Resume of

Curtis Frantz

120 E. Laurenbrook Court

Cary, NC 27511

 (919) 859-2701

(919) 649-9129 (cell)

May 2006

Team Leader / Project Manager

Objective: To join a vibrant, enlightened organization that is proud of the quality of its products, Customer oriented, respectful of its employees, and in which I can make considerable contributions and demonstrate leadership in the areas of project management and as a team lead.

 

5/05 to 4/06: ThinkPad Products        Lenovo RTP, NC

As strategic planner and planning project manager for IBM's, then Lenovo’s, new Z-Series ThinkPad product line, I was responsible for all planning aspects of the first 14” and 15.4” widescreen ThinkPads.   These were the first of the new cleansheet family of Thinkpads and the first to include integrated cameras, integrated WWAN, titanium top covers and other industrial design and functional improvements.  I helped design and define these products from their pre-concept phase and was responsible for presenting these new product plans to executives on the Integrated Portfolio Management Team (IPMT) for funding approval.

 

8/01 to 5/05: Personal Computing Division (PCD) ThinkPad Products         IBM RTP, NC

As planning project manager for IBM's industry leading T-Series ThinkPad product line, I was responsible for defining, creating and maintaining product offering definitions and plans of record and ensuring accurate and timely announcements for dozens of product RFAs (Release For Announcement). These announcements spanned the T23, T30, T40, and T41 ThinkPad families. As strategic planner for the T-Series, T and R-Series workstations, and new ThinkPad port replicator and docking stations, I helped design and define these products from their pre-concept phase. I was responsible for presenting these product plans to executives on the Integrated Portfolio Management Team for approval. I was the ThinkPad planning representative on the PCD Customer Value Relationship Model (CVRM) enablement team. In October 2003, I assumed strategic planner and planning project manager responsibilities for the G-Series ThinkPad product line. I was in these roles for four program announcements. In June 2004, I additionally assumed strategic planner and planning project manager responsibilities for the first of the next generation docking and ThinkPad product offerings.

 

8/99 to 8/01: Tivoli Kernel Services         IBM/Tivoli RTP, NC

As System Verification Test (SVT) lead of a 25 person cross-site (Austin / Tucson / RTP / Yamato, Japan) test effort for the first release of Tivoli Kernel Services (TKS), I defined the test plans, led the effort to define the SVT content, and helped ensure our ship date would be contained even though the SVT cycle was reduced from five months to two. I was the RTP test lead during Functional Verification Test (FVT) and wrote test plans and automated test cases (in Java) for TKS subsystems. I contributed to re-structuring, staffing, and educating the test team helping it to become a high performing, high energy team. My accomplishments include: leading TKS education sessions for more than 80 people in information development, marketing, support, development, and test teams, developing a test tracking tool that led to the submission of four invention disclosures, and budgeting for and ordering the equipment to build the TKS test lab in RTP. After TKS 1.1 shipped, I assumed team lead responsibility for testing TKS patches. In four months in that position, we shipped six patches containing fixes for more than 300 defects.

 

1/99 to 8/99: Nways Management Application Products        IBM RTP, NC

As Test Team leader of the Nways Management Application suite of products I was responsible for developing the functional, system, and product verification test plans and test cases, ensuring their successful execution, collecting and reporting test status--highlighting hot problems and bottlenecks, and acquiring all hardware and software needed for test. When function was delivered late, I executed the Deployment Manager testcases to enable all our products to meet their planned 5/99 availability. I also ensured the more than 200 workstations and devices in our test lab were Y2K compliant. I defined and put in place a process to ensure they remained so.

 

1/98 to 1/99: e-Network Wireless and Mobile Products     IBM RTP, NC

As Performance Team leader of the new e-Network Mobile Equalizer product, I had primary responsibility for developing, maintaining, executing, and regularly conveying the status of the Mobile Equalizer Performance Team Project Plan. After analyzing the product's design and performance–and identifying numerous functional problems–my team made specific recommendations resulting in substantial performance improvements. A performance analysis of the leading product in the field, XcelleNet's RemoteWare, was done and a comparison between it and Mobile Equalizer presented.

 

9/95 to 1/98: Portable Systems Network Architecture             IBM RTP, NC

Portable SNA (PSNA) code is an implementation of the Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) architecture consisting of more than 500 KLOC of C written portably to run on a variety of platforms. Its development and test platform is OS/2. My roles included team lead of the Test Technology Team (5 people, 9/95-7/96), team lead of the Automated Regression Test Team (7 business partners from India, 10/95-3/96), and team lead of the PSNA team (20 people downsized to 10, 9/96 to 1/98). My responsibilities included extending test tools, writing, executing, and screening the results of automated test cases, coding fixes for defects found in test and Customer shops, reviewing design documents, test plans, and test cases, participating in PSNA process definition for ISO 9000 conformance, being the PSNA interface for internal customers, developing and tracking project plans for PSNA sub-teams, and training co-ops.

 

4/93 to 9/95: Nways Switch Management Application       IBM RTP, NC & La Gaude, France

The Nways Switch Management Application was 70 KLOC of C and C++ code written for the NetView 6000 platform (AIX) to manage BroadBand Networking Services (BBNS) resources implemented in Nways switches developed in La Gaude, France. As one of the original two and then final member of what had been a 12 person team, my accomplishments included: gathering requirements, participating in the development of a "validation of concept" prototype, creating the accounting management architecture (OSI/CMIP based), designing, developing, and testing the accounting manager, participating in various design, development, and review efforts, and providing extensive skills transfer. I spent most of the time from 10/94 to 9/95 in La Gaude where I supported the team's code during product and system verification tests, gave demonstrations of the application to Customers, isolated test floor problems to application component, agent, or hardware, and ran the test floor for a two week period during which we uncovered over 100 defects in La Gaude supplied code and hardware.

 

1/91 to 4/93: OSI Systems Management Architecture             IBM RTP, NC

As a network and systems management architect my accomplishments included: participated in the development of the CMIP (object oriented technology) Log Control and Event Reporting international standards, extended the standards to enable IBM value-add, and educated IBM network management product designers and developers about these and other OSI Systems Management Architecture standards. During this period I also had sole responsibility for testing the Topology Integration Manager, a NetView 6000 utility.

 

9/89 to 6/92: SystemView Configuration Management             IBM RTP, NC

Member of the SystemView task force that created the technical base for IBM's SystemView strategy and team lead for a cross-division team responsible for defining SystemView Configuration Management. Accomplishments included: gathered requirements, designed, and documented SystemView Configuration Management and participated in the high-level design and detailed review of the other SystemView systems management disciplines.

 

8/83 to 9/87: SNA Management Services Architecture             IBM RTP, NC

As a network management architect, my accomplishments included: created the APPN management services and Centralized Network Management (CNM) architectures and extended SNA/MS architecture particularly in the area of problem management.

 

09/84 to 05/91: Duke University PhD program Duke University     Durham, NC

Full-time student for two years, part-time for 5 years working towards a doctorate in computer science with a thesis in the field of automated theorem proving. Course work completed (GPA 3.6/4.0) and oral exams passed, however I did not complete my dissertation work due largely to changes in life goals.

 

1/92 to present: Alternate Healthier Choices Home business         Cary, NC

Co-owner of home business that researches life's significant decision points and collects, synthesizes, and distributes information to help people make alternate, healthier, choices in their lives. Co-author of the book, Have the Wedding You Want for Less Than $500, and of the audiotape program Healthy, Pain Free, Drug Free Childbirth.

 

3/78 to 9/81: Unionbank Audit Department Unionbank             Bethlehem, PA

Junior auditor responsible for Electronic Data Processing (EDP) auditing.

 

Degrees and Awards Received

M.A. in Computer Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 8/83 (GPA 4.0/4.0). B.S. in Physics from The Pennsylvania State University in 5/77 (GPA 3.1/4.0). Co-inventor and co-owner of two patents related to network management. Excellence Award for "team building and entrepreneurship contributions" which recognized my having given presentations on teamwork, co-authoring the Architecture and Telecommunications Entrepreneurial Model, distributing to IBMers in dozens of cities in twenty states and seven countries the audiotape program I wrote and recorded, Cultural Heresy: The Case Against Competition, and organizing an area Focus Week (a week in which employees including managers volunteered to set aside their planned work to form small teams that concentrated on creating or improving long-neglected tools, processes, infrastructure, and strategies). Hired by IBM in 8/83, I was promoted to senior associate programmer in 4/85, staff programmer in 10/90, and advisory programmer in 11/92.

 

Personal

Married for 16 years to the former Jacalyn "Missy" Leslie.  A son, Eric, age 13, a daughter Cara, age 2. Enjoy parenting, painting, reading, writing, learning, programming, traveling, Taekwondo (2nd degree black belt), Hapkido (1st degree black belt), street hockey, understanding people, and problem solving.

 

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