Fram Skandinavien : A Day Life of a Software Developer at Fram^

When people ask what I do, I tell them I'm a 'Soft­ware Devel­op­er,' and they're impressed but not entirely clear what that means. Even my parents have trouble understanding what I do. So for those who are unsure of what I'm doing everyday, I'll describe how my life goes atfram^on a typical day.

8am - Wake up

Time to have breakfast, I always have a big breakfast to prepare myself for a full and productive day. Luckily, I have time to enjoy breakfast with my family while some others have to go to work much earlier.

8.50am - Head to work

It's just a rough time actually. My house is quite far from the office but I'm rarely in a rush because we have flexi-time at fram^, which means that if I need to come in late or leave early, I can start the day whenever I choose. If necessary, I can work remotely from home. I hardly suffer from traffic jams also.

9.30am - Arrive at work

I go to my office, get to the pantry and always start my work day with a cup of Espresso, which is my favorite. I guess it's also the favorite of many others so sometimes it's usually a long wait for the coffee. I actually enjoy it because I get a chance to gossip with others. Sometimes we run out of coffee but there are always laughs.

As soon as I get to my desk, I turn on my computer, log in, and check for any urgent emails that need to be addressed. Then I double-check our site monitoring and error logs to make sure there were no issues over the night that needed to be addressed.

Because it's critical for my job to be up to date on technological developments and news, I usually use this time to catch up on a few RSS feeds that I subscribe to. In software development, there is always a new or better method to accomplish something. Soft­ware tools and lan­guages are always changing, and you must stay up to date on new techs and techniques.

10am - Start work for the day

Fram^ powersUpscale, and I am one of the project's developers. We work in three-week sprints, according to the Agile methodology. This essentially implies that new features for the Upscale website will be broken down into several little jobs that will be gone live every three weeks. We spend two weeks writing the code to implement the features, and the last week is spent testing the changes, fixing any errors that are discovered, deploying the features, and preparing for the next three-week sprint.

The work I accomplish at this time of day is determined on where we are in the sprint. If today is a sprint planning day, we will have a meeting with the Upscale Product Manager to go through the list of tasks that must be completed in the upcoming sprint. We must assess the com­plexity of each work by assigning points to it, with 1 being the least com­plex and 8 being the most com­plex. The longer the work takes, the higher the points are. Because each sprint has a certain number of points available, the Upscale Product Manager prioritizes the tasks such that the most critical activities are completed first.

'Working time is very flexible, it helps me to be comfortable and work more efficiently. Everyone is very good. So, I felt like I had all the resources I needed to do my best work.' (Thanh Nguyen - Senior Mobile Developer)

12:30pm - Lunch

In District 1, there are lots of great options (dimsum, sushi, beefsteak, Vietnamese foods, etc.) for lunch to choose from. We get together and go out for lunch every now and again, especially if someone new has started or if there is a birthday to celebrate. If the weather isn't good, we order food and gather around the pantry to enjoy together.

It's wonderful to get away from your computer, and I frequently have a eureka moment when out and about if I'm having trouble with a programming problem. It's time to refresh my mind before returning to my desk.

1:30pm - Back to work

Back to the usual routine - getting a cup of coffee and writ­ing code to complete the sprint job at hand, or even fix­ing problems if we're in the final week of the sprint. I would also have to deal with day-to-day client support issues. I prefer to work with headphones on and listen to music. It assists me in getting into 'the zone' and focusing on what I'm doing.

We frequently collaborate with the designers, front-end and bacl-end developers. They write the HTML code (which gives the website its appearance), and we link it to the back-end code (which makes the site operate). I also collaborate closely with the other devel­op­ers on the Upscale project, as well as devel­op­ers on other projects; we bounce ideas off each other, and I'll ask their advice on how to improve the project.

Once I've finished a feature and thoroughly tested it, I deploy it to our test environment so that our QA resource can test it and the client can make sure it's what they asked for. I also run an auto­mat­ed regres­sion test, which goes off and checks the site's core functions to make sure I haven't inad­vertently broken something else. It's possible.

5:30pm - Tech Talks

Every few weeks, all of the Madgex devel­op­ers come together to chat about what's new, any com­ing future work that could be of interest, or someone will give a talk on something they've learnt that might benefit the rest of the team.

6:30pm - Home time

Another ride home, or if there is a tech­ni­cal event going on, I might go there first. There are usually lots of fantastic tech communities and events, and it's great to be a part of it and be inspired by smart, creative people.

'Focusing on working and having help from everyone make my work always smooth.
Sometimes it's a bit stressful but it helps me to improve. After a hard working day, It's great to know that I'm contributing to a great product.'(Thanh Nguyen - Senior Mobile Developer)