Munich Re Automation Solutions Ltd

.NET Technical Lead

Citi

Working in the transfer agency department and building an MVC, Entity Framework, SQL Server, jQuery, Bootstrap, SignalR system to manage the payment of Trailer Fees which are service commissions CITI pays to investors, distributors etc. 

- Agile project with sprints, daily scrums, retrospectives, client demos at end of sprint etc. 
- TFS for source control and code reviews / Jira for task management.
- IBM UrbanCode for deployment management (continuous integration, approval, rollback etc.)
- Senior team member who provides significant input into architecture, UX & SDLC decisions.
- Responsible for deploying to DEV, SIT and UAT as well as PROD release handover to ops. 
- Responsible for branching/merging strategy to allow hot fix and major release development.
- Responsible for assisting and mentoring other developers on technical and architectural issues.

Contract renewed multiple times.

.Net Contractor

Worked on customer information management system based on MVC, Web API, Entity Framework, SQL Server 2014, jQuery and Bootstrap. Provided significant improvements to the application development life cycle from my first day and acted as team lead/mentor for 5 or 6 different developers of varying skill sets throughout the course of the project. 

A second project I worked on was a .Net high volume business-business currency trading application using the FIX protocol. 

Renewed multiple times until project was finished.

United Drug

United Drug are the largest pharmaceutical wholesaler in the Republic of Ireland and currently manage the distribution of temperature controlled vaccines to GPs, Pharmacists, Hospitals, Schools, Prisons etc. as part of the HSEs National Cold Chain Service. In this role I worked closely with the HSE and internal United Drug customer service staff to gather requirements and build an online vaccine ordering system which will eventually completely replace fax and phone orders.

The system is built on the .Net stack using ASP.NET Web forms in VB, SQL Server and SSIS and 	interfaces with United Drugs internal ERP system via SOAP web services. jQuery and AJAX are  carefully used to improve the user experience, while Skeleton is used to provide grid based mobile 	friendly responsive design. SVN is used for source control and myBalsamiq for mock-ups. 

Currently I am also leading the development work needed to integrate multiple existing ecommerce websites into SAP which United Drug is switching to in Q3 2015.

Version 1

Back in office for few months working on various projects including ones for RTE, SEAI and the Department of Sports, Tourism and Transport. Doing a lot of SSRS and SSIS as well as some nice PDF generation stuff too. Usual ASP.Net MVC, Jquery, EF stuff too.

AWAS

AWAS are a market leader who lease aircraft (mainly Boeing and Airbus) to airlines all over the world. I'm currently working with a medium sized team of about 10 internal developers, business analysts and other Version 1 consultants on site in AWAS's Dublin headquarters located in the Docklands. We're building an intranet app to manage the various stages that lease deals go through before a contract can be signed. Stages might include prospecting, input from the legal department, input from the finance department etc. Industry domain is quite complex so learning this was/is a big challenge. 

Application is built with C#/ASP.NET MVC4 and Entity Framework over Oracle. User interface is powered by Twitter Bootstrap and jQuery. SSRS and Aspose is used to generate custom business reports. Process uses Jira Greenhopper and is roughly Agile with daily scrums, sprints, storyboards and fortnightly show and tells for customer feedback. We use Toad to manage Oracle interaction, SVN for source control and TeamCity for Continuous Integration. With the exception of Aspose I've worked on all aspects of and technologies used in the system.

.Net Contractor (For Version 1)

Central Bank of Ireland

Working directly on site with client in the main Dame Street building. I worked as part of a team of approx 10 CB staff along with a couple of other contractors. I mainly worked writing class libraries for use with windows service sych jobs in VB to parse excel based returns (a collection of related financial statements such as Profit & Loss, Assets, Liabilities, Investments etc.) submitted by financial institutions on a regular predefined basis such as weekly, monthly etc. and then batch synch (via XML and ADO.Net) the data from the returns with internal reporting/statistics software. 

Work included significant DB design and stored procedure work on SQL Server and core VB OO stuff. I was mainly using SynchFusion Essential XlsIO for working with excel based data, however I also had to use MS Office Interop on occasion too for related work. The code I wrote for the synch job was to be run via a windows service so no real GUI work, just basic console stuff to test. 

While in the bank I also worked on a candidate application approval system which financial institutions had to use to get their selected candidate for any senior positions in the Irish banking sector approved by the Central Bank. On this project there was a lot more GUI web forms work but a lot of DB stuff too. 

The central bank uses TFS for SDLC Management.

Worked on site in Donnybrook as part of 10+ person team on a series of large project engagements with national broadcaster RTE. The main project I worked on was a greenfield Audio Visual Metadata management system which allowed TV & Radio production teams first upload show source media files & then associate titles, descriptions, genres etc. with either the complete source files or if desired the source files split into individual clips/segments. Finally the production teams would choose which of RTEs platforms (RTE.IE, RTE Player, RTE Radio Player, iPhone, Playstation3, UPC etc.) the content should be published to.

I was tasked with adding support for many of the platforms listed above however of particular note due to its complexity & importance was the task of adding support for publishing content to UPCs new On Demand TV Service. This service is due to reach around 600K houses when fully launched. Integration involved sending XML (conforming to CableLabs VOD standard) to UPC as well as converting media files to be of a particular quality suitable for broadcast via On Demand TV. The result of my work on this integration can be seen by choosing 'RTE Player' on the UPC On Demand dashboard.

Specs for this system were ASP.NET MVC in C#, NHibernate (via linq) over SQL server along with good use of jQuery/AJAX to improve usability. For SDLC management we used TFS & Visual Studio Team Edition based loosely around an agile model with daily stand-up scrums, regular client contact with lots of small delivery milestones. To elicit early feedback from users on GUI & workflow elements we used myBalsamiq & MS Visio extensively.

I worked fully across all areas of the system including low level DB design & NHibernate/ORM implementation, core C# OO architecture and implementation and front end (jQuery/Razor/HTML etc.) related stuff. I regularly provided assistance to other team members in relation to matters were I was the team knowledge expert, ie. NHibernate.

LED Group

Led Group are a leading lighting and electrical product manufacturer with headquarters in Dublin. I worked with Led Group on a fixed term contract. Based in the marketing department but working closely with IT, Sales and Warehouse resources my role was a broad and holistic one which included both technical and online marketing related tasks and responsibilities. 

Primarily I led the redevelopment from requirements gathering to final go live of Led Groups B2B online ordering ecommerce system. This system is used daily by hundreds of electrical wholesalers in Ireland and the UK who sell Led Groups products direct to market. 

After reviewing the existing system and talking to customers both in Ireland and the UK I recommended a rebuild from new with significant usability and business process changes to keep the system focused on its primary function. Technical specs for the redeveloped system were PHP with CodeIgniter MVC framework over SQL Server. The system integrated with back office ERP system SAP Business One via the SAP XML based data API for the actual placing of orders. jQuery was used to improve the user shopping experience. Methodology used on this project was loosely Agile with defined sprints, stand ups and regular customer feedback. 

Even though there was no web development team per se at that stage, I introduced many web development best practice methodologies and technologies for use on future projects such as wire-framing (with Balsamiq) before sign off to reduce project unknowns, change management control (via Subversion, Bugzilla and formal change request processes) as well as encouraging improved and more formal quality assurance throughout the course of development projects.

I also worked extensively on SEO, General Online marketing, Google Analytics and Conversion Rate Optimisation implementation and strategy in relation to Led Groups second web property, their non protected corporate website and product catalogue.

PHP & Online Marketing Contractor

Communicraft Limited

Web developer working with either PHP or ASP.Net depending on the specific project. Worked building content management systems, secure ecommerce booking/purchasing engines for sites such as 1800hotels.com and celtichorizontours.com as well as numerous other development tasks. Adhoc SEO for external clients conducted too on occasion. Communicraft used CVS for source control and CruiseControl.Net for continuous integration.

PHP & .Net Web Developer

Senior Software Engineer | .NET Content Creator

Hi there, 

I'm a Senior software engineer, architect and technical lead with approximately 20 years experience with the .NET stack and related technologies.

I love the .NET platform and share C#, .NET, Entity Framework and Visual Studio tips regularly on X/Twitter and LinkedIn to around 80K followers. 

I became a Microsoft MVP in April 2024 and am one of only three MVPs for .NET in Ireland. 

Am always open to hearing about interesting collaboration or job opportunities so please feel free to send me a message or connection request 😊.

Dave Callan

Full stack .NET developer and architect who has worked on this stack for over 16 years. I've also 6 years PHP experience but most contracts recently have been .NET based. Extensive use of best practice technologies and methodologies. 

Proud holder of 1st class honours higher diploma in psychology (2012-2014). In this course I acquired a lot of skills in modules such as spss/stats, research methods, research project, behavioural analysis, developmental, cognitive (lots of UX related stuff), org, abnormal and social psychology etc. Keen interest in application of SW developed with reference to psychological principles and research. My research dissertation was titled 'Moderating effect of personality on the relationship between affective organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour'

Although I'm not involved commercially anymore I also have significant understanding of online marketing concepts such as SEO, PPC (Google Adwords), CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation), web analytics etc. and have completed a number of SEO projects for clients in Ireland, UK and USA as a self employed consultant. I'm the webmaster of WWW.AKAMARKETING.COM, it's not currently maintained but for many years it was a leading source of online marketing articles and tutorials and SEO tools. Many of the articles and papers which I wrote for the site were published on thousands of websites, blogs and ezine newsletters and in many languages.

TECH SKILLS: 
.NET / .NET Core (C#/VB), ASP.Net Web forms, ASP.Net MVC 3/4/5, PHP, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, NHibernate, Entity Framework, SSRS, SSIS, JavaScript, jQuery, NodeJS, HTML5, CSS, Twitter Bootstrap, IBM Urban Code, TFS, Jira

Follow for daily .NET posts | Microsoft MVP | Senior Software Engineer

"Over engineering is on the developer maturity journey."
Do you agree or disagree? Why? 🤔

INTERVIEWER: 
What design patterns have you used?

INTERVIEWEE (in head) : 
Don't say Singleton first
Don't say Singleton first
Don't say Singleton first
Don't say Singleton first
Don't say Singleton first  

INTERVIEWEE: 
Singleton

#devlife 🤣

ASP .NET Over-Posting / Mass Assignment security attack example ⬇️

There was a documented Mass Assignment vulnerability on the FIA (Formula 1) website during the summer which allowed an account to be elevated to admin via a PUT request.  

A similar security loophole in an ASP .NET context is below.
Who knows how we can guard against such attacks in our .NET apps?

.NET Life 😉🤣

These kind of "Top X 'Must Have' NuGet packages" posts always seem to do well when shared online. Then devs go install a bunch of things that are popular without actually understanding the rationale behind them or without considering if their apps even have the problems these libraries solve. 

In general I think us .NET devs are too quick to reach for third-party NuGet packages. Everything we pull in needs to be maintained and forms a risk to the business. 

What do you think?

In a REST API should we return 204 (No Content) or 404 (Not Found) for a HTTP DELETE request when the item to delete is already deleted? 🤔

This was the most aligned result set between any poll I've ever ran on LinkedIn (top) and X (bottom). 

To clarify what I was wondering, what happens on the 2nd and subsequent requests here ->

1st request
HTTP Delete products/123 - 
123 exists and is hard deleted = definitely return 204.

2nd and subsequent requests
HTTP Delete products/123 -
123 does not exist, return 204 (as it's gone anyhow, end result is the same) or 404 (as it's not found). 

What do you think?

Parameter Object Pattern C# example ⬇️
This is a commonly suggested refactor, but what have we really gained?
Have we just moved the 'problem'?

When you're trying to stop devs on your team from over-architecting 🤣😉

OpenAPI Changes coming in ASP .NET 10 ℹ️
https://lnkd.in/enFzh2qB

.NET devs, when you EXPECT EXACTLY 1 item in a sequence, 
which LINQ retrieval method do you use? 
Why? 🤔

Have you built any production applications that use Dapper for reads and Entity Framework for writes? 
Why? 🤔

Have you tried VISUAL STUDIO 2026 Insiders yet?
If yes, what is your feedback so far?

Great to have this large async read bug finally squashed 👏🏻

Master (.NET & Azure) at Context&, Microsoft MVP Developer Technologies since 2009, .NET GitHub contributor

I just blogged: Get a 180% speed increase on large async reads with Microsoft.Data.SqlClient (and EF Core) - here is how to turn it on!
#dotnet #efcore #sqlserver
https://lnkd.in/dhZZ-NC4

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