Microsoft Power Platform, Build Apps, Automate Workflows, Analyze Data, Extend with AI
Author: Mark Whitfield
Welcome to my site!
After graduating in Computing in 1990, I accepted a position as a programmer at a Runcorn based software house specialising in electronic banking software, namely sp/ARCHITECT-BANK on Tandem Computers (now HPE NonStop). This was before the internet became more prevalent and so the notion of enabling desktop access to company accounts for inter-account transfers and book keeping was still quite a cutting edge idea (and smartphones only ever hinted at in Space 1999). The company was called The Software Partnership (which was taken over by Deluxe Data in 1994).
I spent 5 years in Runcorn developing code for SP/ARCHITECT for various banks like TSB, Bank of Scotland, Rabobank and Girofon (Denmark) to name but a few. I then moved onto a software house in Salford Quays for further bank facing projects. After a further 23 years in the IT industry and now a Senior IT Project Manager (both Agile and Waterfall delivery), I thought I would echo out my Career Profile in this corner of the internet for quick and easy access.
Agile Sprint Goal Summary Overview
Business Requirements Document BRD vs Functional Requirements Document FRD
Action Man Soldier by parity, with gripping hands, 1970s – used to have one 😀
The Action Man Soldier with Gripping Hands is a legendary 12-inch military action figure produced in the UK by Palitoy under license from Hasbro. First introduced in 1973, this milestone version of the classic Action Soldier replaced the previous “hard hand” iterations with a new, soft plastic compound designed to realistically hold rifles, pistols, and equipment.
Era & Key Innovations
- 1973 Debut: Palitoy launched the updated figure in a freshly illustrated box featuring the text “Now with Gripping Hands”.
- Flock Hair: This era retained the realistic fuzzy blonde, brown, or auburn flock hair originally introduced in 1970.
- Signature Details: The figure featured Action Man’s distinctive square jaw and the iconic copyrighted battle scar on the right cheek.
- Body Construction: Built using the standard 1960s/70s articulation setup featuring internal elastic stringing, crimped metal eyelets, and metal rivets.
Equipment & Box Variations
The standard 1973 Action Man Soldier package underwent several production tweaks throughout the mid-1970s:
- The 1973 Box: Early printings mistakenly listed “Gaitors” in the contents list on the packaging, though they were not actually included in the box.
- The 1975 Update: Palitoy corrected the box text to remove the mention of gaiters, updated the artwork, and added a revised “made in Hong Kong” manufacturing credit.
- Standard Gear: The standard uniform typically included olive green army denim fatigues (jacket and trousers), a flat black plastic beret, tall brown boots with dished soles, a life-size replica dog tag, and an Army Manual.
Collector’s Note on Condition
When seeking a vintage 1970s figure on marketplaces like eBay, pay close attention to the hands. The early 1973 flexible hand compound (often made of Kraton) is notoriously prone to perishing over time. It is highly common to find vintage figures where the hands have turned dark orange, gone completely hard, become brittle, or disintegrated entirely. Intact, supple original hands significantly drive up the figure’s valuation.
Agile Product Backlog Refinement Grooming
HPE NonStop MultiBatch Batch Job Scheduling Overview and Timeline
Overview
MultiBatch is a robust enterprise workload automation and job scheduling tool designed specifically for the HPE NonStop parallel architecture. Developed originally by Insider Technologies and subsequently managed/distributed alongside partners like ETI-NET, it enables organization-wide task automation.
MultiBatch provides high-performance, concurrent execution of batch schedules across multiple nodes. It natively supports both Guardian and OSS environments. By utilizing modern graphical user interfaces (GUIs) alongside traditional Pathway components, it eliminates the need for complex, manual, and high-maintenance TACL or JCL scripts.
Core Technical Capabilities
- Parallel Execution: Uses NonStop architecture to execute batch workloads concurrently across one or multiple nodes.
- Advanced Scheduling: Drives automated tasks based on time parameters, complex intervals, custom calendars, and direct cross-job dependencies.
- Reusable Infrastructure: Environment classes—including
PARAM,ASSIGN,DEFINE,FD, and environmental variables—can be configured once and safely shared across various jobs. - Inbuilt Disaster Recovery: Features automated, built-in monitor recovery mechanisms to preserve execution integrity during hardware or connection failures.
- Seamless Migration: Simplifies moving production workloads between environments via a deep migration utility that automatically handles environmental translation without manual intervention.
Timeline Breakdown by Year and Version
The evolution of MultiBatch highlights its transition toward broader configuration capacities, simplified environment integrations, and eventual product lifecycle milestones.
2020: Operational and Security Consolidation
- Version Focus: Pre-v10 Infrastructure (Enterprise Deployments)
- Key Enhancements:
- Formalized rigid separation of internal user roles, establishing
MBAT.OPSfor view-only status monitoring andMBAT.CONFIGfor structural schedule maintenance. - Refined the “Migrator” module, eliminating manual TACL operations when extracting and inserting batch definitions across network test and production nodes.
- Added capabilities allowing all MultiBatch jobs to execute securely under the system Batch Monitor Process (
BMON) owner or explicitly assigned application user IDs.
- Formalized rigid separation of internal user roles, establishing
2022 (November): MultiBatch Version 10.0 Launch
- Version Focus: Architecture Restructuring
- Key Enhancements:
- Define Classes: Introduced reusable Define Classes to group environments cleanly.
- Scale Upgrades: Upgraded the main Batch Monitor (
BMON) subsystem to actively scale up to 2,500 jobs concurrently. - Parameterization: Modified the core configuration boundaries and decoupled utility processes (
MBPARHK) to seamlessly process non-step related records across database structures. - Clean Up: Formally deprecated legacy components including
UTCSVto reduce technical debt.
2023 (February): MultiBatch Version 10.1 Refinement
- Version Focus: OSS Overhaul & Operational Control
- Key Enhancements:
- OSS Reworking: Re-engineered and optimized support for Open System Services (OSS) processes, granting them equal parity with traditional Guardian tasks.
- On-Demand Execution: Enabled ad-hoc “On Demand Job” invocation directly through user channels without altering master schedules.
- Conditional Variables: Extended character limits for Conditional Parameter values up to 100 characters.
- Subsystem Unification: Consolidated Event Timer processing and Conditional Parameters fully into standard MultiBatch menus, auditing frameworks, and security tracking.
- Control Commands: Integrated the
SWITCH BMONcommand line directive to easily pass control between operational monitors. - Interface Upgrade: Rolled out an entirely new Ops GUI Server to modernize scheduling visibility.
Current Era: Version 10.2 Maintenance & Commercial Sunset
- Version Focus: Version 10.2 / Product Lifecycle Transition
- Key Milestones:
- MultiBatch 10.2: Operates as the current, stable production tier delivered via ETI-NET, featuring deep parameterization and centralized network deployment protocols.
- Commercial End of Life: As of March 1, 2026, new software licenses for Multi-Batch are no longer available for purchase. The software has officially reached the end of its commercial sales life.
- Ongoing Support: Existing license holders retain full permission to execute, maintain, and run the product inside their environments according to their long-term licensing agreements.
HPE NonStop MultiBatch Batch Job Scheduling Overview and Timeline
sp/ARCHITECT was a pioneering electronic banking & funds-transfer software suite
sp/ARCHITECT was a pioneering electronic banking and funds-transfer software suite. Originally built by the UK-based Software Partnership (TSP), it ran natively on fault-tolerant Tandem (now HPE NonStop) systems. It provided highly available transaction routing and real-time electronic book-keeping for major international financial institutions.
Detailed Timeline by Era and Year
1. The Genesis & Independent Era (Mid-1980s – 1989)
- Mid-1980s: The Software Partnership (TSP) is co-founded in Timperley, UK. Development begins on sp/ARCHITECT, designed with a client-server architecture.
- 1986: Tandem launches NonStop SQL, providing the underlying high-availability relational database foundation that sp/ARCHITECT relied upon to ensure absolute data integrity for banks.
2. Mainstream Banking Adoption Era (1990 – 1994)
- 1990: TSP relocates to Norton House in Runcorn, UK. sp/ARCHITECT achieves production deployment and is widely utilized for inter-account transfers and book-keeping by major banks like TSB and Bank of Scotland.
- 1992: Due to rapid expansion, the Runcorn operations relocate to Wingate House.
- 1994: Deluxe Electronic Payment Systems (a subsidiary of Deluxe Corporation) acquires TSP to expand its global electronic funds transfer (EFT) footprint. The platform is globally marketed and supported, expanding to clients like Rabobank.
3. Global Expansion & Compaq Transition Era (1995 – 2005)
- 1995 – 1997: The Runcorn-based team (operating as Deluxe Data) codes additional regional adaptations of sp/ARCHITECT for banks worldwide (e.g., Girofon in Denmark).
- 1997: Compaq acquires Tandem Computers, placing sp/ARCHITECT on Compaq’s enterprise roadmap.
- 2002: Hewlett-Packard (HP) acquires Compaq, absorbing the Tandem platform into the HP Integrity server line. The application undergoes adaptation to integrate modern Windows-based management systems (like DSM/NOW).
4. The HPE Modernization & Hybrid Era (2014 – 2026)
- 2014: HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) is formed, spinning off from HP. NonStop shifts to Intel x86-64 architecture (NonStop X), requiring sp/ARCHITECT and related Tandem subsystems (like Pathway, COBOL, and TAL) to modernize for TNS/X processing.
- 2020: Legacy Itanium-based environments are phased out. sp/ARCHITECT systems, if still active, are migrated to virtualized NonStop (vNS) and operated within private cloud infrastructures.
- 2025/2026: HPE NonStop celebrates its 50th Anniversary. Applications originally designed on the sp/ARCHITECT schema are heavily evaluated for AI integration, continuous cyber resilience, and consumption-based models like HPE GreenLake.
Agile Scrum Team Estimation Techniques
Agile estimation techniques use relative sizing rather than exact time tracking to gauge the effort, complexity, and risk of completing tasks. These collaborative methods help Scrum teams maintain predictable delivery and realistic workloads without relying on rigid, top-down predictions.
Common Agile estimation techniques include:
1. Planning Poker
- How it works: Team members use a deck of cards with values from the modified Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.). The Product Owner presents a user story, the team discusses it, and each member privately selects a card representing their effort estimate.
- When to use it: Ideal for detailed sprint planning and backlog refinement, especially when you need to encourage team collaboration and reach a consensus.
2. T-Shirt Sizing
- How it works: Tasks are assigned sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) based on high-level complexity rather than precise points.
- When to use it: Excellent for rapid, broad-brush estimation during initial release planning or when mapping out large Epics that aren’t yet refined into granular user stories.
3. Affinity Estimation
- How it works: The team collaboratively groups user stories on a wall or digital board into columns representing different sizes. Every team member can move a story if they disagree with its current size, creating a consensus through comparative grouping.
- When to use it: Best suited for large product backlogs where many items need to be sized quickly in a single session.
4. Dot Voting
- How it works: Team members receive a limited number of physical or digital “dots” to place on user stories they believe carry the highest complexity or effort, prioritizing stories based on the concentration of votes.
- When to use it: Helpful for quick prioritization and establishing a baseline for relative difficulty among a large list of tasks.
5. The Bucket System
- How it works: Similar to Affinity Estimation, various “buckets” (numbered with Fibonacci sequences) are laid out. Stories are placed in the buckets, which helps the team rapidly categorize relative effort.
- When to use it: Great for medium-to-large backlogs requiring faster execution than traditional Planning Poker without sacrificing sizing accuracy.
To dive deeper into implementing these practices for your team, check out Atlassian’s Guide to Agile Estimation or explore Monday.com’s Agile Estimation Strategies.
PROject Templates 