Firas Halawani

Devoteam is an EMEA leader in Information & Communication Technologies Consulting, specializing in information system infrastructures and telecommunications. Combining consulting and technology solutions enables Devoteam to provide its customers with independent advice and effective solutions that meet their strategic objectives.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Being a project manager consultant for MOFA in Riyadh, KSA; I was responsible for the overall management of FANAR e-services project. The project is one of the top priority projects that MOFA’s top management is giving high attention due to its importance and its relation with all Saudi missions in the world to provide eservices to Saudis living abroad. A total of 62 services need to be implemented within the given time, scope and budget. Utilizing the governmental e-services bus (G2G), the system integrates with multiple governmental entities such as Ministry of Interiors, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defense, etc.

Saudi Credit and Investment Bank (SCSB): Being a lead consultant for the governmental SCSB bank in Riyadh, KSA; I was engaged in the process of establishing and operating a PMO office for the IT department. During the operation’s duration, I was playing the role of a project manager and acting as a PMO manager.

Other clients I have engaged with are Ministry of Civil Services (MCS), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA).

Worked as a technical consultant for retailGreen for the eReceipt project. By applying innovative technology with retailing business, a new trend is being created to automate and utilize the retailing business to the area that affects both corporate and individuals

Responsible for the overall performance of managing customer project's scope, cost, schedule, and contractual deliverables. This includes leading the project team and managing all systems solutions development activities that meet customer’s expectations in a timely and cost effective manner using agile methodologies in hybrid with PMI standards. As part of a Protocol Event Management enterprise solution, I was involved in major applications such as: Advance, Scheduling, Resources Management, Seating Arrangement, Gifts Management, and WEF (World Economic Forum). Several emerging methodologies were followed in projects such as using wireframes and mockups to deliver the system design to both team and client.

Additionally, I had to liaise with different stakeholders, which required a great deal of efforts, to ensure that work in progress is aligned and managed, and that the interest of these functioning stakeholders is upheld.

In another front, I have gained an internal high level training for both OpenText Metastorm (BPM) and SharePoint Server for any anticipated projects.

Roles:
-Performing a variety of tasks including, but not limited to, coordinating all resources and stakeholders; setting deadlines; assigning responsibilities; and monitoring, summarizing and communicating the progress of the project.
- Manage the project throughout the five process groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling & Monitoring, and Closing.
- Organize work schedules based on priorities.
- Control, monitor, and motivate the project’s team and their performance.
- In contact with the customer to manage day-to-day interactions for achieving client expectations.
- Cater client's project related needs and requirements.
-Create and execute project work plans, revise as appropriate to meet changing needs and requirements.
-Work with business users, understand their needs and translate those needs to the final project deliverables.
-Preparing Project Plans.

Responsible for leading and managing the software development team through projects. Managing software development activities and mitigating the technical risks throughout the software development lifecycle. Developing specifications for software programming applications. As part of a Protocol Event Management enterprise solution, I was involved in delivering the Correspondence application and the Document Management Services (DMS) core engine build upon Hummingbird® DMS.

Roles:
- Setting Solution Architecture for the Correspondence application.
- Managing Correspondences Team Members.
- Guiding the development Cycle of the Solution.
- Client Meetings.
- Assigning Tasks to Resources.
- Tracking Team Progress.
- Organizing Regular Meetings.
- Performing Code Review.
- Preparing Project Plans.
- Research and Development.

Job Description
Managing the Geographic Information System (GIS) team that is working in a high scope of available Autodesk technologies such as building state of the art GIS services, Map 3D, Map Guide, DWF Composer, DWF Toolkit and ObjectARX. This includes creating utilities, DLLs, COM components to integrate the above technologies with other Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Project Server, Web Services and Windows Services.
Participating in leading web application team based on .Net technologies. This includes preparing project plan, organize regular meetings and perform code review.

Major Projects
-Enterprise Asset Management-Lands
-E-Permit
-Infrastructure & Facilities Management System
-Project Collaboration & Management System

Achievements
-Building GIS, Geographic Information Systems, using Autodesk FDO technology with Oracle 10g. A SOA web service was created to be the backbone of the GIS using managed C++
-Building utilities and COM objects for accessing Autodesk files, such as DWG & DWF. This would include extracting the files’ attributes and contents using different Autodesk and Microsoft technologies such as iFilter, Dwf Toolkit, DWG Direct
-Building a GML engine, Geography Markup Language, customized for the GIS services based on open standards OGC
-Building SOA for Project Server (PDS Web Services)
-Building utilities to be used in Microsoft SharePoint for converting DWF files to thumbnail images; to be shown as thumbnails in SharePoint
-Extracting and dealing with DWF markups, redlining, using Autodesk DWF toolkit
-Creating a COM component for web scanning using TWAIN
-Creating a Windows Service for synchronizing ProjectServer data with the integration of PDS Web Service
-Using ObjectARX to program Autodesk products such as Autodesk Map3D
-Integrating Autodesk MapGuide with the support of online user interaction
-Most of the above achievements are created using mostly C++, managed C++ and C#

Developing Interactive Applets in Power Electronics using Java Applets.

Please visit http://batarseh.cecs.ucf.edu/kss/applets.html for a review.

LeadTechnologies is a company that develops tools and end-user applications. My work experience was focused on programming image processing tools using C, C++ and managed C++. I have gained an extensive knowledge of programming using Windows API and creating DLLs.

Functions that I have achieved till now:
1. Multiscale Enhancement
2. Selective Color
3. Digital Subtract
4. Leveling
5. Auto Leveling (Level, Contrast and Intensity)
6. Colorize Gray
7. Contrast Brightness Intensity
8. Shift Data
9. Select Data

Please visit http://www.leadtools.com for more information about the company.

Please visit http://www.leadtools.com/sdk/functions for information and live samples about the above listed functions.