Tim Alford
Founder at Ocka Software
Traralgon, Victoria, Australia
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolTim Alford is a founder and senior test analyst with 16 years of hands-on experience building robust test automation and backend systems across Python, Java, C++ and Perl. He has led CI-driven testing at scale—using Docker, Selenium and Bamboo—to harden web services and contributed DevOps improvements while at Connexity. Tim’s open-source contributions include Python 3 compatibility and testing infrastructure work for prominent projects like pyrax and setuptools, and practical backend enhancements to Django-based tools such as Wagtail and django-taggit. Now running Ocka Software from regional Victoria, he blends deep QA expertise with production-grade engineering, and has a knack for quietly modernizing legacy codebases to improve cross-version compatibility and developer ergonomics.
16 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Computer Science, Application Programming, With Distinction, Bachelor of Computer Science, Application Programming, With Distinction at RMIT University
Github Skills (25)
cms10
pytest10
back-end-development10
python10
django10
setuptools10
testing10
wagtail10
project-template10
six10
web-framework10
template-tags10
test-automation10
unit-testing9
apidoc9
Programming languages (11)
Github contributions (5)
wagtail/wagtail
Jun 2014 - Feb 2018
A Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:204 commits, 101 PRs, 7 pushes in 3 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Tim primarily focused on enhancing the Wagtail CMS backend by implementing and integrating new features. This included adding links to admin sections for site statistics, creating and implementing a new template tag (`routablepageurl`), and improving core functionalities like page management and the handling of settings. Further contributions were made to code style with more consistent documentation of methods and code blocks, ensuring a more robust and user-friendly admin interface. The user demonstrates a strong understanding of Wagtail's internal workings, as well as the Django framework.
cmsmanagement-systempythondjangouser-experience
pypa/setuptools
Aug 2016 - Dec 2016
Official project repository for the Setuptools build system
Role in this project:QA Engineer / Test Automation Engineer
QA Engineer / Test Automation EngineerContributions:13 commits, 11 PRs, 31 comments in 4 months
Contributions summary:Tim primarily focused on improving the testing infrastructure of the `setuptools` project. Their contributions involved porting test cases from the `distutils` library, adding new tests for `MANIFEST.in` functionality, and updating the project's testing dependencies. They also addressed a bug related to `global-exclude` in the manifest. The user's work led to a more robust and comprehensive testing suite.
setuptoolsbuild-system
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