Software Developer. Jill Clarke

(with reference to certification levels and BCS membership)

       Figure A.1 Book road map

       Figure A.2 Developer role from SFIA

       Figure A.3 Types of development summary

       Figure A.4 Developer participation in Waterfall SDLC; typically in the build and support stages

       Figure A.5 Developer participation in Agile/Scrum; typically as part of the development team

       Figure A.6 Developers’ key knowledge and skills

       Table 3.1 An example of entity relationship descriptions

       Table 3.2 Casual text description for a use case

       Table 3.3 User story example

       Table 3.4 Description of key testing types that can be run on software

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Jill Clarke is an experienced freelance developer and enthusiastic trainer of the existing and next generation of software developers. Her initial roles as a Cobol programmer laid the foundations for a working life programming many different systems in a variety of industries using many different programming languages.

      She runs her own company (Bear Computer Services Ltd) where currently much of the work she does is in training developers (via JBI Training) at many well-known companies both large and small in new languages, methodologies (she is a professional Scrum Master), techniques and tools in traditional software development as well as the ever expanding web development sector. She still loves working as a developer and does development work for both enjoyment and profit as well as to keep her skills fresh and up to date.

      She is a member of BCS and in her spare time she volunteers on the BCS Women committee and can also occasionally be found volunteering at The National Museum of Computing (based at Bletchley Park) where she developed the Software Gallery along with Bob Jones. She was runner up in the BCS IT Trainer of the year award in 2007 and is a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute.

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      Starting at the beginning, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my brother and parents (Vern and Beryl) who always encouraged me in this career (and in life) even though programming was a less popular career choice in the 1970s when I first sat an aptitude exam.

      From my early days as a junior programmer I’d like to thank my first mentor (John Wright) who helped me when I was working in Birmingham and all the many people since who have helped, inspired and supported me in my career. The developer community is rich with these types of people; find a company and role where you can benefit from and contribute to this supportive atmosphere.

      For the book I’d like to thank Ian Borthwick and Rebecca Youé who approached me about writing it. The people who contributed to the case study chapter all gave freely of their time and experiences, they were enthusiastic and honest and bring the subject matter to life, thank you:

      Jeremy Clarke

      Emma Bostian

      Chris Ashton

      Eva Dovc

      Simon Kemp

      Zara Ahmed

      I’d also like to thank Jon Bambaji and the team (Mervyn, Pavlos, Nigel and Bill) at JBI Training who cleared time in my schedule so I could write the book.

      ABBREVIATIONS

      AI artificial intelligence

      API application programming interface

      ATM automated teller machine

      BCS BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

      BDD behaviour driven development

      BIOS basic input/output system

      CASE computer aided software engineering

      CAST computer aided software testing

      CI continuous integration

      CPD continuing professional development

      CPU central processor unit

      CSS cascading style sheets

      DBMS database management system

      DRY don’t repeat yourself

      EDI electronic data interchange

      ERD entity relationship diagram

      ERM entity relationship modelling

      FTP file transfer protocol

      GDPR General Data Protection Regulation

      GPS global positioning system

      HP Hewlett Packard

      HTML Hyper Text Markup Language

      IDE integrated development environment

      IoT internet of things

      JSON JavaScript Object Notation

      MoSCoW must have, should have, could have, won’t have this time

      MVC model view controller

      NFR non-functional requirements

      OOP object oriented programming

      OWASP Open Web Application Security Project

      PC personal computer

      PHP (originally) personal home page

      PRINCE2 Projects IN Controlled Environments

      ROI return on investment

      SDLC software (or systems) development life cycle

      SFIA Skills Framework for the Information Age

      SQL Structured Query Language

      SSADM structured systems analysis design method

      STEM science, technology, engineering, mathematics

      TDD test driven development

      TL;DR too long; didn’t read

      UML Unified Modelling Language

      URL uniform resource locator

      UX user experience

      XML eXtensible Markup Language

      GLOSSARY

      Agile: an umbrella term for a particular set of frameworks and practices