The life of a web developer is like the life of an inventor. Patience, perseverance, and ingenuity are a must. It can be weeks of experimenting before discovering the key to unlocking an impasse. Suddenly, you realize it takes two minutes to write the code to solve the puzzle.
Do You Want Sprinkles With That?
Being a developer is not selling ice cream next to the swimming pool. Self-starters only. Using best practices to solve problems is the journey developers endure in searching for the destination. Often blessed with creativity and attention to detail, they withstand solitude and long periods of meticulous focus.
For a snapshot into a day in the life of a web developer, we ask our LMS teammate, Lesley Girao. She works remotely from south Florida with multiple teams testing systems, coding, building, and maintaining websites, apps, and dashboards.
A Day In the Life
At home with a young daughter, she balances life as a wife, mom, and developer for LMS and GEM. As a U.S. Army and Army National Guard veteran, discipline serves her well.
“My day is usually 9-5,” she explains. “If something interferes with my schedule, like an event at school or my daughter gets sick, I take time and make up the work early morning or later in the day.”
Meanwhile, meetings and deadlines are a part of the job. Reviews of the work by other teams are part of delivering what the client wants on time and within budget.
I Like It, But…
Good communication skills and thin skin are vital to the life of a web developer. Stakeholders making changes or re-prioritizing tasks can be taxing on time and resources. Ideally, project details are signed off before the work has advanced, but things happen. It’s the job of the developer to roll with the punches.
Things happen, and unexpected requests can be a distraction. Developers sometimes act as defacto tech support for websites. Their professional touch is always welcome. That said, assisting on other projects requires time organization.
How Much Time Do You Need?
Estimating the time needed to complete a task is a must. Story points are a needed estimate of hours required. “These are agreed on with the developers. If there is a difference in opinion, we discuss why we choose the story points and come to an agreement.”
Breaking a project into sprints is standard. Smaller, more manageable sections keep it fresh. Typical sprints range from a week to a month.
In conclusion, the life of a developer is one of constant updates.
“There are so many different software programs, languages, and tools that a developer uses,” Lesley adds. “They are constantly changing. It’s bound to happen when developing that you don’t know how it’s going to work. Determination and a positive attitude will make it happen.”
What Does it Take to Excel at LMS?
“Great time management, ability to identify and solve problems quickly and efficiently, and excellent communication skills between team members. We always strive to learn more to improve new and existing projects.”
Lesley Girao, LMS Web Developer