John Pellett

Background

About John Pellett

My passion is automating tasks. You may ask yourself, what do I like to automate? That answer is simple; everything that I can! It all started while I was in college taking my first C/C++ programming class and writing my first “Hello world” program. I was astonished to find out that the computer will happily do whatever I tell it to do over and over without complaining! Once I grasped this concept, it got me thinking about how I can use this to solve practical problems. Software Engineering has been my passion ever since. I love creating software that improves people's lives or makes repetitive tasks simpler. My first job out of college gave me the opportunity to join a development team that delivered a SAN solution. I was a part of the Software Configuration Management (SCM) team that built and delivered the applications to our customers. Eventually I transitioned to the software development team where I was responsible for writing and maintaining our home grown install, upgrade, and removal code. The SAN solution grew into a new project with virtual tape libraries, a novel concept at the time, that I worked on from the ground up. This was a tremendous experience for me to learn what it takes to create a new project from scratch. During this time I was named a team lead on the install, upgrade, removal, configuration, and monitoring code. My next opportunity was with Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing. I provided Configuration Management support for an application that needed to comply with the DO-178 Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification. This experience was eye opening for me because it required me to work with the FAA to approve our releases before we could release them to our customers. By the end of my time there, I was successfully supporting 40+ flight planning projects simultaneously. This was only possible because I automated everything I could, including- The application builds - Auto deploy to various environments - The generation of build artifacts required for traceability purposes (i.e. Software Configuration Index (SCI), Software Environment Configuration Index (SECI), etc.)- Change Control Board (CCB) reports and minutes My passion is to automate everything that I can. I don’t take “that can’t be automated” as an answer. There have been times where my manager, peers, or I have been told that the automation cannot be done, and I found a way to do it. I know that there is a simpler way to complete daily tasks that save time and minimize errors, and I crave that challenge.