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Kent D. Palmer
Systems Engineer, Software Engineer & Technologist
"My objective is to find a position of responsibility implementing new technologies within the system engineering and software engineering development process, then to use these technologies to increase productivity and improve system and software quality. The proper use of tools in the development of real-time systems requires a knowledge of process, methods, standards and metrics, combined with development experience. I have a broad range of experience to offer any engineering organization interested in enhancing its real-time embedded technology capability as a way to increase its competitiveness."
BACKGROUND:
Raytheon -- June 1999 to Present
Principal Systems Engineer
C3I Air Defense Systems Pre-proposal Activities
Boeing -- September 1985 to June 1999Systems Engineering Process Assessment based on CMMI and EIA 731Systems Engineering Project Improvement Team Leader
Six Sigma Baselining
Systems Engineering Project Reporting Improvement
Systems Engineering Process Guidelines development
Systems Engineering Process Web Requirements and Design
Systems Engineering Process Liaison with Projects
Systems Engineering Methods Consulting
Systems Engineering Process Architecture Development
Trained CMMI Assessor
Trained Six Sigma Specialist
Trained Integrated Process Development System Deployment Specialist
Coordination with Program Management concerning SE ROM bids and SE proposals
Developed and delivered a course on Software Requirements and Design Methodologies at the local University of California Irvine Extension (Fall 1999)
Software Engineer and part time Systems Engineer
Focused on Architectural Design, Software Requirements, and also Simulation development.
Software Project Team Leader
Requirements Analyst for both System level and Software level requirements.
Object-oriented Simulation Design & Implementation.
Practitioner using Formal Requirements Methods for Systems and Software Engineering.
Software Process and Systems Process Consultant and Technologist.
Design Methodology Research and Tool Development.
Formal Requirements Methods Research and Technology Transfer.
Human Interface Software Design & Prototyping.
Former Software Engineering Process Group Chairman, Process Assessor and Change Agent.
Lead in Software and Systems Engineering Process, Methods, and Tools development and implementation
Systems Engineering Process Development and Deployment at Raytheon (most recent position)
Moved to Raytheon in order to assume
a position as Principle Systems Engineer directed at improving the Systems
Engineering Process capability across the Fullerton site. In this capacity
I participated in a Process Based Assessment using EIA731 which determined
current Systems Engineering maturity. I also participated in a Raytheon
Six Sigma Baselining effort for Air Defense Systems Product Line. I attended
the Systems Engineering Review meetings and took minutes as well as working
to improve the reporting process so that it better reflected the actual
situation on the projects. We developed a Systems Engineering Reporting
package and also Systems Engineering Process Guidelines. I worked on the
requirements and design of a Systems Engineering Process Oriented web site
using XML. I produced a directives architecture and helped to digest and
interpret the Raytheon Standard Process called the Integrated Product Development
System. I also participated in the development of pre-proposal bids on
at least one Air Defense program. In general my job has been to work with
the Systems Engineering process owner to find ways to increase Systems
Engineering process maturity across the entire organization. In that process
I had direct liaison with several projects and helped then tailor the existing
process and develop internal systems engineering processes while looking
for best practices and artifact examples and templates that might be used
more widely in the organization.
Satellite Ground Systems IR&D Experience at Boeing: (lasted about five months)
Approximately five months working on
the systems engineering of a ground system based on Altairis Mission Control
System. Worked on applying the Finite State Modeling Method to large multi-satellite
constellations and developing the next generation ground system. This entailed
building a simulation of the multi-satellite constellation and modeling
the human interface of the ground system to control the simulation. I helped
manage the conversion of the old satellite simulation software into something
useable for the new system. I helped develop the processes and methods
that would be used in building the prototypes. I also helped develop new
concepts for dealing with multi-satellite configurations.
Satellite Payload Development Experience at Boeing: (latest for about 2 years ending February 1999)
Approximately two years ago I began working on the SBIRS LADS project as the software engineering team lead. This involved me in systems engineering work as well and gave me the opportunity to apply the methods and processes I had learned about in my research at the Science Center. I used the Gurevich Abstract State Machine Method to define the functionality of the SDPC at the Software Requirements level. I also interfaced with the systems engineers on the project and attempted to work out Systems level issues. On this project I also applied the DARTS method to define the software architecture for the SDPC. We also used ObjecTime to simulate this architecture. Finally, from the end of architectural design I did detailed design, code and module test of the Payload Control Processor routing, and Datatap sections of the final system.
Formal Requirements Methods and Systems Engineering Research Experience at Rockwell: (about 1 year)
Preceding my tenure on the SBIRS LADS project, I had become interested in Systems Engineering and the necessity of its improvement in order to provide a basis for software engineering work downstream. I applied to work at the Science Center and spent one year researching Formal Requirements Methods and the Systems Engineering processes across the company. In that research I found a method called Gurevich Abstract State Machine Method which seemed to have a great deal of promise for developing a better requirements engineering process that would actually work when applied to real projects. I wrote several working papers on this method and applied it to small test problems.
Software Process Experience at Rockwell: (about 5 years)
Prior to the Science Center I was assigned to be the Software Process Chair for Marine Systems. In that capacity I wrote the Software and Systems Engineering Processes for Marine Systems and participated in the Process development across all engineering functions within Marine Systems. We also worked to apply the processes that we had designed up until Marine Systems was merged with Missile Systems Division, then I transferred to the new SEPG and continued Process work. While working on Software Process, I researched the basis of software process and attempted to find better models of software processes in other disciplines. This research culminated in my presentation of Advanced Process Architectures tutorial at the national SEPG conference. The work on process tied together the previous work I had done on software tools and methods, providing the overall context for understanding all aspects of software development.
Simulation Development Experience at Rockwell: (about 2 years)
For approximately two years I worked on simulation projects in the IR&D Marine Systems Command and Control System Design Lab. This work lasted approximately two years. In that lab I built a simulation that resided on two SPARC stations and drove User Interfaces done in Xwindows on special purpose consoles. I designed and implemented a means for multiple simulations to interoperate across the network using sockets. I built a "post-office" function that allowed the two simulators to talk to each other and which would allow data, events and object invocations across the network between registered objects. One simulator simulated ships, submarines and various threats moving in the ocean while the other simulation emulated the various states of the command and control system of one particular submarine that were reflected on the consoles. The simulation was done in Modsim which is an object oriented simulation language. The simulation was driven by scripts which commanded changes in action of the various simulated objects at particular times. Some objects would go into alternative avoidance routines on the sensing of other threat objects automatically. The effect was that you could pretend you were driving a particular submarine through one of several predetermined scenarios, but that if you deviated from the scenario then other things might happen as they would in the real world of ship navigation.
Architectural Design as well as Development Experience at Rockwell (about 2 years)
My Simulation work was preceded by two projects called ICS and RAN on which newly introduced Design methods and tools were used. The RAN project was in Ada and gave me my first experience using Ada on a project. I C S lasted about six months stopping at the end of architectural design and RAN a year and a half going through the entire life cycle. On those projects I noticed that people were not using the tools "properly" so I began studying how they were actually using them. What I discovered was that they were attempting to represent tasking in methodologies that did not explicitly allow for the representation of that aspect of the design. This set me to studying various methods that did allow for tasking and distributed processing to be represented. I wrote various papers about my findings. Since then there have been many developments in the Software Architectural Design Methods, culminating with UML and its real-time extensions. I have kept up on this area and continue to research the new methods as they evolve. After that I was assigned to the Marine Systems Command and Control System Design Laboratory to develop a simulation on which I also used these methods.
Software Tools and Design Environment Development Experience at Rockwell (about 2 years beginning 1985)
I was hired into the Company as a Software Technologist and was instrumental in setting up a software design environment for Marine Systems. My first job at the Company was to set up the Computer Aided Software Design Lab in Marine Systems. That environment used IDE Software Though Pictures and Framemaker, but we also used Cadre Teamwork and Interleaf when that combination became a campus standard. I helped set up the environment and train engineers to use both the tools and the methods that this environment supported.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
Creative Micro Systems -- February 1984 to June 85
Lead Real-time Software Engineer / Project Manager
Principal designer on a 12,000-line real-time system written in Assembly code.
and Hotel Front-Desk Systems
Systems Analyst
New product development for hospital industry.
Managing Partner (Part-time student)
Ph.D. degree obtained 1982
Subject: Philosophy of Science
Dissertation Title:
The Structure of Theoretical Systems in Relation to Emergence.
Dissertation analyzed the impact of new things coming into existence on the structure of scientific theories.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS:
v Real-time embedded software systems design, prototyping and implementation.
v Object-oriented simulation design and development.
v Software and systems engineering process definition.
v Engineering-wide work process architecture development.
v Research into Systems Engineering and Software Engineering Processes, Methods, and Tools.
v Research into Formal Requirements Methods
v Research into Design Methodologies
v Project planning and project leadership.
v Development of software engineering technology applications such as CASE tool design and prototyping and environmental integration.
v Trained at Software Engineering Institute to perform audits of software development process execution.
v Performed audits of division software process using Capability Maturity Model (CMM) according to SEI assessment methodology.
v Studies of methodological issues such as the application of the object-oriented methodology to the analysis and design of real-time systems.
v Development and maintenance of databases and models for productivity and quality analysis.
v Research into use of new technologies, technology infusion and transfer to early adopters.
v Principal evaluator for many engineering tools.
v Planning and execution of technology enhancement programs.
v Contact for technology transfer from aerospace consortia, e.g. SPC, SEI and SPIN.
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING:
mSystems Engineering IR&D on Satellite Ground Systems
Developed Processes and Methods for Constellation Control Prototype Development.
Key development systems engineer working to integrate prototypes to produce ground system of the future. q
Worked with lead systems engineer to plan and implement coordination tasks. qCoordinated the work of several systems engineers and various organizations to make the project come together. qWork with vendors closely and supervised their efforts. qProduced novel approaches to the design task of the IR&D. n
m Systems Lead on Satellite Payload Processor
Organized Systems Engineering effort on major project.
Collected issues and analyzed their project impact.qFacilitated cross discipline resolution of issues on project.qAdvocated model building at Systems Engineering level.qBrought focus to areas of concern. qForced changes in specifications in order to improve Systems Engineering discipline on the project. n
Focal point for SE Process Maturity improvement.
Helped the SE process owner to develop a process improvement strategy and implement it within the organization.Assessment of SE Process using EIA 731. q Six Sigma Baselining. q SE project reporting improvement. q Developed Process Guidelines. q SE process intraweb Requirements and Design. q Active Liaison with SE projects on process related issues. q SE related Fact finding concerning effort and cost. q Template development. q Process Tailoring Checklist development. q Example Discovery and diffusion of Best Practices. q Process Architecture development. n
Have been practicing Systems Engineering based on recent research into Systems Processes, Methods and Tools attempting to put these improvements into practice by example use.
Solid Theoretical Background in Systems TheoryqDeveloped Systems Engineering Processes qResearch in Formal Requirements Methods at Science CenterqFocus on integrating Software and Systems CapabilitiesqApplied Systems Engineering Processes and Methods to Research Prototypes under development.n
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING:
m Software Requirements, Architectural Design and Implementation of Satellite Sensor Payload System:
System has two PowerPC processors and 40 C40 Digital Signal Processors and contains Five CSCIs.
Helped setup processes, methods and tools for project.qCollected software requirements and wrote SRS.qProduced Behavioral Model of system using Gurevich Abstract State Machines Method.qProduced DARTS Tasking Architecture and wrote SDD.qProduced ObjecTime model of application. qRepresented Software Team at Systems Engineering meetings.qCoordinated with hardware designers. qSupervised update and coordination of all Software Design models. qWorked to apply latest technology, methods and processes to project to achieve maximum efficiency qProduced module designs qWrote and tested C code for a significant part of the payload system using VXworks Tornado. n
m Simulation Development:
Knowledge of object-oriented discrete event and continuous system dynamic simulation systems.
Wrote simulation with dynamically programmable attributes that modeled multiple vehicle interaction scenarios.qSimulation designed to drive multiple interactive console displays, keeping information coherent across operator positions.qSimulator written in MODSIM object-oriented, graphical simulation language.qMultiple simulation programs communicating through Unix sockets to user interfaces written in X Windows.qSensor subsystems emulated and vehicle design prototyped.qInvocation of Object methods in another program across the network.qEvent management through global postoffice where objects register for events. qContinuous simulation facilities built into discrete event simulator.n
m Implementation Experience:
Industrial experience in higher level programming.
Designed and implemented Cache in Ada code for large Database project. qCompared, selected and used Ada compiler and Run-time kernels.qWrote Ada tasking design descriptions. qRetargeted C prototypes into Ada. qDeveloped and implemented object-oriented designs using Ada.qFamiliarity with C++ and Java. n
m Human Interface Design:
Skilled in use of User Interface Management Systems.
Created expert system user interface.qResearched UIMS for real-time systems. qPrototyped user interfaces in various languages.qDeveloped layered display architecture. qDesigned object-oriented prototyping tool. qPrototyped hypertext diagnostic system. n
m Software Reuse:
Adept in Software Reuse Technology.
Developed software reuse plans.qPerformed
Domain analysis. qSet
up reuse library. qResearched
design reuse methods. qDeveloped
feasible reuse process. qConstructed
reusable parts. qUsed
SPC Synthesis methodology. n
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY:
m Requirements Methods:
m Real-time Design Methodologies:
Some specific methods: UML n Objectime/ROOM n Octopus Real-time Object Oriented Design Method n SPC / Gomaa - ADARTS n Neilsen / Shumate - OOD/VLM n Constantine / Wasserman - OOSD n Shaler / Mellor - Object Oriented Analysis n Yourdon / DeMarco- Structured Analysis / Design n Hatley / Pirbhai real-time extensions n Ward / Mellor real-time extensions n Gutag / Liskov - Object Oriented Design n Entity-relationship modeling & temporal logic n Object Modeling Technique n
m Software Work Process Implementation:
m Cost Estimation Parametrics:
m Environment Building:
q "Integration of Methods in Software Architectural Design: Towards the definition of a Core Set of Real-time Design Methods"
(SES II & CASE88)
q "Software Engineering Foundations: A Paradigm for Understanding Software Design Methods"(SES III)
q Part 1: Software Ontology
q Part 2: Software Systems Meta-methodology (SES IV)
q Part 3: Integral Software Engineering Methodology (SES V)
q "The Future of Software Process" (SES V)
q "Software Engineering Design Methodologies and General Systems Theory"
International Journal of General Systems - Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 1996, pp. 43-94
q On the Social Construction of Emergent Worlds Series of working papers.
q Steps to the Threshold of the Social (SES VI)Series of working papers.
q Advanced Process Architectures Tutorial SEPG National Convention 1995.
q Meta-Systems Engineering Tutorial for Principles Working Group INCOSE 1997.
q Reflexive Autopoietic Dissipative Special Systems Theory 1999.
q Meta-Systems Engineering INCOSE 2000
q Gurevich
Abstract State Machines in Theory and Practice 2000.
QUOTES: Manager's written remarks on some performance reviews:
"Mr. Palmer's performance of his duties continue to be exceptional. He has a superior ability to research a technology and succinctly state the applicable domain in an understandable way. This year he prepared and delivered a paper to the company Software Engineering Symposium and the ACM CASE88 conference on a fundamental aspect evaluating any software engineering methodology. He has received accolades from various industry leaders as a result of this paper. His performance is a significant image builder to the company. He most certainly deserves this promotion." 1988
"Kent continues to display his broad and vast knowledge and problem-solving skills for the department. He has the unique capability of defining new technical directions of the department, partially because of his knowledge, partially because of his ability to do library research, partially because of his dedication and attitude, and partially because of his ability to select the important data from a large quantity of extraneous data. He is a very valuable employee and most assuredly deserves this raise." 1989
"Mr. Palmer has performed independent research on design methodologies and completed a draft of a paper on software design meta-methodologies. He was primary contributor to the interdivisional SEPG process manual. Mr. Palmer also initiated the transfer of entity-relationship (GERM) and distributed system modeling (VERDI) tools technology from MCC. Mr. Palmer designed and prototyped user interfaces for the Fault Correction Assistant expert system, researched and acquired a User Interface Management System (UIMS) tool for command and control system display development, and researched formal methods for specifying architecture and interfaces in the Reference Command System." 1990
"Dr. Kent Palmer is currently on the Advanced Technology Team. During the last year, Mr. Palmer has made significant contributions to his assigned projects. He has become an authority in the area of software system conceptualization and design. He has been responsible for solving multiple interrelated problems requiring original solution. His performance has been excellent. For these reasons, I recommend that Dr. Palmer be promoted to the next higher engineering staff level." 1990
"During this review period, Dr. Palmer was a member of the Systems Design and Development Laboratory working on analysis of object-oriented software, software reuse, and vehicle simulation software. He contributed significantly to the IR&D project planning. He has also played an important role in the software process working group." 1991
"Dr. Palmer is currently leading the Division Software Process development efforts. In this assignment, he leads a team of Division engineers as well as coordinating with other divisions to provide process consistency. He has also led the efforts for SEI assessment of the Division's software development status. This increase is in recognition of his continued professional leadership in these key Division process efforts." 1992
"Mr. Palmer is a full-time member of the Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG). He provides process consulting to various projects, helps maintain and update process support materials, researches software process issues, and serves as the Division representative to the UCI IRUS SPIN. Mr. Palmer performs all his assignments in an excellent manner and is well deserving of this merit increase." 1995
"Kent brings a wealth of process experience to bear on
his current activities. His direct experience on large strategic programs,
before he joined us, serves as a source of in-sight and good ideas in trying
to move our practices towards a system approach. He is able to balance
the complementary but different SE and software process approaches. He
did independent research into project engineering notebooks as well as
the organizational technical library to understand current SE practices
and templates. He drafted an SE process guideline and SE reporting template
for dissemination to lead System Engineers. Kent works well in a team environment.
Listens well, deals with information effectively and always seeks to bring
in new information, approaches and viewpoints." 2000
Personal Data:
o Will consider relocation.
o References will be supplied upon request.
Kent D. Palmer
P.O. Box 1632
Orange CA 92856-1632
(714) 633-9508
palmer@exo.com
For further details see other versions of this resume at URL http://archonic.net/resume.html
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