Azfar Almas

About

Over twenty (20) years of experience including software project planning & management, product management, risk management, team management, client management, consultancy, project coordination, business development, software development, design, analysis, integration, R&D, support, and teaching

Experience

Sidqcon South Africa

Jul 2022 – Present

Islamabad, Pakistan

Technical Program Manager

Working remotely as technical program manager with Sidqcon South Africa and providing service to clients round the globe. Responsibilities: - Processes development and implementation - Organise and monitor software development projects - Formulate suitable strategies and objectives - Prepare roadmap for company expansion and growth - Technical discussions with clients - Requirements analysis and solution design - Develop and control timelines, budgets and projects’ activities - Technical Project management - Technical management of development teams - Apply change, risk and resource management - Resolve projects’ higher level scope issues - Coordinate software development projects’ activities - Plan and manage development of new products - Lead project managers, product managers and other staff - Interviews of new hires Platforms & Technologies: Windows, Linux, iOS and Android React JS, Node JS, Java Spring Boot, Swift, Kotlin, Android SDK, C/C++, C#, XCode, PHP, WordPress, MySql, MongoDB, Postgresql

LMK Resources Pvt. Ltd

May 2021 – Jun 2022

Islamabad, Pakistan

Development Manager

Working as development manager with LMKR Pakistan and providing services on Halliburton USA projects. Project: Seismic Data Migration to Azure Cloud The assignment is to migrate 6000 Terabytes data of a Norwegian oil company (a client of Halliburton USA) from TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) and Petrobank MDS (Master Data Store) to Azure cloud. TSM is an enterprise-wide storage solution provided by IBM and Petrobank MDS is an oil & gas sector data management solution provided by Halliburton USA. Project Phases: Phase-I: Migrate data from TSM to Azure Cloud Unload data from TSM to staging disk Do required processing on data Transfer data from staging disk to Azure Cloud Phase-II: Migrate data from Petrobank MDS to Azure Cloud Unload data from Petrobank MDS to staging disk Do required processing on data Transfer data from staging disk to Azure Cloud Accomplishments: Improved architecture & design of Phase-I and completed the development Completed design & development for transfer of post stack seismic data for Phase-II Responsibilities: Requirements understanding and solution proposal Transformation of requirements into development tasks Defining acceptance criteria for development tasks Architecture & design of the application Technical supervision of development team Development related project documentation Investigation of bugs and supervision of development team in bug fixing Monitoring of database and data cleanups Coordination among geographically scattered team and client Sprint planning with scrum master and project owners Participation in daily scrum, sprint retrospective and project planning meetings Daily follow up with development team on sprint tasks Platforms & Technologies: Linux Phase-I: Java Spring, Oracle 11g Phase-II: C/C++, Java Spring, Oracle 11g

SIDQCON Pty Ltd - South Africa

Nov 2016 – May 2021

Islamabad, Pakistan and Pretoria, South Africa

Manager – Software Solutions & IT Services

Worked as manager software solutions and IT services in SIDQCON Pty. Ltd, South Africa. Spent 2 years from Nov. 2018 to Dec. 2020 in South Africa with this company. Responsibilities: - Projects' management - Projects' planning, risks identification, estimations, budgeting and scheduling - Requirements finalisation and system architecture - Requirements and risk management - Projects execution, QA & delivery within schedules and budgets - Backlog management - Sprint planning and monitoring of sprints - Scrum meetings - Retrospective meetings - Requirement gathering, requirement analysis & management, system architecture and design - Communication with clients, vendors and 3rd party service providers - Handling clients queries and providing support - Consultancy - Solutions ' proposals - Writing proposals for clients - Business development - Preliminary technical discussions with clients - Technical interviews of new hires Platforms & Technologies: - Windows, Linux, iOS and Android - C/C++, C#, MS Sharepoint, XCode, Java, Node.js, PHP, WordPress, MySql, Postgresql

SIDQCON Pvt Ltd - Pakistan

Feb 2015 – Nov 2016

Islamabad, Pakistan

Manager – Software Solutions & IT Services

Worked as manager software solutions and IT services in SIDQCON Pvt. Ltd, Pakistan Responsibilities: - Projects management - Projects planning, risks identification, estimations, budgeting and scheduling - Requirements finalisation and system architecture - Requirements and risk management - Projects execution, QA & delivery within schedules and budgets - Backlog management - Sprint planning and monitoring of sprints - Scrum meetings - Retrospective meetings - Requirement gathering, requirement analysis & management, system architecture and design - Communication with clients, vendors and 3rd party service providers - Handling clients queries and providing support - Solutions' proposals - Writing proposals for clients - Business development - Preliminary technical discussions with clients - Technical interviews of new hires Platforms & Technologies: - Windows, Linux, iOS and Android - C/C++, C#, MS Sharepoint, XCode, Java, Node.js, PHP, WordPress, MySql, Postgresql

LMK Resources Pvt. Ltd

Jun 2014 – Jan 2015

Islamabad, Pakistan

Application Design Engineer

OpenWorks® - A product of Halliburton USA Most widely used exploration and production project data management system in the oil and gas industry, and is compatible with POSC and PPDM standards. Responsibilities: - Tasks estimates and scheduling - R&D to migrate OpenWorks® software on Microsoft Azure cloud - Unit testing using JUnit - Bug fixing Platforms & Technologies: - Red Hat Linux and Windows - Java, C/C++, Oracle 11g/12c, SQLite

LMK Resources Pvt. Ltd

Nov 2006 – May 2014

Islamabad, Pakistan

Application Design Engineer

PetroBank® MDS (Master Data Store) - A product of Halliburton USA MDS is a solution by Halliburton for E&P data management. It uses C/C++ for application layer, Oracle 11g for relational database & IBM TSM for bulk data store. RECALL, a third party solution for wells data, is an integral part of PetroBank MDS. Responsibilities & Accomplishments: - Tasks estimates, work breakdown and scheduling - Product enhancements, stabilisation, integration & synchronisation of third party applications and live support to clients across the globe, whenever required - Designed, developed and integrated new modules in C/C++ and Uniface - Designed data formats for newly developed modules - Designed and developed bulk storage module for storage & retrieval of data from IBM TSM in C++ - Designed, developed & integrated application licensing module in Uniface and C++ - Designed, developed & integrated PetroBank LogViewer in C++ to transfer server logs to Windows client - Designed & developed well tops module in C++ for stratigraphic data management - Integrated RECALL with PetroBank MDS® for well log and well curve data management - Designed & developed a wrapper utility in C++ to load data in RECALL by bypassing RECALL GUI. The utility can be integrated with any custom developed GUI - Decoupled client application business logic layer from Uniface & implemented at server side - Decoupled client application presentation layer from Uniface & provided its design for implementation in a new web based user interface - Platform migrations of client application from AIX to Windows XP and Windows XP to Windows 7 - Version upgrades of client application from Uniface 7 to Uniface 8 & Uniface 8 to Uniface 9 Platforms & Technologies: - Linux, AIX and Windows - Oracle 11g - IBM TSM for bulk data storage - C/C++, Java, Shell scripts and Perl scripts for server side application - Uniface for client side desktop application and .NET for client side web based application - RECALL for Well log data

Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE) Pvt. Ltd

Apr 2005 – Nov 2006

Islamabad, Pakistan

Software Engineer / Team Lead

Billing & Customer Care (B&CC) is a widely used ZTE product for telecom operators and covers four major billing solution domains—mediation, rating & charging, revenue assurance and interconnect & settlement. Responsibilities & Accomplishments: - Responsible for team management of 7 developers (revenue assurance module), complete SDLC, system integration & migration, interfacing with client’s other applications, system delivery & acceptance - Met time lines of all project phases - Successfully incorporated client’s rapidly changing requirements into the system - Successfully completed development, integration, migration and acceptance testing phases - Achieved critical milestone of system acceptance by client - Designed and developed data migration utility and configuration management module - Designed database for reporting module - Trained PTCL staff to use the system and conducted transfer of technology with PTCL engineers - Implemented industrial standards within team and trained team for CMMI certification of ZTE - Actively participated for CMMI certification of ZTE Platforms & Technologies: - AIX and Windows - Oracle 9i for RDBMS - C/C++ and Shell scripts for server side application - Java, Delphi & Brio

Al-Khair University

Feb 2004 – Mar 2005

Islamabad, Pakistan

Director Projects & Academics

Responsibilities & Accomplishments: - Software projects’ supervision and evaluation along with teaching at masters & bachelors level - Administration & monitoring of all academic activities - Curriculum revision according to HEC (Higher Education Commission) Pakistan standards

University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir

Nov 2002 – Feb 2004

Mirpur, Kashmir

Lecturer / Project Supervisor

Responsibilities & Accomplishments: - Teaching & projects’ supervision at masters & bachelors level - Curriculum revision according to HEC Pakistan standards - Revised admission criteria, examination rules and grading system - Active member of departmental administration team

Cadet College Humak

Jul 2002 – Nov 2002

Islamabad, Pakistan

Lecturer

Teaching at college level

Education

PMAS University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Jan 2000 – Feb 2002

Masters, Computer Sciences

Skills

Languages