Mark A. Metcalfe

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Career Objectives

To provide customer-focused expertise, influencing the design of a product's graphical user interface, product messages, and user documentation.

Background Summary

I have worked well in both the software and EDA (electronic design automation) industries on a wide variety of platforms and authoring tools.

My performance is consistently above the industry standards as attested to by my awards and performance reviews.

Education

Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA, 1984.
Concentration in Business Administration; liberal arts education

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Skills Summary

Authoring Tools

FrameMaker 5.5.1

RoboHelp 7.0

Xemacs

Microsoft Word 6.0 and 7.0

HTML (HyperText Markup Language for World Wide Web)

Netscape Navigator Page Composer

SDML (Standard DIGITAL Markup Language for VAX DOCUMENT)

Lotus Ami Pro

DEC Extensible Versatile Editor (EVE)

DEC EDT

Graphics Editors

XV

CorelDraw

Digital's Raster Arts Graphics System (RAGS)

UTOX screen capture and file conversion utility

PC Paint

Operating System Environments

Unix

Windows NT

Windows 95

MS-DOS

OpenVMS

Programming Languages

Verilog

Microsoft's Visual Basic

Pascal

VAX BASIC

Digital's DCL

Hardware Platforms

Sun SPARCstation 5

PC P166

PC 450dx2

VAXstation 3100 workstation

Various Digital computer systems

Wang VS systems

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Experience and Achievements

EDA Technologies Writer

Structured and updated the industry leading Verilog-XL documentation, managing nearly 2000 pages of Verilog information.

Designed and created Version 1.0 documentation for Cadence's Affirma HW/SW verifier product.

Developed online help for Cadence's Advanced Package Designer (APD), a member of the Intrica product family.

Led the project to port Cadence logic and verification documentation to the Windows NT platform.

HTML Web Writer

Co-designed the internal Cadence Technical Publications Web Site web pages for department information and resources.

Constructed and maintained group web pages.

Operating Systems Writer

Designed multiplatform documentation for system utilities, commands, and layered products. Inherited a maintenance mess for the most widely used Digital manual and turned it into an efficient, easily maintainable project.

Analyzed user interface design for new products. Planned and implemented testing procedures resulting in a more intuitive software product and greater customer satisfaction.

Reorganized and reduced a system resource monitoring manual, making it more useful, saving nearly 50% of the page count, and significantly reducing production costs.

Delivered packaged documentation in a variety of information formats including hard copy and online manuals, and online tutorial, reference, and context-sensitive help, resulting in customers easily accessing information that they want and need.

CASE Writer

Consolidated information in existing manuals, eliminating redundancy, resulting in lower production costs.

Innovated a "menu map graphic" to display all major menus of a windows tool in one figure, giving a graphic overview and saving pages and production costs. The menu map has become the standard for Digital writers who document DECwindows applications.

Contributed to the design of software user interfaces, enhancing ease of use.

Online Help Strategist and Technician

Designed the guidelines for online help and established procedures that resulted in a consistent approach for delivering online information.

Other Accomplishments

Frequently selected to manage a variety of time-critical projects due to efficiency and ability to master new subjects quickly. Effectively balanced special projects in addition to regular writing responsibilities to deliver quality work on time.

Designed a series of programs to automate and facilitate many online editing tasks, including a set of indexing tools which resulted in increased writer productivity and operating efficiency.

Invented an online procedure for automatically merging screen images with text resulting in streamlined documentation delivery and production.

Taught training sessions on the use of software tools and documentation processes to create better ways to deliver information.

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Awards

Special Acheivement Award, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Received for championing realistic screen images in Cadence documentation primarily using the XV screen capture tool.

Award of Distinction, Digital Equipment Corporation

Received the Society for Technical Communication's highest award for Guide to DEC/Test Manager.

Award of Merit, Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Received the Society for Technical Communication's award for the VS Operating System Master Index.

Outstanding Achievement, Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Received an award from Wang Labs for improving the design of a user interface for an operating system utility.

Reward and Recognition, Digital Equipment Corporation

Received the award for consistent application of my talents above and beyond the call of duty.

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Career History

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (4/95-present)

Sykes Enterprises, Inc., at Digital Equipment Corporation, (1/95-4/95)

Digital Equipment Corporation (12/86-12/94)

Wang Laboratories, Inc. (7/84-12/86)

For more information about many of the projects for which I have written, click on See Mark's Projects. The summary contains the subject, a brief description of the subject matter, the skills it took to produce the information, and the audience for whom the information was designed.

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Mark A. Metcalfe

76 Groton Street

Pepperell, MA 01463

(978) 433-3976

[email protected]

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Updated: May 19, 1999