Chris Hennessy

PeopleSoft Senior Team Lead / Developer / Upgrader
Email: Chris@Hennessy-Consulting.com
Phone: (303) 810-9576 (Cell)

Experience Summary:
Mr. Hennessy has ten years of PeopleSoft experience and over fourteen years IT experience.  His expertise encompasses all phases of software analysis and development, from lead development, proposal generation, implementation, requirements definition, creation of technical specifications, construction, and system testing through production support, and maintenance, in addition to systems administration.  Mr. Hennessy has experience as lead developer, PeopleSoft Administrator and Upgrade Specialist. 

Recently Mr. Hennessy fulfilled 2 roles for a Financials/Supply Chain upgrade from 7.5 to 8.4 at a Telecom provider.  Starting as the Technical Lead/Manager, he also assumed the Project Manager role as the project approached go-live.  His extensive experience with PeopleSoft, and the upgrade/maintenance process give him very detailed understanding of the technical and architecture challenges as well as a complete understanding of the PeopleSoft  upgrade methodology.  Previously, Mr. Hennessy was a technical expert for Archstone-Smith’s 7.06 to 8.4 Financials upgrade.  His main responsibility was upgrading an external web interface using PeopleSoft's Component Interface capabilities.  This interface is an Active Server Pages application which required coding in VB, and JavaScript.  Mr. Hennessy also assisted with a variety of upgrade tasks, and implemented infrastructure (PIA) monitoring automation.  Previously at Gambro Healthcare, he was lead installation and upgrade expert for their 7.5 to 8.4 Financials/Supply Chain upgrade.  Highlights of this assignment include performance tuning Application Engine, SQR, and SQL processes for GL, AR, AP, AM, IN, and Purchasing.  Mr. Hennessy also provided technical direction and expertise for the integration of external interfaces such as Real-Time Barcode scanning to PS Inventory and Integration to an Enterprise Security Setup system.  Prior to Gambro HealthCare, he served as PeopleSoft Administrator for a client where he installed and supported  three 8.1x suites (HRMS, Financials and Staffing).  He has served in a variety of functional and technical roles on a case-by-case basis.  Mr. Hennessy has completed several Major Upgrades, and thousands of  fixes, bundles, tools patches, minor tools releases, services packs, and tax updates, as well as new installations including Financials, Supply Chain, HRMS/Payroll and Staffing for Front Office.  Mr. Hennessy’s responsibilities have included technical lead, functional lead, production support and project management.  He enjoys being a mentor to other staff or consultants new to the latest PeopleSoft  technologies, as well as learning from those he works with.  His extensive PeopleSoft background demonstrates an ability to be a great contributor technically as well as functionally, and a great ability (and passion) to understand a broad array of systems. 

Work History:
Hennessy Consulting Inc (www.hennessy-consulting.com), Feb 1996 - present

·         Technical Lead / Project Manager for FIN/SCM 7.5 to 8.4 upgrade at Telecom provider: 
Role for this upgrade began as Technical Lead/Manager, and transitioned to Project Manager.  Modules Upgraded:  AP, AM, PC, GL, PO.  New Module:  IN. 
Technical Lead/Manager duties included:  Defining schedule to meet client deadline.  Setting up the Demo, Development, several Test environments to accommodate a very aggressive upgrade schedule (This involved installation and configuration of all PIA tiers).  Appling PS bundles and fixes.  Managing Technical staff.  Defining application and migration procedures for PS bundles, fixes and custom development between environments.  Setting up and assisting in stress testing of Production Environment, working with internal testing group.  Coordinating UNIX admin and Oracle DBA efforts to facilitate space availability and backup requirements for rapidly changing upgrade environments.  (Hardware for both the Development and Production systems had several upgrades.)  Optimizing the PeopleSoft upgrade process, to accommodate clients allowed downtime for upgrade cutover (long weekend).  Tuning of application to meet acceptable SLA for end users (online and batch).  Troubleshooting of any application problems including: COBOL, App Engines, PeopleCode,  nVision, Crystal, online application pages.  Often such troubleshooting required generating and interpreting traces, or using the PeopeCode debugger.

During the last month Mr. Hennessy assumed the Project Manager role.  Duties included reporting  to the Executive Steering Committee the progress, concerns and risks as we approached the cutover date.  Worked with the Steering Committee to plan the final cutover and contingency plans.  Conducted weekly issues meetings with functional and technical staff to track outstanding problems, and assign priorities.  Also met weekly with PeopleSoft to make sure they were working open cases critical to client’s successful upgrade.  Managed consulting staff to assure proper coverage during final weeks of upgrade, and immediate post-upgrade support.

Post-Upgrade support to the Financials System was very quiet by the 2nd  week live, so  Mr Hennessy advised and assisted on application of  PeopleTools patch to HR system to help client meet upcoming rollout of new emodule. (1/2004 – 6/2004)

·         Upgrade, Integration Specialist to REIT: Moved APExpress voucher entry and approval web application built on Active Server Pages (ASP) using  vbscript, jscript, and SQL Server 2000.  This interface provided 90% of access to the AP system allowing input of approximately 30,000 vouchers to be entered monthly by field offices with no PS training.  Assisted with PeopleSoft upgrade tasks and system configuration.  Developed/Setup PIA monitoring utilities to notify operations of Web Server, App Server, Database or Process Scheduler problems.  Developed custom PeopleSoft Process Type to allow end users to run Crystal reports using native ODBC driver (not PS/Query), and view reports through Portal like delivered reports/processes.  (5/03 - 12/03)

·         Upgrade, Upgrade Specialist to Healthcare Provider: Lead Technical consultant for upgrade FIN/SCM  7.5 to 8.4.  Installed PeopleSoft 8.4 and configured hardware to support PIA demo, upgrade, test and production environments.  Used PS Upgrade Assistant to run upgrade steps.  Managed bundle/fix application and implemented methodology for tracking PS system changes.  Managed PeopleTools Patch and Upgrade application throughout upgrade project.  Interfaced with internal System Admin groups to install and turn over ownership of PeopleSoft Internet Architecture (PIA).  Worked with internal DBA to design upgrade database to take advantage of new database features such as locally managed tablespaces. 

Worked with functional experts to help troubleshoot problems, required skills including: SQR, SQL, COBOL, ksh, and generating and interpreting PS or database traces.  In-depth tuning was required as the client has approximately 1000 Inventory Business Units.  

Generally provided technical expertise, direction and confidence in PS 8.4x tools and architecture and Oracle database.   (4/02 - 8/03)

·         Programmer for Healthcare Provider: Technical consultant to program C API calls used to collect treatment information from medical equipment, which is stored in a central database and displayed back at treatment sites real-time.  Required socket level communication with hardware across a WAN, with expectation to establish connections to 7500 machines around the country.  (3/02 - 4/02)

·         PS Administrator for Staffing Company: Lead Technical consultant to install and configure environment for implementation of three PeopleSoft suites:  HR/Payroll, Financials, and Staffing for Front Office (release 8.1).  All three suites were new implementations completed in roughly one year, with staggered rollout. Application Messaging (Integration Broker in later releases) was used extensively to synchronize Billing and Payroll data that was kept in Financials and HRMS.  The Staffing suite was a new PS product requiring 24x7 uptime for this client.  We were the 2nd customer using the product, which required constant maintenance.  (5/01 - 4/02)

·         Upgrade Expert to Upgrade Lab: Lead Upgrade consultant to train new staff on upgrade process, and upgrade their internal HRMS 7.5 system to 8.1.  This was a great opportunity to do a textbook upgrade, as their system had almost no customizations. (5/01 - 7/01)

·         PeopleSoft Consultant to Medical Equipment Manufacturer:  Project Manager and/or Technical lead for upgrades of PeopleSoft HR/Payroll 5.12 to 7.01, GL/AM/AR from 3.23 to 6, and GL/AM/AR from 6 to 7.5.  Developer on the installation and implementation of  PeopleSoft AP/PO/Inventory modules.  Programmed Message Agent interface for RF (Radio Frequency) barcode scanning for Laboratory, to allow real-time Inventory updates.  Mr. Hennessy was kept on for ongoing support of these systems, as well as to work on Archiving and Data Warehousing efforts.   He also developed and instructed classes on PeopleSoft's reporting tools, to the user community.    (10/94 - 5/01)

Raymond James Consulting, Englewood, CO - Sr. Consultant,     10/94 - 2/96
Mr. Hennessy's Oracle experience proved to be a great asset on his first PeopleSoft assignment.  Knowledge of how to build efficient SQL, and get the correct information from the ORACLE database turned this 3 month assignment as a Crystal Reports developer into several years of working with PeopleSoft.  Raymond James Consulting was acquired by a temp agency, and for many  reasons this proved to be a good time to start Hennessy Consulting Inc.

INVESCO Funds Group, Denver, CO - Sr. Systems Analyst,     10/92 - 10/94
As part of a small IT group, tasks included systems administration, database administration, software development and quality assurance.  As well as supporting the Mutual Fund Shareholders system, Mr. Hennessy developed and maintained the software infrastructure used by other development/support staff such as Source Code Control and Job scheduling in the UNIX environment.  He also was UNIX systems administrator for 100+ users.

Great-West Life Assurance, Englewood, CO - Sr. Software Engineer    6/89 - 10/92
Working on the Production Support Team, Mr. Hennessy supervised and trained other programmers.  Primary task on this team was to improve application performance of the UNIX/Oracle based system.  As team leader, he identified and resolved poor indexes, bad queries and/or inefficient application logic.  Prior to Production Support, Mr. Hennessy contributed as a developer on a number of projects, which included PC and UNIX/Oracle based systems.  

 

PeopleSoft Module Experience:

Financials  3, 6, 7.5, 8.1, 8.4

GL, AM, AR, AP, PC

Supply Chain (SCM) 7.5, 8.4

PO, IN

Staffing for Front Office / PayBill / Financials 8.1

GL, AP, BI

HR / Payroll 3, 4, 5.12, 7, 7.5, 8.1

HR, Payroll, Benefits, ADP Interface

 

PeopleTools Experience:

App Designer (PT3.12 - PT8.4x)

All types of upgrades, bundles, fixes and tax updates

Install / Upgrade (Upgrade Assistant)

Install / Upgrade Server(UNIX,LINUX and Win2K) and Client setup 7.x and 8.x

Security / Portal Administrator

Web Server and App Server Configuration/Administration

Data Mover

PS/Query

Process Scheduler

Custom Process Types:  FTP, KSH,

Crystal (native), SQL

Application Engine

Component Interface (Java, VB and ASP, PeopleCode)

PeopleBooks Install, Upgrade and merging.

Application Messaging / Integration Broker

 

Technical Skills:

Operating Systems:

UNIX, AIX, Linux, Win NT, Win2K

DBMS

Oracle, MS/SQLServer

Report Tools

SQL, SQR, Crystal

Programming Languages

SQL, PL/SQL, Java, Perl, C, C++, VB, ASP, JavaScript

Unix Scripting / Utilities

Ksh, csh, sh, cron, grep, perl, cut, find,...

 

Technical Training/Conferences: 

PeopleSoft Annual Conference (Connect)

96,97,98, 99, 2001, 2003

PeopleSoft Integration Tools 8.1

9/2001

PeopleTools II  7.5 – 8.1 Delta

9/2001

PeopleSoft Data Management Tools (upgrades)

4/97

PeopleTools I

3/97

Microsoft Project

7/94

OOD and C++ for C programmers

6/93

NCR  Partners Technical Conference

10/93

Education:
Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO   B.S. in Computer Science  05/86 - 05/89
Lawrence University  Appleton, WI,  Music/Pre-engineering,  9/81 - 7/82, 1/84 - 7/84