1. Curriculum Vitae
Ken Strain
Tel: 07557 818771
E-Mail: ken@ken-strain.com
Experience: Airlines
Aviation
Baggage systems
Technical architecture
Technical assurance
Test Manager
Test Automation
Agile and scrum
Development Lifecycle
Quality Center
Systems: Vanderlande (VIBES)
ULTRA
Manual Track and Trace (MTT) hand-held devices
Bag Messaging
Personal Skills: Communication
Inter-personal
Negotiation
Problem solving
Decision making
I STQB Certified (International Software Testing Quality Board)
HP Quality Center certificates.

2. Work History:
Company Aviation Business Continuity
Date: Apr 15 – Feb 17
Role: T5WBU (T5 Western Baggage Upgrade) Test & Commissioning Manager.
Comments: Carrying out testing and proving of VIBES in the ITF (Integration Test Facility)
and on-site as part of the T5WBU project. T5WBU is the replacement of the T5
baggage control software with the new Vanderlande VIBES system. This entailed:
• ITF testing in VIBES with Vanderlande (VI) assistance.
• ITF testing of the hand held scanning devices (MTT).
• On-site proving with British Airways team and VI.
• Creating BSM message data.
• Creating data files for the VI emulator.
• QA (Quality Assurance) of written tests.
• Producing detailed test reports.
• Utilising Quality Center.
The technical work also included inserting the message data into the ESB
(Enterprise Service Bus) and ensuring that the test scripts for system proving for
the HLC (High Level Control) systems in the ITF was thoroughly QA’d. In
addition, working with BA and VI in the on-site Operational Readiness proving
trials. I also carried out the testing and proving of the T5 MTT (Manual Track and
Trace) hand-held devices from both design, process and system software
functionality perspectives.
Company Aviation Business Continuity
Date: Apr 15 – Feb 17
Role: T3IB Test and Commissioning Manager
Comments: Having previously been the Technical Design Lead for the T5 baggage system for
British Airways, I was responsible for the re-design of the hand-held scanners
used for BA’s BRS (Baggage Re-flight system) scanners. This being the case, I
was tasked with a similar role for the MTT devices in the WIB (Western Integrated
Baggage building), in T3IB itself and in the EBH (Existing Baggage Hall). This
entailed:
• ITF testing of the Manual Track and Trace (MTT) devices.
• On-site testing of the WiFi coverage using the MTT.
• Writing test scripts.
• Producing detailed test reports.
• Surveying the WiFi coverage with proprietary software.
This work involved an appraisal of the MTT screen design but also a full review
of the MTT’ functionality. During this appraisal, it became apparent that there
were issues with the WiFi coverage in all the buildings and as I have my own
WiFi site survey software, I surveyed, the WIB, T3IB, Building 139 and LIMA
18. Issues with various access points and SSIDs were uncovered and I engaged
with SITA and these problems were eliminated.

3. Company CHS
Date: Nov 12 – Apr 15
Role: Systems & Baggage Assurance for various LHR projects
Comments: I was primarily engaged in technical assurance work for the T5 Western Baggage
Upgrade, T3 Integrated Baggage, T2A and T1 projects. This work involves all
areas of HLC (High Level Controls) Baggage System controls and their IT
components and Infrastructure of the new hardware and SLES (SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server). I was witness testing and reviewing from a compliance
perspective but also reviewing architecturally to ensure both infrastructure and
system components adhere to common IT standards which entailed working with
VI personnel in the ITF:
• Witnessing the VIBES HLC component testing.
• Witnessing the SLES Linux system testing.
• QA the VI test scripts prior to testing.
• Running VI Quality Center tests during this witnessing.
• Producing detailed reports.
Company BAA
Date: Apr 12 – Nov 12
Role: Systems & Baggage Assurance for the T3IB project
Comments: Technical assurance work for the T3 Integrated Baggage project. This work
involved all areas of high-level Baggage Handling Systems controls, IT
components and reviewing architecture from a compliance perspective.
Company BAA
Date: Mar 12 – Apr 12
Role: Systems Assurance for the PT5TBS Reporting systems
Comments: Reviewed the User Requirements Document and other BAA documents in
addition to the VI System Sub-System Specification to technically ascertain the
requirements and proposed VI solution. Working with both VI and users in the T5
Baggage Control Room, I was identifying issues and getting them resolved from
both a technical and usability perspective. During this work, other issues arose
outside of this remit, which I reviewed and made recommendations for. This
included the SAN (Storage Area Network) crashes on the PT5TBS infrastructure
and the SCADA server crashes.
Company BAA
Date: Feb 12 – Mar 12
Role: Technical Architect for the T1 Transition BHS
Comments: This role was as the technical architect for the Eastern Campus BHS and involved
writing the Functional Design Specification documents and carrying out systems
assurance, from a technical perspective, on design work already carried out. The
work covered Area 10 additional re-flight capacity, South Void Link and T4
Transfer Early Bag Store,
Company: BAA
Date: Jan 12 – Feb 12

4. Role: Technical Systems Assurance for PT5TBS Server Infrastructure
Comments: I was reviewing the PT5TBS server infrastructure from a technical perspective,
within the two BAA data centres at LHR. In addition to this the support
documentation and process procedures were also reviewed and recommendations
made.
Company British Airways
Date: Apr 11 – Dec 11
Role: Technical Test Manager for the BA mobile app
Comments: This role involved the automation of test scripts for the BA mobile app. I was
responsible for the planning, design and QA of scripts. I was also architecting the
manual tests and importing them into Quality Center. This work also running tests
in Amadeus DCS (Departure Control System). This project was run in an Agile
environment.
Company British Airways
Date: Jul 10 – Apr11
Role: Technical Designer for the Joint Business Agreement with BA, IB & AA.
Comments: The JBA between the three airlines involved major work using the Amadeus DCS
test system. This work was meticulously carried out so that the test scripts could
be written to an exact specification that would match the project requirements.
This was done using the Amadeus test system and the repository used for the
requirements, test scripts and defects was Quality Center. All systems assurance
and test plans, written by others, were checked thoroughly by myself and the
project was completed on time and to budget. This project was run in an Agile
environment.
Company British Airways
Date: Jul 09 – Jul 10
Role: Technical Test Manager for the Staff Travel Project
Comments: This role involved the design and development of the testing and the running of a
team of both on and offshore testers. Quality Center was used as the repository for
the requirements and scripts and all the testing was carried out on the Staff Travel
sections of ba.com’s pre-live environment. I became one of the two domain
administrators for QC worldwide in BA. My admin role was from a technical
perspective. During a lull in the project due to non-delivery of hardware I took on
similar responsibilities for the RTAD project. (Real Time Arrivals and
Departures) on ba.com and successfully completed the work required whilst also
suggesting technical improvements to the systems which were later implemented
and tested by myself.
Company British Airways
Date: Jan 05 – Jul 09
Role: Technical Design Lead for the T5 Baggage Handling System
Comments: This role was determined by BA to be where the BHS was to be treated as an off
the shelf black box product used by the airline. As someone who likes to delve
into territories where I am unsure of what is being proposed I discovered many

5. areas where the solution being provided was insufficient. This was highlighted to
senior management but unfortunately only some of our concerns were taken on
board.
Technically, I tested the WLAN infrastructure provided at the head of stands,
where the baggage comes out next to the aircraft and discovered that the
infrastructure was weak and patchy. I then took it upon myself to redesign the
transmitter infrastructure, presented it to the BAA where it was accepted and
subsequently implemented.
I also thoroughly tested and subsequently redesigned the LPC (Licence Plate
Code or bag tag) scanners as the screens were of a very poor design and were
virtually impossible to read in bright sunlight. Again, these changes were readily
accepted and the IBM system designers updated all the 200 odd scanners.
The Merlin Lite baggage product that replaced Bagflo gave response times of
between thirty seconds and three minutes, which was not acceptable as a Bagflo
response was instantaneous. I requested and reviewed the design of the product
and then submitted a software redesign, which was then accepted by the third-
party suppliers and implemented. Response times were then reduced to less than
ten seconds, which was deemed acceptable.
There were also many smaller projects I was involved with during the building of
T5, including the migration of the Heathrow Aircraft Control Centre into T5 and
the overall tasks related to the late delivery of the building to BA.
Prior to working at British Airways, I worked for IBM, ran my own computer
business for four years and prior to that was a UK Sales Manager.