Ahmar Faraz

408 299-0842https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmarfaraz               nizakia@yahoo.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Highly experienced Software QA professional, Cloud Architect and system engineer. Hands-on professional ensures the quality of software products are error free and meet the standards set by the company and that is expected by end users by building complete end-end testing infrastructure from ground up. Solid experience working for Fortune 500 companies, as well as start-ups (or small entrepreneurial businesses). My strength is ‘no-limits’ troubleshooting, using my technical skills in a variety of configurations and environments to find defects and produce error free products, and ultimately increasing the bottom line of the company.

 

COMPUTER SKILLS

Programming Languages: python, UNIX, Shell Scripting, DriveMaster, Matlab, SQL, Java scripting.

Databases: IBM DB2, Oracle 8, MSQL2000, MSSQL2005, MSSQL2008, MSSQL2012, Oracle9, Oracle10, Oracle 11G, Oracle 12C, Mongo, MySQL.

Automation Tools: Python, TLM, DriveMaster, Winrunner 7.0, JMeter, shell scripts.

Operating Systems: All known industry flavors of Windows, MAC, Linux, CentOS, Solaris, AIX.

Directory Servers: Sun Directory Server, LDAP, Active Directory.

VMWare: ESX 4, ESX 5.1, ESX 5.5

QA Tools: Test Director, Winrunner, Load runner, Doors, Quality Center, Clear case, Test Manager, Visual Studio team server, JMeter.

Bug Tracking Tools: Test Director, JIRA, Defect tracker, DDTS, Quality Center, Clear Quest, CDETS.

Application Servers: Weblogic, Websphere, Tomcat, JBOSS, Apache SSL, JBOSS SSL, TCserver, TCserver SSL.

Web Servers: IBM HTTP server, IIS, apache webserver.

Single Sign On: RSA Access manager, RSA webagent, Siteminder, Kerberos.

SSL certificates: RSA, Verisign, self signed, Microsoft.

Main Frame: IMSA4, Vantage, Rumba, VARI.

Web Designing: JAVA, HTML, FLASH, Dream Weaver.

 

WORK EXPERIENCE

Sandisk, Senior FW Validation Engineer2015 – Present

Working as cosultant in SanDisk dealing with multi-million dollar projects covering SSD validation.

§ Run Drive Master tests against different SSDs and firmware

§ Responsible for maintaining test suites covering Regression, Protocol, BuiltIn, NCQ, Performance and FFU compatibility.

§ Setup different test boxes with Drive Master and automation testing tools including Lecroy or SerialTek SATA analyzers.

§ Ran automation using TLM, AutoVal and Validation assessment tools.

§ Represent QA/Validation team in different levels of meetings starting from conception of project to its end.

§ Work with FW development team to resolve customer issues.

Cisco, Principal QA Engineer2012 – 2015 

§ Built and configured various cloud based setups.

§ Tested IaaS, PaaS and SaaS solutions in cloud end-end.

§ Tested varied application supported WSDLs using SOAP UI, which includes local DB authentication (both SQL and Oracle), SSO (via ADS and SunOne LDAP) and External user authentication (via ADS and SunOne LDAP).

§ Tested application server and webserver interface using SOAP UI.

§ Tested various WSDLs using SOAP UI for mixed mode authentication support of application.

§ Tested web services and REST APIs on our application with local authentication and also integrated with LDAP.

§ Defined, designed, developed, tested, debugged, released, enhanced and maintained Cisco Prime Service Catalog.

§ Tested SSO, LDAP, Stack Designer, UCSD integration (PUMA), RabbitMQ integration, installer (Perl-based, silent and InstallAnyWhere), release to release upgrade patterns, system test hosts, application servers and webservers hosting application, test database backend, service designer module, utilities module etc of Prime Service Catalog.

§ Tested and setup integration projects with UCSD, RabbitMQ, CIAC, Ibis, PUPPET and OpenStack heat and keystone components.

§ Tested stack designer module for end-to-end SaaS solution.

§ Worked with Engineering Development and TAC teams resolving customer support issues using patches and service packs.

§ Participated in Customer facing calls to resolve customer issue in Agile methodology.

§ Provided demos to TAC, TME, dev/QA groups and customers covering main features of application after every release.

§ Tested areas of application identified by COSI.

§ Installed Jenkins server to support continuous deployment in SDLC process.

§ Supported auto deployment by building rpms using continuous integration with Jenkins server.

§ Built all test infrastructure including replicating customer environments for support cases, which includes installation and configuration of test boxes using different OSs including flavors of  Windows, Linux, CentOS, AIX etc and application servers and webservers like weblogic, jboss, websphere, IIS, apache, IHS etc. During this activity provide recommendations to improve application performance both on hardware and software fronts.

§ Maintained current QA and customer support lab infrastructure on ESX4 and ESX5 servers.

§ Installed and configured single-sign-on, external authentication, Rabbit MQ, REST clients

§ Managed DNS, DHCP, SQL server (2005, 2008 and 2012), Oracle 10 and 11G databases and LDAP integrated systems.

§ Designed automation scripts in Perl and Python to facilitate API testing and other routine tasks.

§ Upgraded all existing test platforms with different daily releases.

§ Coordinated across departments and participated in scheduling--from conception to testing.

§ Provided software design, documentation and implementation on Cisco products.

§ Architected, designed and delivered system software after specification of platform requirements.

§ Demonstrated a high degree of originality and innovation in defining product and project level architecture.

§ Influenced design of interfaces between products to ensure interoperability.

§ Resolved design issues, defined new software product features and developed large portions of software.

§ Defined Reliability, Availability and Serviceability goals for products.

§ Tested and developed Virtual Appliance.

§ Installed and configured RabbitMQ with AMQP.

§ Built and supported Tier4 labs

§ Worked as DevOps engineer building and supporting:  Production, Staging and Development environments for various Cisco cloud solutions.

§ Supported vcenter/ESX 5.0,5.1 and 5.5 environments.

§ Member of core committee to pass ISO compliancy audit for SJC labs.

§ Installed and configured Puppet and ansible to remote manage production and development servers.

Coreworx, Senior QA Specialist 2011 –2012              

§ Worked on different simultaneous releases including setup and testing following agile testing process.

§ Tested different components of deliverables management, change management, deliverables discrepancy and develop test cases accordingly in Test Manager.

§ Used Visual Studio team server to record status of all tests.

§ Completed whole process to attain Microsoft certification of DMS as part of gold member partnership.

 

EMC², Principal QA Engineer                                                                                                                                        2008 –2011

Worked as a principal QA Engineer for 4 applications as under:

Avalon

An integrated data archiving system by the name of AVALON which is used to archive media from leading broadcasters, channels and IT companies. Avalon is wide scale archiving system which involves different legacy archiving products from EMC like Avalon, Documentum, FSS, and Clarion etc.

§ Documentum Media Work Space

Documentum Media WorkSpace gives you a set of powerful new features to help you fully leverage the value of your rich-media assets. This streamlined, dynamic user interface allows components to be easily added or removed from view to allow users to personalize their work environment.

§ My Documentum for Desktop
My Documentum for Desktop provides transparent access to content in the repository. It extends popular desktop operating systems and exposes commonly used Documentum content management capabilities, allowing managed and secure EMC Documentum content to be easily accessed.

§ EMC Mobile app for iPad
Using server client integration this application allows iPad users to access repositories using ECM mobile client. Using its rich interface users can perform loads of repository related functions.

Fatwire Joint Venture
As part of joint partnership with Fatwire represent EMC in all meetings and was responsible for setting up all Fatwire based products like content server, community server and gadget server in house for EMC to evaluate these Fatwire line of products.

 

Nuance Communication, Lead QA2006 –2008

Oversaw a project called Nuance Directory Assistance (NDA) IVR (interactive voice response) system,, managing a team and working with customers in USA, Australia and England. Preparing QA Strategy and Test Plans to ensure quality of different components of the NDA project. .Brought corporate wide quality awareness by implementing leading industry practices and to monitor the quality of the project. Evaluated current development, QA and testing process and identified the problem areas. Streamlined existing software development processes to make them more efficient.

§ Successfully managed and lead several projects with proper estimating and resources planning

§ Introduced QA concepts, measurement techniques to measure performance, and improve software development process.

§ Developed, Designed and Implemented software test plans, test cases, test scripts, guidelines for software requirement, technical specification, and review process,

§ Represented QA in client facing meetings with project management teams with clients in USA, Australia and England. .

§ Developed complete automation testing infrastructure using PERL for functional, load, performance, scalability, robustness, installation, acceptance, smoke, system wide and high availability design testing.

§ Configured and used Oracle 10G to query the database to access user data before and after the tests to verify validity of data in DB tables as per use cases.

§ Worked effectively cross-functionally, supporting and assisting to Customer Support, Sales and Business Development.

§ Demonstrated the ability to troubleshoot and analyze complex problems doing different types of testing analyze JAVA logs to pin point root cause of the problem which helped developers to remove the bugs.

§ Using Eclipse wrote Perl scripts to automate whole UP process activity which includes writing Perl automation scripts, creating custom DB using Oracle 10G, creating design documentation and log scarpers.

 

Computer Horizons, Senior QA Analyst2005 –2006

Worked on Metlife project and responsible to deliver; QA Strategy, Data Mapping, Test Plan, Test Cases. Analyze requirements for MLI XG product. The goal of the MLI XG Enhancement Project is to expand the existing Single Premium Deferred Annuity (SPDA) product currently offered by MLI USA to the remaining MLI franchises.

•            Prepared QA strategy, test plans and test scripts to ensure software quality
•            Suggested and implemented improvements in testing strategies and methods
•            Logged, tracked, and validated resolution of identified defects by using Test Director 8.0
•            Supported system partner testing to ensure delivery of a quality product
•            Assisted in developing appropriate test scenarios, setting up test data and interpreting results
•            Developed test status and requirements traceability documentation

TLA/Data Re-Architecture:

Led the Data Re-Architecture project involves the re-architecture of several Data sources. Validated three new MetLife Life products into one eService application for inquiry, EAC access in support of the Travelers integration.  TLA project also verified that the data migration from the old to the new tables does not have any effect on existing eService functionality.

•            Identified and resolved the ambiguity in the data mapping documents and System Definition Document
•            Prepare QA strategy, Test plan and data validation document, installed and configured IBM DB2
•            Used IBM DB2, VANTAGE and VARI to validate the data Re-Architecture
•            Wrote SQL queries, using Oracle 9i, to verify the results against the application

IBM DB2

Led IBM DB2 project so that QAs can do back end testing by using SQL queries at DB level.

• Managed a team of 4 people to complete this project.

 

Past Work Experience:

• Worked as consultant in Points International LTD as Senior QA from 2004-2005
• Worked as consultant in Khan H. R. Company as programmer/QA in 2004.
• Worked in SBC(AT&T) as QA Analyst from 2002-2003
• Worked as RA in SIUE as Lab assistant in 2001.
•  

CERTIFICATIONS

•            Oracle Certified Professional – Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL (OCP)
•            Cisco certified network associate (CCNA) 
•            Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE)
•            Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA)
•            Completed Vsphere 4 configure and install course from VMware and received a certificate from VMware
•            Completed many company sponsored/hosted learning events in all past jobs.

 

EDUCATION

M.S. ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Southern Illinois University, USA                   Cumulative GPA 4.0/4.0

B.E. ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

N.E.D. University of Engg. And Tech., Pakistan      Cumulative GPA 4.0/4.0