Portland, Oregon, United States
Brenton has specialized experience in Cognos Administration, QA/Test Automation and Build/Release Engineering. Having worked on the creation of many different types of automation infrastructures/harnesses, for both Software Testing and SCM Engineering, Brenton has developed data-driven automation techniques that enable these harnesses to operate in multiple environments (e.g. Stage, Test, Prod, HotFix, etc.) with the simple click of a desktop icon. Brenton has technical experience and skills on many different platforms, including Windows, Unix (Solaris and AIX), IBM Mainframes, Apple, and Tandem environments. Experience includes: • Cognos Administration: 8.2 through 10.1, 10.2 up to 11.1 R3 • MotioCI, MotioPI, and Motio ReportCard System Administration and Usage • ActiveBatch System Administration • SAP Business Objects Administration and Security (Beginning) • Tableau System Administration (Beginning)(just completed Production upgrade to 2019.2.1) • HP (Mercury) Tools: LoadRunner, QuickTest Pro, WinRunner • QFS GmbH. qftestJUI, Rational SQA Robot • InstallShield, ClearCase, VSS, PVCS • MS Access • Windows PowerShell, ksh/csh/Bourne shells • C, Perl, Python/Jython • Ant, Toad, SQL, TSL
Completed upgrade from Cognos 10.1.1 to Cognos 10.2.1 FP4 and then Cognos 10.2.2 FP5, standing up 7 distributed environments on 25 different servers. Also installed TM1 clients/servers, MotioCI w/plugins, Framework Manager, Transformer and Visualizations for Workspace Advanced. Created extensive checklists and scripts to automate the installation and customized configuration files, enabling me to build from scratch an 8-server distributed production environment with speed and accuracy (one day!). Also repaired existing Transformer cube build scripts from 10.2.1. Built a comprehensive Cognos server housekeeping script. Use MotioCI to migrate Cognos content. Implemented a custom login page for 10.2.1, which enables posting system-wide messages to users. Created a convenient GUI to update the message, and also a time-saving script to start/stop any Cognos server or entire environment from the command line. Helped the Clarity ETL team by writing a PowerShell script to remotely launch Unix scripts from Epic (Oracle on Windows). Analyzed the 10.1.1 production environment architecture and made recommendations to improve stability. Provide end-users with quick and efficient troubleshooting and support after the upgrade. Analyze security model within Cognos and implement optimizations to enable more efficient user administration and data security.
Responsible for ground up Cognos installations: configuring, patching, upgrading, from 8.2 environments on Solaris to 10.2.1.1 on Windows. Also install clients such as Oracle, Framework Mgr, TM1 Architect/Perspectives, Informatica Powercenter clients and other components such as Cognos Mobile, SDK, Go! Office, Lifecycle Manager, Audit, Samples, Virtual View Mgr, Noetix. Informatica and TM1 Server installs and upgrades. N-tiered single-stack or distributed environments, as well as multiple Cognos installs on a same (both physical and virtual) servers. Configure Cognos websites using IIS6 & 7. Migrate and deploy application code to multiple environments, setup events, triggers, jobs, schedules in Cognos Connection. Implemented Cygwin (open source Unix shell on Windows), and built custom ksh scripts to support the ETL (both Informatica and Data Mgr), Transformer cube builds, triggers, rundm_jobs, automated housekeeping tasks (clean up logs, old cube builds, temp files, RTModels, etc.). Minor report development using Report Studio; publish packages using Framework Manager. Security Management: defined security model in OID (LDAP) that controls access to reports, packages and Cognos Studio capabilities. Insure data package and report security is deployed and enforced per business requirements. Open technical support tickets with IBM to initiate, submit and implement troubleshooting and diagnostic support change requests. Provide 24x7 production system support. Complete required license audit analyses. Monitor Cognos environment for usage and performance metrics. Identify and raise system capacity related issues (storage, performance thresholds). Conducted Cognos load testing using LoadRunner. Used custom load testing technique for report performance, saving the company $25K so they didn’t have to buy the 3rd party LoadRunner protocol for testing asynchronous long-running Cognos reports.
Successfully led QA of the company intranet. Authored user test scenarios covering the "KLCentral" business requirements, created new TestDirector project with requirements and linked test sets to provide traceability matrix. Responsible for defect management and conducting UAT. Also helped with Portal development, page layouts and bug fixes. Authored Portal Content Admin Training manual, and trained 100+ users on Portal Content Administration procedures (in-person and webinars). Wrote Cognos Test Plan for Business Intelligence project. Wrote automated test procedures in QTP (report GUI) and WinRunner (backend ETL). Conducts performance testing using LoadRunner for multiple projects: Oracle Portal, Oracle EBS, and Cognos. TestDirector Administration (creation of projects, customizing attributes, and user administration). Provide ongoing training and technical support for decentralized content administrators.
Responsible for the creation and maintenance of automated tests using QFS qftest for Initial Claim and Payment scenario test suites for Utah State’s Comprehensive Unemployment Benefits System (CUBS). Verified regular and hotfix builds, quickly and effectively revealing bugs and build configuration problems. To make optimal use of limited QFS licenses, we also created a remote server that launches QFS tests for multiple testers. This client/server test harness launches uses .XML files (ant) and java classes, with supporting Jython/Python scripts, .SQL and .BAT files. Brenton designed the easily extendable harness so that it can be used across several test environments (e.g. Stage, Test, Pre-Prod), and automated the process for updating the latest builds to the test servers with one click. Created automated scripts for weekly stress tests, and to create base UI claims for unit/functional testing in large batches, and other test wage data setup.
Authored entire suite of automated acceptance tests for Northern Trust’s Trust/Rite program using WinRunner 7.6. Created re-usable Function/Procedure libraries to support the test harness infrastructure. Designed the test cases so they can be run individually or with a master driver script. Tests could be run by the Trust Operations personnel with no WinRunner knowledge, and launched from desktop shortcuts. This led to a useful idea: daily Enterprise Automation! Brenton converted several test cases for daily production use (e.g. daily maps, thrice daily sweeps, and month-end posts & reports), by enhancing them with user-interactive menus and reporting capabilities. These automated procedures saved up to 85 percent execution time as well as increased accuracy. Installed and configured a concurrent (floating) WinRunner license server, utilizing a single license to serve the entire department. Also maintained and executed WinRunner scripts for the S1 Teller Platform automation.
Authored automated test suites for the Bowflex customer order entry system and eCommerce websites. Extensive use of TSL to create custom functions and error handling procedures, and data-driven and multiple-path test logic. Scheduled and executed the automated scripts using Test Director. Provided onsite Test Director administration. Build Engineering: Created InstallShield .ISM install packages for 17 different in-house applications, including customized registry entries, desktop shortcuts, registering DLLs and WINNT services, ODBC data connections, customized VBScripts and deployment functions. Created and configured websites using IIS. Maintained build servers and build environments, and sent out formal build notifications for each scheduled build (and hotfixes).