quality checks on the developed HP
Radia packages and the documentation generated by the Packaging Team.
• Developed a Microsoft Access database to manage the allocation of work to the Packaging Team.
AUTOMATED TEST TOOLS SPECIALIST Jun 2004 – May 2005
Office for National Statistics, Fareham, Hampshire
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for the National Census and for providing various
organisations with UK based statistical data.
Mercury QuickTest Professional, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Microsoft Virtual PC, Microsoft Visio, HTML
Responsible for the automated testing of the new Neighbourhood Statistics (NeSS) web site:
• Liaised with testers to produce automated scripts from manual scripts with additional automated scripts to
extend test coverage.
• Built a Regression Pack of automated scripts so they could be run against the web site overnight to
confirm its stability. Test results were stored in Microsoft Excel for later review.
• Set up Microsoft Virtual PC to test various operating system and browser combinations to confirm
compatibility with the web site.
AUTOMATED TEST TOOLS SPECIALIST Sep 2002 – May 2004
Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Lytham St Annes, Blackpool/Newcastle
EDS is a major provider of IT services to UK government.
Rational Robot, Rational TestManager, Rational SQABasic, Microsoft Access
Responsible for leading the automated testing of the front and back end systems that make up the release of the
government’s Child Benefit and Carer’s Allowance web sites. This covered Functional, Regression and
Performance Testing:
• Produced simple record and play back automated scripts from client’s own manual scripts.
• Developed a data-driven automated testing method written in SQABasic.
• Produced simple record and play back automated scripts from the client’s own manual scripts.
• Developed a data-driven automated testing method written in SQABasic. Screen details and navigation
through the application were stored and maintained in a Microsoft Access database allowing automated
scripts to be written quickly and different data sets to be used. Microsoft Access was also used to
produce new manual test scripts for the client’s use.
• Further functionality was written in SQABasic to allow the Regression Pack to be run in the Welsh
language.
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3. Richard John Potts
DATA MIGRATION TEST TEAM LEADER Feb 2001 – Aug 2002
Charities Aid Foundation, West Malling, Kent
The Charities Aid Foundation is an international non-governmental organisation providing specialist financial
services to other charities and their supporters.
Rational Robot, Rational TestManager, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Unified Modeling Language
(UML), Microsoft Access, Onyx CRM, PRINCE 2
Responsible for testing a new web based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system from Onyx.
• Produced Test Plans defining the test strategy at System level.
• Specified, wrote and executed the Interface, System and Integration Tests developed from the Functional
and Technical Specification Documents for full test coverage.
• Produced automated test scripts for Regression Testing.
• Organised and managed User Acceptance Testing.
• Supervised the extraction of data from Legacy systems and its validation before loading into the CRM
system after data deduplication, and cleansing by an external specialist company.
INDEPENDENT TEST WITNESS Jun 2000 – Feb 2001
NETA (New Electricity Trading Arrangements) Programme, Leatherhead, Surrey
The NETA project provided a computer system that allowed the trading of electricity between generators and
suppliers in England and Wales.
Responsible for witnessing the testing during System Testing.
ANALYST/DEVELOPER Apr 2000 – Jun 2000
Kent Adult Education Service, Sittingbourne, Kent
Microsoft Access
Assisted in the production of information to the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) for their core
funding and provided an application written in Microsoft Access to enable funding returns to central
government.
TEACHER Nov 1999 – Mar 2000
Her Majesty's Prison, Rochester, Kent
Taught CLAIT (Computer Literacy and Information Technology) to detainee and remand prisoners.
TESTER May 1999 – Nov 1999
Global Crossing (formally Racal Telecom), Basingstoke, Hampshire
Global Crossing provided a high-speed telephone network for business users.
PRINCE 2, Microsoft Project
Responsible for a number of projects testing for Year 2000 compliance.
TEAM MEMBER Sep 1997 – Apr 1999
Pentec Limited, Maidstone, Kent
Pentec is a small software company developing bespoke applications for the paper industry.
Microsoft Access, SQL, Crystal Reports, Microsoft Project
Assisted in the management of the production of a paper management IT system.
VARIOUS POSITIONS Mar 1984 – Sep 1997
Kent County Council
Carried out the following roles and responsibilities:
• Assistant Engineer - Maintaining the traffic light systems throughout Kent.
• Programmer - Development and implementation of a street lighting database.
• Team Leader - Part of a team responsible for the implementation of computer systems into over 750
schools to support the Local Management of Schools initiative.
• Project Manager - Responsible for support, maintenance and replacement of administrative computer
systems, and for making funding returns for the Kent Adult Education Service.
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