What's your role?
My job title is Client Success Engineer and my poobah title is "The Codebase Dustforce". Part 1 is about keeping up with our users at the air force and making sure that the software changes as their needs change. I'm responsible for tackling the bugs and features they bring to us and also zooming out to a higher level and evaluating if the feedback process is doing what we want for the users. For part 2, my main responsibility is to evaluate the state of our dusty codebase, try to surface any "tech debt" that is in the way of our team, and come up with a way to sweep it up!
How did you get involved with #DigitalAF?
I was a part of the Flight Deck for my Winter 2020 coop and I fell in love with the team and the user centric philosophies that drive how we develop tech, so coming back for another 4 months was a dream come true!
What is the contribution you have made that you are most proud of?
I'm the most proud of taking on the challenge to look at technical debt for my poobah, and the things I was able to accomplish because of it. Even though at the start of my term I had almost 0 experience with any large-ish production codebase, thanks to my team and mentors I was able to start the conversation on what tech debt is, what should and shouldn't be tackled, and create a brand new process for how our team tracks and evaluates tech debt in the future.
If you could redo something, what would it be?
During the last couple weeks of this term I've produced and hosted our podcast "Wheels Up!" and I think my biggest regret is not starting the podcast earlier. Our team has had so many interesting conversations that would've been valuable for anyone developing modern software to hear. Even in the short time the pod has been live, it's helped us spread our message and increase interest in what our team has been doing, and has definitely helped me feel a little closer to our team while we're working remotely.
What is your vision for the future?
My future vision of #DigitalAF is for a position on the team to be as sought after as a position at Facebook, Google or any other big silicon valley name. I think being able to attract the best SWE, product owners, eng leads etc. would be a testament to how impactful and interesting the work we do is, and how we've brought the Department of National Defense up to par with any modern tech company.
Skills
- Ruby on Rails
- AngularJS
- HTML5
- CSS
- User Interface (UI)
- Docker
- Microsoft Azure
