Postgraduate Diploma of Management
Deakin University

Master of Business Administration (Technology Management)
Deakin University
(not completed)

Tasks
Responsible for the development and deployment of new products and technologies in service of Simbiant.

Tasks
Creation of a DIS/HLA gateway to link up several EW simulation systems in remote locations into a collaborative EW super-simulation. Production of DSTO technical report.

Production of DSTO technical report on the specification of ECM techniques for modern SAM facility.

Construction of simulated radar systems and simulated aircraft, including onboard ordnance and ECM, and connection to a flight simulator, for an EW few-on-few simulation system.

Conversion of RF antenna data in diverse formats with missing data into a common and complete format.

Using statistically valid techniques to create a general model validation toolset in MATLAB, and application to several EW-based datasets. Production of DSTO technical report.

Evaluation of a chaff blooming trial and model validation process using MATLAB and Simulink. Evaluation of statistical techniques used. Production of DSTO technical report.

The Task
Contract web development and sales support back-ends for DelftRed Simulation Systems' Plandroid software and for Agile Technologies, utilising Python and Django, and concentrating problem-specific database design, information storage and retrieval.

The Task
Head of Deduplication software development for Quantum. Provided director-level oversight of several teams: Architecture, Development, Test & QA, Integration, and Sustaining & Support, with managers reporting for to him for each group. Maintained overall responsibility for all development, testing, integration and deployment of the deduplication component embedded in the software stack of Quantum's DXi-series of VTL/NAS backup devices, and the StorNext filesystem and FSM.

Responsibilities
Overall schedule, quality, performance and financial responsibility for on-time, quality-assured internal deliveries to other divisions within Quantum; as well as sustaining and external customer support for all issues related to de-duplication. In collabaration with individual managers, responsible for overall task selection, planning, delegation and performance monitoring for 30 engineers. Overall personnel and site management for office, facilities and all staff (30 engineers & 1 admin officer), and consequent liaison with Quantum HR, Accounting and Facilities divisions. Responsible for ongoing recruitment of technical staff. With individual managers, ongoing responsibilitity for the definition and deployment of software engineering standards, processes, procedures and tools, and the evangelizing of same within the broader company. Ongoing liaision and planning in concert with division heads in head office in San Jose, California.

The Task
Head of of all Blocklets software development for Quantum. Responsible for all aspects of development of Rocksoft's deduplication software suite, and deployment and support to internal customers DXi-3500, DXi-5500, DXi-7500 and StorNext SM products.

Responsibilities
Development and support planning, tasking and ongoing management. Selection of technical staff. Ongoing management and scheduling of technical staff (15–30 engineers over time). Definition of software engineering standards, processes and procedures. Selection and management of project workflow, configuration management, development, maintenance and documentation tools. Management of internal customer support.

Responsible for all aspects of technical development and deployment of Rocksoft's products, leading to a successful acquisition of the company.

The Task
Technical development and support of the network data integrity, change management and storage software product Veracity and the data deduplication technology Blocklets.

Responsibilities
Research and development planning, tasking and ongoing management. Selection of technical staff. Ongoing management and scheduling of technical staff (18 engineers). Management of sub-contractors, local and overseas. Management of beta testers and user community. Definition of software engineering standards, processes and procedures. Selection and management of configuration management, development, maintenance and documentation tools. Planning of intranet and management tools. Porting new versions of products to 15 platforms. Liaison with platform vendors. Management of documentation and website. Creation, with CEO, of company technical strategy. Management of customer support. Analysis of competing products. Followup of marketing opportunities.

The Task
Construction of a Radar Warning Receiver and support software for RAAF F-111 & F/A-18 aircraft and ARA BlackHawk helicopters. Development involved 60 engineers, including 12 software engineers. The project used Object Oriented design methods; the design was held in UML format under Rational Rose; coding was in Ada 95.

Responsibilities
Performed independent Verification & Validation for the project. Reviewed project plans, processes, requirements, design and test documentation for correctness, consistency, clarity, traceability and testability. Modified the IV&V plan. Liaised with system and software team members. Approved test software for use in acceptance tests. Witnessed and signed off the conduct of software & system tests. Reviewed and approved test documentation arising from the test programme.

September 1999 – November 1999

The Task
Upgrade of the PARAKEET battlefield satellite communications system to include additional communications links and additional satellite transmission bands. The existing code was written in C and C++.

Responsibilities
Performed requirements analysis for the upgrade and extensive analysis of the existing software and design. As a result of the analysis, scoped and costed the upgrade task. Wrote new software requirements specification and constructed requirements database. Designed and wrote the software development plan. Selected and hired development engineers. Reviewed the upgraded design documentation, test plans & procedures.

See the reference.

As a sub-contractor to CelsiusTech, participated in the Mine Warfare Systems Centre (MWSC) project.

The Task
The creation of an integrated mine warfare planning and office automation system utilising both in-house and COTS software, with an ORACLE database and an X-windows based GUI. Development required 40 software engineers organised in 4 major teams, and used Shlaer-Mellor analysis and object-oriented design methods and the Teamwork, ORACLE, PCMS, BX (X GUI builder) and Apex support tools. Documentation was nominally to 2167A and coding was in Ada-83, SQL & BX.

Overall Responsibilities
Team leader of the mine warfare modelling team. The mine warfare models provide a set of tools allowing the planning and assessment of mine warfare operations at all levels of detail, from individual mine encounters to overall strategic planning in the Australian region. The modelling team consisted of 12 engineers organised in 3 sub-teams representing the simulation, algorithmic and scheduling based mathematical models.

Specific Responsibilities
Maintained overall technical control and coordination of the 3 sub-teams. Performed initial system analysis, database design & software design and allocated work packages, schedules and specific responsibilities to team members. Monitored technical and schedule progress, reporting to the Software Manager. Acted as technical liaison to the other major teams. Maintained CelsiusTech standard procedures and Quality standards. Reviewed output from team members for conformance and technical content.
In addition to management and technical oversight responsibilities, performed development of one of the mine warfare models through the full life cycle.

As part of the design process, made original contributions to mine warfare theory.

As a sub-contractor to Hughes, participated in the Canadian Automated Air Traffic System (CAATS) project.

The Task
The creation of an integrated ATC & FSS system to cover all of Canada. Development required over 150 software engineers in sub-system-based teams, and used full incremental object-oriented design methods and the Rational Rose and Apex support tools. Documentation was nominally to 2167A and coding was in Ada-95-compatible Ada-83.

Responsibilities
Worked with a team developing the 4D flight profile and protected airspace for each aircraft, for flight jurisdiction and conflict prediction purposes.
Participated in several project increments of: liaison with other teams, requirements allocation, top-level and detailed design, coding and testing, & reviews at each stage.

See the reference.

Formed Geodesic Systems Pty Ltd in April 1995 trading on a history of technical expertise. Acted as managing director, responsible for all statutory company requirements.

The Task
The development of STUBS, a secure (trusted) communication security system. This required the construction of assured software and the construction of a novel hardware architecture to perform the system's functions and allow integration with existing commercial platforms.
The documentation scheme followed 2167A and ITSEC requirements, and coding was in Modula-2 and C.

Responsibilities
Organized and gave technical direction to a small team of software engineers. Performed technical liaison with Commonwealth (DSTO) representatives. Participated in system design, software requirements, preliminary and detailed design, coding and testing.

As part of the design process, developed original work in covert channel analysis, upon which an Australian patent was based.

In concert with the company Facility Security Officer, designed security practices and procedures (in accordance with Australian military security requirements), and maintained overall security responsibility for, a secure site containing highly classified information systems and communications security devices.

The Task
Evaluation of the development process used by another company to create software to control an HF communications jammer.

Responsibilities
Examined standard procedures, project plans, and documentation system in accordance with 2167A, configuration control procedures and the resultant software (in Ada).
Provided estimates of the maintainability of the system and recommended corrective actions. These estimates served as the basis of the novation price. Implemented corrective actions and oversaw the customer's acceptance test.
Prepared software plans, schedules and estimates for the next project phase.

The Task
The production of an enhanced airborne Radar Warning Receiver on a multiprocessor Transputer network. Documentation was to 2167A and the languages used were Ada and Occam.

Responsibilities
Participated in customer requirements reviews. Defined project coding standards for Ada. Participated in design and design reviews. Designed and implemented a communications system between processors as well as other aspects of the system. Provided technical advice and direction to junior team members.

The Task
Perform a study establishing the requirements for and feasibility of a ground support software facility for an airborne Radar Warning Receiver.

Responsibilities
Served as project manager.
Prepared the successful bid for the feasibility study. Selected and led a team of engineers in requirements analysis, interviews with customer representatives, and production of a series of reports outlining a proposed system including cost, schedule and risk information. Presented a summary of these reports at formal customer reviews. Reported technical, schedule and financial performance to the EW manager.
Under Mr Cassidy's direction, the project was completed on time, under budget and to complete customer satisfaction.

The Task
An avionics and electronic warfare software project. The project involved developing an embedded real-time system and an associated VAX-based support system. The work involved the development of software for both the host and target environments. The documentation scheme was 2167A and the main programming language used was Ada.

Responsibilities
Organizing and controlling team personnel. Maintenance of software and quality standards and configuration control. Design and construction of a tracking subsystem and ground support prototype.

The project involved writing a small multiprogramming operating system for the PDP-11, with emphasis on device drivers for various peripherals and the modelling and implementation of various concurrency-control language features.

Founding member of the Ada Association of Australia

Association of Old Crows

Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia

"An Implementation of Modula-2 for Embedded Systems Development for NS32000", Peter J. Cassidy, Peter J. Ashenden & Christopher D. Marlin, Proc. Ninth Australian Computer Science Conference (January 1986), pp. 11-21.

Mr Cassidy also presented this paper at the conference itself.

"Asynchronous Coroutine Transfers in VAX/VMS Modula-2", W.P. Beaumont and P.J. Cassidy, Proc. Ninth Australian Computer Science Conference (January 1986), pp. 1-10.