Current Openings with LUCRUM INC
August 4, 2010
Internal LUCRUM positions:
Contact Patrick Ryan at 513-564-6979 or send your resume to pryan AT lucruminc DOT com
Database Lead
SQL Reporting, SSIS, SSRS, Data Warehouse, Requirements gathering, Customer Facing, MS SQL Server or Oracle or Business Objects or Hyperion, some Arch exp, set a vision, Project Management Skills
Database Developer
SQL Reporting, SSIS, SSRS, Data Warehouse, Requirements gathering, Customer Facing, MS SQL Server or Oracle or Business Objects or Hyperion
Application Developer
ASP.NET, AJAX, Jquery & SQL (SSRS & SSIS)
Test Lead
Client Driven Development testing background, Automated Testing Tools
Tester
Client Driven Development testing background, Manual Testing
DB2 DBA
Lead/Specialist is viewed as an expert in the administration and support of database technology. Undertakes complex projects requiring additional technical knowledge and makes decisions on ambiguous administrative and support issues. Communicates common goals and direction for the team. May interface with management to provide project updates.
The position is on the Technical/Professional ladder at level 4 in the Database Administration discipline.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Identifies, tests and deploys all database technologies and support tools (detailed knowledge of SMP/E, JCL, TSO,/ISPF, SQL).
2. Ensures system improvements are successfully implemented.
3. Responsible for verifying all data to be entered into database meets set standards and requirements.
4. Designs, enters, audits and maintains large, complex databases.
5. Leads others to identify, test and resolve complex database performance issues (e.g., monitoring and tuning).
6. Performs database system management functions (e.g., software installs, version upgrades and configuration management).
7. Defines and develops database standards, procedures and architecture.
8. Designs data models and DW database designs.
9. Facilitates project planning by establishing work plans, estimates, milestones and schedules.
10. Provides team with technical training and/or mentoring.
11. Other duties as required.
Application Architect
Overview:
Experience in application performance, troubleshooting, and analysis of java applications.
Experience in agile software development practices, continuous integration, and test driven development.
Experience in working with application profiling and performance monitoring toolsets.
Experience in working in a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment and web services.
7-9 years object-oriented design and development of n-tier applications experience in multiple languages and related technologies (JAVA/J2EE, C++, .NET, Web Services).
Firm understanding of Web Service concepts and Internet technologies, WSDL, XSD, XML.
Must have excellent problem solving skills including troubleshooting and root cause analysis for large-scale, enterprise Java applications in an SOA environment.
Target Technical Skills:
Senior-level Java development skills: (required).
Open Source Frameworks: Spring, Hibernate, MyFaces/Java Server Faces: (highly desirable)
Application Server Configuration and Tuning: Apache, Tomcat, JVM tuning. (required)
Performance Analysis and Troubleshooting: CA Wily Introscope, YourKit code profiling: (experience with similar tools required. specific tools desirable)
Continuous Integration and Build Mgmt: Hudson, Maven, Ant, Junit: (experience with similar tools desirable)
Database: Oracle: (relational DB skills required. Oracle desired)
Servers: Linux (Redhat) and Windows-based. (Proficiency with command line tools/troubleshooting required)
Responsibilities:
Deep-dive Performance Analysis and Tuning
Troubleshooting for application exceptions at run-time and post-deployment validation.
Performs root-cause analysis and recommends solutions for application, environment, and performance-related issues
Build and Deployment Automation
Other development and application architecture tasks as assigned.
Release Manager
Overview:
This position will be responsible for managing the code that is moved from one environment to the next. They work closely with development and DBAs in order to thoroughly document and manage code as it moves toward Production. This position will be a point person for all code moving toward and into the Production environment. This individual will need to be a self motivated and collaborative IT Professional with a strong background in SDLC, software development and a working understanding of change and release management processes.
Responsibilities:
Responsibilities:
• Responsible for providing leadership and guidance to IT groups across the organization on Configuration and Change Management processes and procedures.
• Responsible for implementing and maintaining processes and standards to ensure organizational compliance with defined controls in the area of Application Change Management.
• Evaluates, selects and administers organization-wide automated tools pertaining to Configuration and Change Control and Build and Release Management.
• Implements Configuration and Change Management practices, standards and tools for use in development and maintenance projects.
Additional Duties:
• Develop and document instructions and guidelines to perform the functions assigned.
• Manage, maintain and deploy to test environments.
• Establish standard configuration management processes and procedures for version control, build and release management, CM audit reports, configuration identification and control, software product baselines and change management.
• Develop and manage systems of recovery for the code sources of the current and previous versions of the software.
• Conduct functional and physical configuration audits as needed.
• Participate in the change control process.
• Provide training and support on software configuration management process as needed on the use of version control.
• Assist in the development, analysis and maintenance of tools that support and automate processes for our software product releases.
• Assist engineers in the setup and configuration of their local development environments.
• Maintain control and account of all project assets.
• Design, document and establish configuration documentation.
• Perform routine software builds and resolve build conflicts and issues in a timely manner.
• Participate in software process improvement efforts.
• Verify the completeness and accuracy of release libraries and documentation before implementation.
• Develop and administer project baselines.
• Develop and maintain code versioning, branching and merging.
• Maintain multiple active branches and database versions at the same time while keeping source code and database schema synchronized.
• Responsible for the software tracking and releases.
• Manage the application and OS configuration files and settings for test environments.
• Provide deployable solutions and release instructions to operations staff for deployment and management.
• Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
Qualifications:
• Associates or B.S Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or equivalent experience required.
• 5-7 years of experience in Microsoft and Cisco environments including some experience with virtualization technologies.
• 3+ years in a Software Configuration Manager or Release Manager role required.
• 3+ years experience with Team Foundation Server or equivalent experience working with other version control/configuration management tools.
• Strong experience in Microsoft VisualStudio.NET development (Windows and Web applications).
• Experience or knowledge of continuous integration, application lifecycle management and automation and job scheduling systems.
• Experience with process automation using scripting languages.
• Thorough understanding of a project’s life cycle and development methods.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to interact with developers, QA teams, and functional managers
Current Information Technology positions available for hire!
January 29, 2010
Please email Patrick Ryan direct: pryan@lucruminc.com for additional details
Do you like warm temperatures, gambling and shows? Las Vegas may be your new beginning! The following positions are 3 month contract to hire opportunities in Las Vegas!!!!
Senior Software Engineer
The Senior Software Engineer position is responsible for developing software for electronic gaming device and related products as directed as part of a team.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Develops game or core machine software, including design, coding, testing and documentation to specified standards.
- Produces project schedules and completes project on time within budget.
- Ensures adequate testing of software, including preparing test data, test procedure and debug programs.
- Conducts independent research and analysis with minimum supervision from software manager.
- Prepares written report as required.
- May provide work direction, training, assist in setting goals for subordinate team members.
- Other duties as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field, or its equivalent.
Experience: Requires a minimum of five years of experience in software engineering and/or programming.
Demonstrated experience in coding in C and C++. Experience with UNIX/Linux system programming, network programming and low level device driver programming required. Experience with OOA/D methodologies required.
Skills, knowledge, and qualifications:
- Experience with Agile Scrum methodologies will be a plus.
- Prior experience in the gaming industry will be a plus.
- Demonstrated excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Must be able to read, write, speak and understand English.
- Must be able to work independently and be team oriented.
This position may require registration with the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) and/or other gaming jurisdictions in which we operate.
Sr. Graphic Artist
We are an Australian-owned leading global entertainment company currently seeking an Artist/Illustrator to join our team-oriented group of creatives and software experts. As a senior artist in the team, you’ll conceptualize, design and develop quality graphics for new games and connect quickly and confidently with management.
A natural leader with sophisticated conceptual skills, you’ll come prepared to mentor junior staff and adeptly integrate graphics packages into an animation and software systems. You’ll come to us with relevant qualifications and significant professional graphic design experience, and strong skills in traditional and computer drawing, and layout and finishing.
This is a rare opportunity to showcase your talents as you produce interesting and varied work using cutting edge tools and technology. You’ll find great satisfaction in leading junior team members by example and developing graphics that will be released onto the international market.
Sr. Graphics Animator
You will play a key role in creating visual content. You will also be integral to the design process, from discussing the brief, right through to visualizing the concept and producing the finished product.
You will need to be a confident communicator who can discuss concepts with a wide range of people at all levels. As you will have a high level of input during frequent briefings and creative meetings. What we will look for in you is a tertiary qualification in either graphic, illustration, animation or industrial design. You will also need strong skills in both Photoshop and Illustrator and be an expert in either flash, TV Pain or 3D Studio Max. Equally important will be your confidence to design your own characters, create animation and come up with original concepts.
- Develops characters and logos and reel symbols for gaming devices.
- Strong drawing skills.
- Maya, 3DStudioMax, Aftereffects knowledge a must.
- Portfolio required.
- Minimum of 8 years experience in drawing, good composition, graphical animation design, in computer art.
- Minimum 5 years experience in the gaming industry preferred.
- Associates degree and/or vocational certification in video graphics or equivalent.
This is your chance to take on an interesting role in a vibrant and creative collaborative team environment, where you will be encouraged to maximize your creative input.
Sr. Game Mathematical Designer
We’re currently on the lookout for Sr. Game Designers to develop concepts and formulas for high-quality games that will be released on the global market.
Combining your creativity with your mathematical abilities, you’ll design new gaming concepts and follow through with the associated specifications, algorithms and combination sheets. A personable team player you will work closely with designers, artist and software engineers to brainstorm, refine, communicate and test-drive your concepts.
What we will look for in you is games design experience and leadership qualities. You will also need a degree in mathematics or similar, and the capacity to produce games on both new existing platforms. An understanding of programming in C would be advantageous.
- Exceptional understanding of mathematical concepts in gaming.
- Ability to create game concepts and original math models.
- Works with other game designers in conducting and verifying mathematic calculations.
- Programming skills a plus.
- Minimum of 6 years experience in slot game design and a minimum of 3 years of Stepper game design.
- Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Computer Science or Engineering
This role offers you an excellent opportunity to see your designs released around the world. You can look forward to challenging leadership responsibilities and the chance to collaborate with some of the industry’s finest designers.
How Many Versions of The Truth Does Your Company Have?
September 11, 2009
Years ago, while at one of my previous employers, I was part of a cross functional team of people from across the organization given the seemingly simple task of identifying our best customers. Seems like this should have been pretty easy right? Define what best means, run a report or two, discuss the findings and cross it off the “to-do” list. Oh how naive I was to believe it would be so smooth.
In reality it took months to determine that there were in fact numerous clusters of our best customers, yet no master list that everyone could agree upon. Marketing had its list, and so did sales, and accounting, and finance, and operations. Everyone was pulling different points of data from different systems, and thus getting radically different results. We had multiple versions of the truth. Sadly, we never did figure it out. A month into the project, the company was bought out and we were pretty much all downsized out within a couple months – this actually ended up being a great thing for me. Still, that experience has stuck with me, and taught me a valuable lesson – to be useful, data needs to present one version of the truth.
Had we been able to create this list quickly and accurately, we could have spent time trying to determine the best ways to serve our best customers. We could have examined ways to get new customers that were similar to our best customers, convert good customers into great ones, and improved the results of the organization. Instead we spent time and money simply trying to figure out whose list was the right list. What a waste!
As the “marketing guy” I am not the utmost authority at LUCRUM on business intelligence and data architecture. Still, having gone through that experience makes me genuinely appreciate the services we provide our customers. I have been in their shoes – seeking the truth, seemingly finding it, wanting to move forward, only to have everything come to a screeching halt because of inconsistent, incomplete information. It is a frustrating situation to be in, and I smile every time we solve such a problem for a Client.
If you are spending more time debating the truth as described by your data than you are determining what to actually do about it, you should talk to us. We can deliver one accurate, actionable, complete, and timely version of the truth for you – saving you time, money, and a whole lot of aggravation.
Stories
December 18, 2008

What happens after we roll our applications into production? We are left with the stories?
It’s like raising a child, isn’t it? We spent so much time and pour our lives into the development of those much needed applications. As we trade hours for dollars as we watch them grow…
A problem turns into an opportunity.
That opportunity turns into a solution.
That solution gets a sponsor and a team.
The team raises that young solution.
Suddenly it blossoms into a application…a production application!
It may have taken us weeks, months or even years, but we were given guardianship over that child for a period of time. As it grew, and that production day came closer and closer, we felt the awkward anxiety of letting go. Yes, we know the dangers out there waiting for our young application; potentially low chance of adoption, push back, rejection, even the fear of death.
That young application is safest in the test environment. At least we can control its exposure and limit its risks. But in our heart of hearts, we know that the application was build for production. We know that it was designed to take on the hardest of situations and out perform expectations – that this application will make an impact in the business; making things better, faster, cheaper!
That day comes and we let it go and watch it fly. For a period of time, we watch it closely and ensure its safety. We anticipate the missteps and try to head them off. We add to it and extend its capabilities as new challenges are seen. We pour more and more of our time and energy into that application.
Soon, it grows mature and reaches the stage of life where it takes on its own personality. It reaches critical mass and there is no slowing it down. That application forms new relationships and makes new friends.
Then in a cruel twist of fate, it forgets about you. After all, you have other children to raise. While we may look back in pride, our jobs demand we look forward with a combination of power, agility and leveraged experiences to make an impact for the future.
Now the question remains; “What are we to do about this?” The answer is easy but it does draw against your heart. The answer, my friend, is that we are left with the stories, those fascinating stores of how we did it. Yes, some people call that experience, but who wants to hear about experience when they can listen to a story.
What are your favorite stories?
I’ll never forget leading a large government Oracle-based BI project back in 1998 when you couldn’t get an Oracle person for 100 lbs of gold. I brought in 4 network engineers – yeah you guessed it, they were Novel network managers. I trained one to be a DBA and the other three to be developers. What a time that was; gathering requirements, navigating the murky waters of government contracting, designing complex integration between the US Air Force and the US Navy, data architecture and applications development…and at the same time training four people in the art of Oracle! The point that I remember most was bringing that last person on board. You see, the contract stated that the person had to have a 4 year degree. Well, that last person had only an A.S. degree – well to be exact, she had two A.S. degrees. I remember it well; walking into the General’s office to get an exception. It had come down to that…asking a General! I walked into his office and after I gave my 2 minute context introduction, I said “Sir, this person has two 2-year degrees and the last time I checked…2 plus 2 equaled 4″. Then I shut my mouth and waited for what seemed to be a very long time and he looked me up and down and finally gave me the go ahead to move forward.
What attachment do I have with that application that is still in production today? My attachment is through those stories which make up the sum of my experiences. It is from these stories that I am forming who I am and amassing my worth.
Happy Story Telling!
~Scott Felten
LUCRUM Radio: Episode 13, Mike Kurtz
October 29, 2008
In this episode of LUCRUM radio, I spend time with Mike Kurtz from the University of Dayton’s Media Production Group. Mike and his team do exceptional work for numerous clients, stretching far beyond the University of Dayton itself. Listen as Mike describes how the organization began and how it has evolved over the years to become a leading provider of multi-media production services. From commercial video to interactive applications, Mike and his team have embraced technology and are using it to drive continued revenue growth.
My thanks to Mike for taking the time to share his story.
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When You Have Trust
October 28, 2008
The other day we had a technical team meeting where we were discussing access rights for a global solution that we have begun to implement but have a need to extend some functionality. Well, it gets complicated pretty quickly. To be honest, I started drawing out all the potential combinations of variables that can occur and I’m trying to lead the group through this thought.
Well, this one “rogue” guy (I think to myself) keeps bringing up an idea. I hear it but it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. So, I discount it and try to get the group to move on. He keeps bringing it up and won’t let it go. We all tell him that he sometimes has listening problems and to hang it up for a bit.
Does he do this? No. Not because he is really a “rogue” guy or because he enjoys making things difficult (I have encountered my share of these people), rather, James knows that he can trust the group. James feels the trust and sees it played out over time. James knows that the environment is mature enough to handle the truth. Remember that line, “You can’t handle the truth” from the movie A Few Good Men. There was no trust in that relationship – that is for sure!
James sticks to his guns and won’t let it go. He did so in an encouraging way, but forceful. Finally, it dawned on us that he was right. Had James not felt the trust, he would avoid the conflict by either shutting down and ceasing to contribute or becoming defensive; and we would not have the proper solution to the problem. Way to go James (you know who you are)!
By the way, I called him later that day and said thanks and that I appreciated the way he handled himself. I thanked him for putting the needs of the group ahead of the need for him to avoid unpleasant conflict. This was a highlight for both of us that day. We saved a few days time and money and walked away with a better solution for less money.
In a recent blog post I wrote “This is a key point (gaining trust) because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.” Conflict is a necessary part of a team. But healthy conflict doesn’t focus on people, rather it focuses on the topic at hand.
Did you ever experience a team that had conflict and someone when historical? Not hysterical, historical! You know; “…yeah, but remember when you did this and you said that and he said… and she said…” This is because there was a lack of trust. When this happens, people focus on defense and of course sometimes a good defense is a good offense. Other times they shutdown and withdraw. Either way, that conflict is not healthy.
Conflict + Trust is healthy debate and leads to innovation!
Conflict w/o Trust leads to murder (of at least one’s character).
Go find someone to Trust.
~ Scott
My Definition of Architecture
September 17, 2008
What is an architecture? Well, let’s dissect that and see what we come up with. For starters, it is needed before we solve business problems, before we design and build systems and applications and before we put ‘things’ into production. If you build and deploy applications without an architecture, prepare for a long entrenched battle that threads through the realms of data, information, technology, and infrastructure. Saying that, I realize that most organizations do not have a formal architecture, but rather have general principles, standards and practices. This is one reason that IT is so challenging. Meeting agile business needs requires a dependable foundation of decisions.
An architecture is something that is addressed at the enterprise level. It is something that exists across the organization that enables an infrastructure (be it data, information, technology or infrastructure) to work together. So, in simple terms, an architecture is an enterprise wide agreed upon set of standards or direction. This implies that there is an overarching group that has responsibility across business and technical domains. And in turn this is enabled and actualized because someone, somewhere both understood and was able to sell the value of having a solid foundation.
Drilling down a bit further, the ‘agreed upon set of standards or direction’ really boils down to be a set of decisions. These decisions are made at all architectural levels; data, infrastructure, technology and information (to name a few important ones). These standards are in fact agreed upon rules of engagement that must exist. Further, these rules are derived only after a decomposition of systems (existing and non-existing) into its individual units. This decomposition is complete when each design orientation is at its most granular level. This is different for the different architectures.
The idea of an architecture is to break systems down to the specialist levels, so that these specialists can address the system (application) within their specific domain. Meaning, developers can receive requirements and think them through in the context of their specific architecture. And data folks can work from a common set of dependable rules of engagement that when followed across the enterprise provides them with a solid foundation on which to build, knowing that integration points, naming standards, metadata nomenclatures, taxonomies, etc. are there to rely on. The application folks can depend upon the architecture for proper building techniques, technology strategy, supporting documentation and so on. The information folks rely on the horizontal assurance that the right levels of metadata is in place and they anticipate the use of data to be consistent and so on.
So, an architecture is really a set of decisions that must be made across the enterprise, hopefully before the release of chaos (in the form of applications and system) at the most granular of forms so that it helps to manage this chaos from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. Managing from the bottom up is done via principles and standards, methodologies and best practices, governance and stewardship. Managing top down is just that, a downward spiral that is manifested by political infighting, protectionism, stagnation and a complete stoppage of the value chain (IT no longer can meet scope, costs, and schedules).
Happy architecting!
~ Scott Felten
Measuring Success
April 16, 2008
So what does it mean to measure? Webster’s says to measure is “the act or process of ascertaining the extent, dimensions, or quantity of something; any standard of comparison, estimation, or judgment.”
One of the first lessons I learned during my career at P&G was “You get what you measure!” In other words, unless you’re tracking the activities that drive your business, you won’t know how you’re doing. Is the business healthy or not? In LÛCRUM’s Delivery Organization we’ve been focused on measuring a several key areas of our business over the last year. I’ll focus on 2 key measures – consultant utilization and engagement health.
Consultant utilization is key to our business health since our revenue is dependent on billable hours with a client. If we’re not billing hours, we’re simply not making money. Like any business, if we’re not making money, we won’t be in business very long. Not surprising, our goal is for all hours spent with a client to be billable. While there are times it’s necessary to provide ‘free’ effort, we obviously want to monitor that and ensure it’s in check. We also measure how many hours our consultants spend ‘selling.’ While selling is primarily a Business Development role, a consultant’s technical and business experience can be valuable in making a successful sales call.
Another area where consultant’s time will be spent is “developing the practice”. It’s important for us as a company to develop as individuals and to contribute to the development of the organization. Our contribution to the company might be working on an internal project or serving on a company committee. But one of coolest things I found when I joined LÛCRUM was the concept of “Geek Speak” and “Brain Brews” – technical and business training offered several times a month at lunch or after the business day. We’re each encouraged to attend as well as present to the organization. Yes, I’ve digressed from the topic of measures, but these sessions are really great!
So back to topic….On a weekly basis, the Senior Management team and the Delivery leadership spend time reviewing the overall utilization as well as drilling down to the portfolio and individual. We’ve learned a lot about how our time is spent and it’s helping drive business decision!
The other key area where I spend my time as the Quality Manager is tracking our engagement health. Key is to monitor the next ‘deliverable’ and through the use of conditional formatted ‘traffic lights’, monitor for those yellow and red light! It’s not rocket science, we’re currently doing this through an excel dashboard but it’s allowing us to see the current engagements in one view and ask ourselves questions about what’s going well or what needs attention.
While I’ve mentioned Senior Management and the Delivery leaders regarding the review of our measures, it important everyone knows and understands our Delivery measures. We recently made the information available to everyone through our Delivery Sharepoint site. This site provides weekly or monthly measure in dashboard format. In addition to utilization and engagement health, we also provide visibility to the revenue vs goal, bench, training, recruiting and years of service.
We’ve come a long way in the last year and the journey of Quality Management continues. Stay tuned…….
Our Commitment to Quality
April 9, 2008
On March 21, Doug Dockery provided his perspective of the recent Business Courier article written about LÛCRUM. Doug reviewed some of the changes we’ve made to address the shortcomings in 2007. I’d like to expand on one of the focus areas for LÛCRUM – Quality.
In the 2nd quarter of 2007, LÛCRUM had already identified that we needed additional disciple and focus in the area of Project Management. It was decided to invest in a Quality Management program with the goal to bring additional standards and methodology to our projects. The program was kicked off on June 1st with the hiring of a Quality Manager. The objectives we have been following since the first weeks of the QM Office have been to ensure:
o Predictable Budgetary Outcome
o Build Quality in from the beginning
o Project Quality Assessment
o Follow the KISS Method
Since the inception of Quality Management at LÛCRUM, a number of things have changed. We’ve implemented an engagement dashboard which tracks the health of each of our engagements. This dashboard is part of a weekly review by the Delivery Leadership Team. In addition, a dynamic Utilization tracking system was implemented last summer which provides our managers with detailed information about their consultants and how time is being utilized with a client. Custom reports can be generated by a manager through excel pivot tables. And new functionality is being implemented this month with which will improve the system backend and provide additional reporting.
We’ve developed our LÛCRUM “Best Practices” standards and processes which include standard templates, training material, and the implementation of a proposal review process. A Project Management marketing handbook has been deployed to our Business Development team to share with our clients how we manage projects. And most recently we’ve completed the deployment of our iStream Project Management Methodology. iStream is a engagement program which was deployed by LÛCRUM in 1999 and has been evolving over the years. The deployment of the PM methodology brings even more disciple to the management of our client projects.
Stay tuned over the coming weeks as I will be sharing with you more details about LÛCRUM’s Quality Management program.


