Hello, world!

Why this educational track?

I already have experience, but I am lacking a higher educational degree. In my time as a software developer, I noticed insufficiencies in my fundamental knowledge, inhibiting further growth. After nearly burning myself out at my previous employer, I took this opportunity to further my education at the beginning of my professional career, rather than suffering through the lack of knowledge for the next several years. While, in theory, continuous education and self-improvement should be the cornerstone of each creative professional's process, I've found that, in practice, all that matters to the business is building working software. In some circumstances, such as with ambitious startups, this can come at the cost of a developer's personal development. In other words, I'm making up for lost time.

Why would the job suit you?

I love solving problems. While I feel that about sums it up, the school assignment for which this portfolio was written mandates that I continue for a while longer, so I will. For most people, interacting with a new piece of technology usually centers around the "what?", as in: "what can it do?" This is by all means the most important question to ask, because if what it can do is worthless, so is the product, along with any time and effort expended during its creation. Heartbreaking.

But there are other questions we can ask, such as:

• "How does it work?"
• "Why does it work like that?"
• "Are there other ways to accomplish the same goal?"
• "How does this compare to similar technology?"
• "What enabled the innovation driving this project's success?"
• ...

These questions are more commonly heard in conversations among people in IT and, more broadly speaking, in engineering. As far back as I remember, I could never quite satisfy my curiosity by simply answering the question "what can it do?". So, I developed the habit of reaching out, exploring the available information around me and researching whatever piques my interest. Over time, I noticed a huge benefit to this omnidirectional approach to learning. By going wherever my intrinsic motivation takes me, I've been able to assemble a solid knowledge base, spanning various fields of study. In effect, I've unwittingly developed T-shaped skills centered around software development.

Designer

Current status of progress

While my focus and interest is primarily on back end work, I was able to design quite a few mockups, wireframes, and design proposals while working as a software developer. These would often serve to gain approval and buy-in from a Product Owner, stakeholder, or the scrum team. In some cases, they would serve to visually clarify requirements for developers being onboarded onto the project, or to dial in specific details during the sprint. I've become competent in using tools such as Whimsical or Figma to quickly work out a simple mockup to be attached to a Jira ticket, as this was one of my responsibilities during my time as a P.O.

What is going well

• Ability to clearly and quickly visually communicate
• Ability to provide pragmatic proposals for aesthetic improvement to existing features

What could be going better

• Using modern design tools to generate starter templates with pre-built HTML/CSS

Programmer

Current status of progress

Despite setbacks in terms of employer culture, I was able to learn a reasonable amount. After 3 years of working at a startup (infamous for their high demand for individual flexibility), I've been able to gain professional experience along all major components of a modern tech stack (MEVN, i.e.: MongoDB, Express, Vue, Node.js). Outside of work, I was able to explore new technologies, and experiment with productivity methodologies.

What is going well

• Developing confidence in my ability to produce working software at a reasonable rate
• Helping other developers with debugging, troubleshooting, and general education

What could be going better?

• Managing stress and workload
• Keeping a healthy work/life balance

Tester

Current status of progress

I've had plenty of opportunities to experiment with testing methodologies and various tools. But what stuck with me most is, when push comes to shove, how little people end up caring about testing. Too often is it seen as optional, or something to do when there is extra time, as opposed to an integral part of the development process. At Oakfields, we struggled with aligning requirements from the business analysis phase with testable requirements at the end of the sprint, leading to many disagreements about whether or not a ticket was done. To resolve this, I proposed a simple workflow in which the user stories would need to be provided in a testable format (e.g.: "if... when... then...") so that tests could be provided as both a requirement checklist during development as well as a test suite after release. The proposal was rejected for the reason of "too much effort", and so we continued writing vague requirements in analysis, no tests to match. The disagreements also continued.

What is going well

• Defensive programming
• Debugging

What could be going better

• Integrating Test Driven Development into my workflow

Communicator/Team player

Current status of progress

At this stage of my career, I have about 4 years of callcenter experience, as well as 3 years of software development experience. The callcenter work did wonders for my ability to stay calm under pressure and communicate clearly, as well as teaching how to prioritize and compromise within a large team to provide customer delight at every level. These skills came in handy as a software developer, where soft skills are anything but guaranteed! My time in the callcenter made me feel a lot more comfortable with talking to stakeholders in a professional and productive way, and while it was definitely challenging, it was a good type of challenge that I am in retrospect very grateful to have experienced.

What is going well

• Being approachable to others, breaking the ice and letting them know I am available if help is needed

What could be going better

• Having fellow students really open up about their insecurities and concerns so that they can be addressed

Lifetime learner as IT-professional

Current status of progress

In the past 5 years, I've gone from working in a callcenter to learning how to program, and becoming a fulltime software developer. During this time, I taught myself a vast amount of new technology, and I'm still learning new information every day. Overall, I think knowledge acquisition is my strongest skill, as I am able to pick up just about anything and get to an amateur level quite fast. It's also a major reason for choosing this profession, since I'll never run out of things to learn!

What is going well

• Exposure to new information
• Discussing methodologies and solutions with other developers

What could be going better

• Establishing clear direction for further learning

Designer

Mockup for mobile app

For the Riserva project, which centered around evaluating the performance of callcenter agents, I was tasked with building a mockup for the mobile version. I recieved positive feedback about the proposal, and learned a lot about translating general design principles to a smaller screen size.

Wireframe for development team

During a brief period as P.O. on the Mileviewer project, I would often have to design a basic wireframe to serve as a starting point for the front-end development team. I would then often support the back-end development myself.

Selecting new company logo

As part of a rebranding campaign, the entire team was involved in discussing and comparing various logo designs, providing feedback, and ultimately deciding how to proceed by voting.

Programmer

CSV upload feature

For the Mileviewer project, we needed a way to upload and process CSV data. The input would contain shipment information, each line of which needed to be parsed, evaluated, and processed. Users required a page on which to perform the upload, as well as feedback on the upload process, a history of uploads, and the ability to download previous uploads for review. One of my first big back-end tickets involved providing this functionality, under supervision and with support from the team lead. I later spent a lot of time supporting and extending the functionality myself.

Database entity copy feature

For the Mileviewer project, users would be assigned offices as a way to separate shipment information per location. Users required a convenient way to duplicate previously configured offices so that they no longer needed to manually copy information over to reuse it. I was tasked with developing this functionality, building on the previous experience with the CSV upload. It taught me a lot about how non-relational document databases (such as MongoDB) work.

Integration with external freight forwarder API

At a certain point in the Mileviewer project, we had expanded the upload and data transfer of the application to such an extent that the next big feature was an integration system, providing support for shipment data import from each major freight forwarder (e.g.: FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc...). Once again, I was tasked with the development of this feature. With incomplete analysis and a deadline, I got to work on gathering documentation, reaching out to support staff to clarify requirements for API key approval, writing documentation and briefing fellow team members on certain requirements. Slowly, at great personal cost, progress was made. I remember these couple of months of my career as the first time I didn't quite feel like a junior developer anymore, but I've never been quite clear on where exactly that distinction lies anyway.

Tester

Testing plan in TestRail

I collaborated with my colleague Fred to provide a robust testing suite that would be reusable for all other projects, enabling us to accelerate development without getting blindsided by defects on launch day. In the end, it was all thrown in the bin.

Unit tests for business critical functionality

After some minor incidents with instability of the application, it was decided that unit test would be provided for at the very least the most critical parts of the application. These were written by me, and consequently forgotten about, even at my request to update them. The reason stated was higher priorities, but aren't there always?

Automate testing in CI/CD pipeline

We noticed that manual testing took a lot of time, and so I was tasked with automating a portion of the tests. I consulted my colleague Fred, and we collaborated to implement a useful BitBucket pipeline that could trigger a DeltaBlue deploy after running a specific test suite in TestRail, while also neatly updating ticket status in Jira!

Communicator/Team player

Member of Agile team

For about 3 years, I have lived a life of Planning Meeting, Daily Standup, Review, Retrospective & Repeat. I'm no stranger to open communication, compromising, and delivering value! I would often lead effort to streamline our process for the benefit of our people (specifically the developer experience was becoming needlessly convoluted), but this was not always received in the most positive way.

Write technical documentation for external consumption of API

Since I worked up to be the teammember with the most knowledge & experience on the Mileviewer project, I was tasked with writing the technical documentation that would be used by one of our partners during the integration we were developing with their ERP. The documentation included a full OpenAPI specification document, and I acted as the primary person of contact to answer any questions from the external parties.

Customer support & stakeholder meetings

I was able to leverage my callcenter experience to provide trilingual customer support, and to support & educate my colleagues on best practices. Later, I also attended weekly stakeholder meetings to discuss goals on the Mileviewer project, functioning in the capacity of a tech lead.

Lifetime learner as IT-professional

Exploration of tools and languages

In my free time over the past year, I have started exploring the Rust and Go programming languages, used a little Python while tinkering with the BirdNET project, played with the Godot game engine to create a small shmup game, and learned how to use Pico-8 to prototype game concepts quickly.

Database sanitization script

To improve security, I was tasked to provide a database sanitization script that would strip sensitive personal information from our test database as part of an automated script in the devops pipeline.

Exploring Linux

As a lifetime Windows user, I only recently got to experience MacOS with my worklaptop being an M1 Macbook. I wanted to continue learning about other operating systems, in a continued effort to become as versatile as possible. I'd also like to improve my ability to remotely connect via terminal to work directly on remote servers (almost all of which run Linux), which has been necessary in the past to perform specific updates. So, I spent a couple of weeks trying out various Linux distros before settling on PopOS as my daily driver, with some Debian on older devices. It's been great fun! And it's made using Windows a lot less fun, unfortunately.

POP - Reflection

Overview

Reflect on personal strengths & weaknesses, using the Kolb's reflective cycle and the STARR-method.

Challenges & learnings

While these are very useful models for first learning how to self-evaluate, I've found more success with a more ecclectic approach in which I try out a bunch of methods, and Frankenstein them all together into an approach that suits me better as an individual. Any more strict adherence to a model has, in my experience, only led to time wasted in pointless arguments that could have been better spent building things.

POP - Planning

Overview

Provide a detailed schedule for the following 2 weeks.

Challenges & learnings

Having been immersed in the Agile methodology, I'm quite used to planning tasks and breaking them down into small components. Though I would rarely, if ever, enter in as much detail as we did during this assignment (the result of which can be viewed in the log section). If I did, I would likely spend about as much time planning my work as I would actually performing the tasks! Rather, I've found it useful to keep a simple list around, with each task in sequence. This is used as my actual work schedule, to provide rough timeboxing for the purposes of aligning schedules with colleagues for collaborative moments. Additionally, if timing is tight, I will provide a simple time estimation for each task ahead of time, typically no more precise than 30 minute intervals. This makes it easier to cut non-critical requirements if necessary, or to discuss possible rearrangements in the delivery schedule depending on priority of each task.

POP - Guest speaker

Overview

Reflect on the lecture from a guest speaker working in the industry.

Challenges & learnings

Interestingly, Oakfields hired Brightest to assess our testing process. Together, we developed a rudimentary testing plan, for which me and my colleague Fred were mainly responsible. Fred had gained prior experience as a tester working with Mobile Vikings, and it was very helpful to discuss approaches and tooling with him. Unfortunately, Oakfields ultimately did little with the TestRail suite we had developed, complete with unit tests for each business critical part of the product, as well as integrations with Jira and Zendesk for easy defect tracking. One day, I tried to log in to TestRail to reuse some of the scripts we had written. To my suprise, the login failed. When clarifying the matter with the P.M., I was informed that the TestRail license had been revoked as it was "no longer being used". We hadn't recieved any prior warning, and therefore did not have any way of retrieving any part of the tooling, scripts, logs, etc... This effectively meant that all the work Fred and I undertook in an effort to improve our process and help the business had been erased. Turned to atoms. I don't know if you can tell, but I am still a little bitter about that particular experience.

Curriculum Vitae

Overview

Build a website to publish my resume.

Challenges & learnings

This particular assignment imposed the limitation of not allowing the use of frameworks, as well as discouraging the use of JavaScript. As such, it becomes an exercise in the fundamentals of HTML/CSS, which was a welcome refresher. Because the assignment itself wasn't particularily difficult, I decided to challenge myself to keep everything as simple as possible, and to limit the time I would allow myself to complete it. As expected, this resulted in a fun challenge at the cost of quality. It was particularily fun to actually implement some basic responsiveness in CSS, as this would typically not be done at my previous employer.

Cookie Clicker

Overview

Create a clone of Cookie Clicker, a popular incremental game.

Challenges & learnings

With my prior experience with C# during the Train4SmartServices course and a certain desire for challenge, I once again imposed a limitation on myself, as I had done with the CV assignment. I wanted to find out how far my currrent knowledge will get me, to paint a clear picture of where to improve in the next semester. And so, having completed most of the first iteration by December 2023, I gave myself about 48 hours for the final iterations. I was going for the sweaty, adrenaline-fueled atmosphere of a hackathon, and boy, did I succeed! It's not pretty, it has bugs, and I had to cut some functionalities due to lack of time (or rather, planning). But I can call it done, warts and all. This may seem quite extreme, bordering on irresponsible, from the perspective of a student trying to pass a class. But I've suffered through such situations in the past with more on the line than a simple grade, so I wanted to make the most out of this comparatively safe learning environment to really push myself, especially on the easier assignments.

Portfolio

Overview

Expand website to include school assignments.

Challenges & learnings

The most difficult part of this assignment is providing answers that are truthful without straying too far from the original questions. To address this, I have attempted to provide responses that are relevant to the question, but also demonstrate a broader and more general understanding of the topics at hand. If I had not made this adjustment, I would likely have little to say to each reflective question about which new knowledge was acquired. The total volume of work required has been relatively high compared to the learnings I've been able to extract from it so far, but I am patiently looking forward to the coming months, in which we will learn about more advanced topics.

Strengths

• Analytical mindset
• Empathy, compassion, tolerance
• Cool under pressure

Weaknesses

• Planning & organisation
• Consistency in performance
• Sociability

What did you learn?

To be completely honest, not much. Though that's not really anyone's fault! This was one of the first POP-sessions, and it makes sense to start with one of the most important aspects of improvement: evaluation. The audience these lectures are designed for seems to be the beginner and young adult, as it should be. Unfortunately, I am neither of these things. I would certainly have appreciated being taught these methods in school, but I've managed to put together the basic principles over time by doing my own research (along with a lot of trial and error).

How does the knowledge transfer to daily life as a programmer?

Trying to improve without self-evaluating would be like flying blind. To successfully iterate, we need to draw conclusions from our previous work about which improvements to make and how to accomplish them. In order to generate and collect data that is consistent, and therefore useful, it makes sense to add structure to how and when we perform such evaluations. Kolb's model and the STARR-method are two examples of this. They're easy to understand for just about anybody, and reasonably effective too! Ultimately, I would prefer to move away from repackaging existing concepts under new terminology, and would rather teach the underlying principles. But keeping audience design in mind once more, the accessibility of the simplified models is more than enough to kickstart a positive feedback loop!

(Em)passie

Wat is jouw passie? Hoe houdt dit verband met de opleiding die je bent aangevat?

Het ontwikkelen, doorgronden, en verfijnen van systemen, specifiek met als doel het oplossen van praktische problemen. Dit is ongeveer de definitie van "engineering" (i.e.: ingenieurswezen), waarvan software ontwikkeling een vorm is. Bij de opleiding Graduaat Programmeren staat software ontwikkeling centraal.

Wat geeft jou energie en goesting? En hoe zie je dit in je opleiding die je bent aangevat?

Het aanleren van nieuwe manieren om dingen aan te pakken of problemen op te lossen, m.a.w. innovatie, onderzoek, ontwikkeling. Ik leer liefst al doende, door projecten te bouwen, beperkingen op te leggen, en aandachtig te analyzeren.

Hoe zie je jezelf in dialoog gaan met anderen in de opleiding die je bent aangevat?

Als oudere student met relevante werkervaring kan ik waar nodig vragen beantwoorden, helpen bij het aanleren van moeilijkere concepten, of gewoon het moreel op peil houden door bijvoorbeeld anecdotes te vertellen over uitdagingen in mijn eigen professionele ervaringen.

Ondernemend & innovatief

Wat versta jij onder een ken-doementaliteit (ondernemend zijn in de brede zin van het woord) en hoe zie je dat in de opleiding die je bent aangevat?

Het besef dat de collectieve kennis van het menselijk ras toegankelijk is op eender welk moment, verleent zich tot continue zelfverbetering. Er zijn minder obstakels dan ooit voor de nieuwsgierige geest. Ondernemend zijn betekent het veranderen van de stelling "Ik kan het niet" naar "Ik weet niet hoe dit moet, maar ik kan het verder exploreren." Onwetendheid is dus geen beperking van ons vermogen, maar een opportuniteit tot verrijking.

Hoe ver sta jij op dit moment al in een ken-doementaliteit?

Ik heb ondertussen verschillende hobby's waar ik zo veel mogelijk vrije tijd aan spendeer, telkens vanuit eigen initiatief en als autodidact. Een paar voorbeelden: video & audio productie, elektronische muziekproductie met modulaire synthesizers, game development, technical writing, astronomie, en gewichtheffen.

(Internationaal) Samen(net)werken

Hoe ziet jouw netwerk er op dit moment uit? Kan je dit netwerk inzetten in functie van de opleiding die je hebt aangevat?

Mijn ex-collega's uit mijn tijd bij Oakfields kan ik altijd contacteren via sociale media. Zij werken ondertussen bij Mediaan op de Corda Campus, dus ik verwacht zeker even af te spreken volgend semester om bij te praten! Verder heb ik ook nog een aantal andere contacten uit het Train4SmartServices traject in Heerlen dat ik enkele jaren geleden heb doorlopen.

Hoe zou jij internationaal samen kunnen werken in de opleiding die je hebt aangevat?

Het grote merendeel van de langetermijnsbeslissingen die ik maak doelen op internationale samenwerking. Elke computer krijgt internationale taal- en landsinstellingen, met voertaal in het Engels, en QWERTY layout. Ik communiceer voornamelijk in het Engels waar mogelijk om mijn taalvaardigheid te onderhouden en verbeteren, aangezien Engels de lingua franca van IT is. Verder fungeerde ik vaak als tech support bij het plannen en ondersteunen van de conference calls tijdens sprint retrospectives en reviews. Ik heb met andere woorden alle middelen in huis om internationaal samen te werken, en heb ondertussen verschillende internationale contacten gelegd via mijn vorige werkgever.

Multi- & disciplinariteit

Wat weet je op dit moment al over de inhouden van je opleiding?

Vanuit mijn ervaring als web developer heb ik kennis opgedaan over werken met o.a. JavaScript, SQL, Agile/Scrum, Git, Atlassian producten (Jira/Confluence/BitBucket). Verder heb ik in het Train4SmartServices traject ook een verkorte cursus C# doorlopen.

Met welke andere disciplines (opleidingen / beroepen / ...) zou jij in aanraking kunnen komen in je opleiding?

Studenten onder departement PXL Digital, en daarbuiten studenten uit opleidingen zoals Bedrijfsmanagement (Business), of Communicatie (Media & Tourism). In principe kan IT in aanraking komen met eender welke andere discipline, op voorwaarde dat deze baat kan halen uit een softwarematige aanpak.

Beschrijving project

Brixel is een website waarop je een spelconsole (Brixel) kan huren. Deze console is eigenlijk een Raspberry Pi (een soort mini-computer) met onze eigen software, en maakt het op die manier mogelijk om zowel oudere als nieuwere games te spelen. Oudere games (GameBoy, NES, N64, PS1) hebben vaak minder strikte technische vereisten en kunnen dus via emulatie gespeeld worden op de Raspberry Pi zelf. Nieuwere games (Xbox, PS2+) worden via streaming aangeleverd (zoals bijvoorbeeld Google Stadia) aangezien een Raspberry Pi hiervoor niet krachtig genoeg is. Via de Brixel website kunnen gebruikers consoles inhuren, spellen erbij bestellen, of helemaal zelf aan de slag om zelf een Brixel console te maken met behulp van onze open source software en hun eigen hardware.

Persoonlijke reflectie

Wat vond je van het project? Was het interessant, moeilijk, veel, … ?

Het was een leuk project om aan te werken. Elk teamlid heeft voeling met games, dus het enthousiasme was zeker aanwezig om een goed project te verwezenlijken. De algemene structuur van een webshop is voor mij niet nieuw, maar het was een interessante uitdaging om de technische concepten uit te leggen aan mensen met minder ervaring. Op creatief vlak was het leuk om met het team te brainstormen en speelse concepten ook om te vormen naar nuttige features op de website.

Heb je veel steun gehad van je teamleden en lectoren?

Mijn teamleden hebben me goed ondersteund door hun taken zoveel mogelijk zelfstandig af te werken, elkaar te helpen, of hulp te vragen bij de lectoren. Hierdoor was ik vrij om de focus te houden op de moeilijkere aspecten van de applicatie, of de minder populaire tickets. Ook kon ik telkens berusten op de inzet van mijn teamleden om zelf ambitieuze features toch tot een relatief goed einde te brengen.

Wat zijn de belangrijkste zaken die je bijgeleerd hebt op technisch vlak?

Zoals ik eerder vermeldde ben ik al bekend met de algemene structuur van een webshop, en dus heb ik niet bijzonder veel nieuwe informatie gekregen. Wel heb ik mijn begrip van back-end kunnen aanvullen in de context van .NET en C#, wat zeker nuttige ervaring was om op te doen.

Hoe ben jij gegroeid in de 3 soft skills waaraan jullie als groep hebben gewerkt tijdens WPL2?

Plannen en organiseren

Ik benadrukte telkens het belang van de sprintplanning voor het verdere verloop van de sprint, aangezien een onduidelijke taakverdeling miscommunicatie in de hand werkt. Over het algemeen was er niet veel interesse in het duidelijk inschatten en verdelen van elke taak, of om tickets uit te schrijven voor elke taak binnen het project. Aangezien we hoe dan ook genoeg werk hadden, heb ik hier verder dan ook geen focus op gelegd. Het leek me beter om het team te laten werken op de manier die in praktijk het meest productief bleek (agile: people over processes).

Communiceren

Hierdoor waren we uiteraard wel genoodzaakt om veel vaker en rechtstreeks te communiceren. Meestal ging dit vlot, zeker tijdens de WPL momenten op Corda. Op andere momenten werd de negatieve impact hiervan ook duidelijk, bijvoorbeeld wanneer een logboek ingeleverd moet worden op een zondag, en er is nog niet besproken wat er nog gedaan moet worden en wie dit gaat doen. Dit zorgde vaak voor onrust, een suboptimaal resultaat, en bijhorende frustratie. Zelf heb ik hier telkens opnieuw over gecommuniceerd, maar in praktijk had dit jammer genoeg weinig effect.

Verantwoordelijkheid

Aangezien ik meer ervaring heb op professioneel vlak, heb ik het voortouw genomen in het benadrukken van individuele verantwoordelijkheid. Zeker voor hogeschoolstudenten was het belangrijk om duidelijk te maken dat er niet voor elke taak een aparte evaluatie/feedback zal gebeuren (met bijhorende numerieke score), maar dat het evenzeer belangrijk is dat het werk op tijd wordt opgeleverd. Vervolgens ben ik bewust meer en meer naar de achtergrond verdwenen. Tijdens de eerste paar sprints zorgde ik nog voor een soort vangnet en ging ik hier en daar brandjes blussen, maar naarmate het project vorderde liet ik mensen meer en meer zelf vastlopen en die obstakels overwinnen. Natuurlijk bleef ik wel aandachtig dat de frustratie/verwarring niet te hoog opliep (het is immers een leerproces), maar vond ik wel nuttig om deze manier de boodschap duidelijk te maken dat je in het echte leven wel eens serieus in de penarie kan komen als je niet op tijd verantwoordelijkheid neemt, en dat je dit niet altijd achteraf nog goed kan maken. Bovendien is er meestal niemand die je op voorhand bewust maakt van een risico, dus moet je zelf continu pro-actief op zoek naar mogelijke obstakels of risico’s in het proces. Op persoonlijk vlak ben ik dus gegroeid door net hetgene dat ik van nature vaak doe (verantwoordelijkheid opnemen voor het gedrag van anderen) dit keer minder te doen (door dingen af en toe “fout” te laten lopen in plaats van alles te voorkomen).

Als je nog eens in een team zal werken, wat zou je dan anders aanpakken?

Ik ben overal het algemeen tevreden over de initiatieven die ik heb genomen door regelmatig interessante afleiding te voorzien die de creativiteit van het team aanwakkerde (bv: technische boeken over design patterns/engineering/animatie, bordspellen, kaarten, dobbelstenen, fidget toys).

In het algemeen, als je opnieuw zou mogen beginnen, wat zou je dan anders doen?

Ik zou minder tijd spenderen aan het uitklaren van elk triviaal detail van ons fictief product, en voornamelijk binnen de scope te blijven. Dit gebeurde grotendeels als team, maar uiteindelijk heeft al die analyse vooral tijd gekost die aan ontwikkeling gespendeerd had kunnen worden. Maar persoonlijk vond ik die kleine verbetering in efficiëntie in het ontwikkelingsproces veel minder waard dan het uitwisselen van ideeën met andere creatievelingen.

Link je werkzaamheden/taken binnen WPL2 aan de beentjes van de x-factor

(em)passie

• Passie: Ik heb veel interesse in games, en draag dat enthousiasme graag over aan anderen.

• Empathie: In het werken binnen een team is er vaak nood aan wederzijds begrip om een nauwe samenwerking te kunnen behouden. In dat opzicht heb ik prioriteit gegeven aan het persoonlijk leren kennen van elk teamlid doorheen het project, om op die manier elkanders standpunt beter te begrijpen tijdens discussies.

Ondernemend & innovatief

Met ons Brixel concept maken we gebruik van bestaande en toegankelijke technologie om een probleem op te lossen in de gaming industrie. Bovendien moedigen we anderen aan om zelf bij te dragen aan onze missie via ons open source project.

Multi- & disciplinariteit

Ik maakte doorheen het project gebruik van zowel soft skills als hard skills om het team aan elkaar te lijmen en als mediator te fungeren tussen het diverse talent in het team. Waar nodig schreef ik code, op een ander moment deed ik een korte demo van een tool die we in het project willen gebruiken, of hielp ik een meningsverschil uitklaren. Verder spoorde ik mezelf en anderen aan om de regels en richtlijnen van dit OLOD ter harte te nemen, met als specifiek doel een zo realistisch mogelijk werk scenario uit te beelden doorheen het project.

(internationaal) samen(net)werking

Doorheen het project hadden we vaak contact met andere teams om ideeën uit te wisselen, elkaar te helpen met hardnekkige bugs, of om programmeertechnieken delen.

Logboek