Aike

For the Zonnefabriek I work part-time as a solar panel installer. I do this in addition to my work as a software engineer. The combination of office work and hands-on outdoor work is a refreshing change. I also find it important to contribute to making society more sustainable.

The objective of the project is to develop a consumer app that allows users of electric vehicles to charge at public charging stations with ease. The product of course contains more features than this. For example, another important functionality is making it as easy as possible to find a charging station depending on the situation and needs of the user.

When the project started and we as a team began working together, we had little domain knowledge about electric cars and the charging infrastructure. It was up to us specialists to figure things out together and make progress. We have a lot of autonomy for this, but also all the responsibilities that come with it. Therefore as a team we are highly motivated to work together to create an outstanding product. It is also a great opportunity for us software developers because there is almost no legacy to deal with.

Our team, the mobile team, consists of two mobile engineers, a product owner, a product designer, and a QA engineer. We are also part of the digital cx division within E.ON Drive. Within this division there is close collaboration. For instance, the design team is creating an extensive design system that all products must adhere to. This design system is integrated into our codebase using Figma design tokens and a custom transformer.

My work consists of everything necessary to develop a completely new mobile application in a team of highly experienced specialists.
At the beginning of the project, we focused on research and shared insights to acquire the necessary domain knowledge as a team. After that, I and the other mobile engineer started building the foundation of the new codebase. An important aspect of this is to evaluate what the best software tools and libraries are and to discuss this with each other. Once we had a solid foundation, we began working on features, which we divided among ourselves. For example, I worked on developing the map functionalities. I also collaborate frequently with the designer to ensure the product functions and appears exactly as designed, aiming for pixel-perfect results.
At the end of each sprint, I usually give a demonstration of the part I have worked on. In some cases where the work is not demonstrable, I provide a technical explanation in as understandable language as possible.

I have collaborated with Ristretto for years, because of my high degree of flexibility as a freelancer, the full-stack knowledge and experience, the ability to look beyond just programming, the skill to realise the product in a very short period, and the experience in independently setting up and further developing a codebase.

In the projects there is always a recurring theme, the product is developed from a human-first perspective. With this approach it is possible to develop truly meaningful digital applications. This Corporate Social Responsibility aspect gives me the extra motivation and satisfaction to work with Ristretto.

When I am engaged in a project its status is usually as follows. A comprehensive preliminary phase has been completed in collaboration with the client, designer and product owner. During which a product design is created and usually a working prototype as well.

My tasks are quite extensive, as the developer on a project I am fully responsible for the technical development of the product. At the beginning of a project, I conduct research to find a solution that fits within the budget. This is always very important because there is usually a fairly limited amount of development time to develop the product. One of the bigger challenges is that clients often want to be able to manage the content of the application themselves. Various solutions we have developed for this are a custom-made micro-server, or a direct connection to a headless CMS, or a hybrid implementation that uses the advantages of both solutions.

The goal is to develop a universal app with which the world of craft beers can be discovered (for the connoisseur: an alternative to Untappd).

When I started, the project only consisted of UX sketches, user stories and many ideas from the founder. The team consists of the product owner, a junior back-end developer, myself and an external designer.

My responsibilities encompass everything needed to develop a completely new mobile application:
- researching the latest technologies and advancements
- using this additional knowledge to create a technical plan
- collaborating with the product owner to improve the user stories where needed
- collaborating with the designer to fine-tune the design
- extensive coding to transform the user stories and design into a pixel-perfect app
- thoroughly testing from a user's perspective
- discussing interim results with the product owner
- building and uploading new versions to the test- and production environment

The objective during the COVID-19 pandemic is to gain as many insights as possible with the “COVID Symptom Study app” into the coronavirus and later also into the various vaccinations. This is achieved by analysing a large amount of collected data through machine learning. The insights obtained are directly shared internally with the government of England, which then uses this information in the development of its coronavirus policy.

When I joined the project was in full swing with 1 million daily users, many of whom completed a questionnaire every day (this is on a voluntary basis). The entire IT infrastructure had thus already been developed and was running steadily for some time.

Our engineering team includes: the manager, several front-end developers, some back-end developers and a tester. We were part of the covid division which consists of the following teams: engineering, content & marketing, design, and data science. Furthermore our covid division is part of the parent company ZOE, where several hundred people worked.

My responsibilities include maintaining the large codebase, but mainly involves further developing the application by continually working on new features. Existing functionalities are regularly adjusted based on new insights into the coronavirus. All these adjustments need to be thoroughly tested, for which there is a special tester, but we engineers are also heavily involved in the testing process. For every new feature, unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests are written. In some cases A/B tests are also conducted. I often communicate with the other teams about the application updates (several times a week). Furthermore I often initiate refactors to improve the quality of the codebase.

By Mobiquity I was placed on this project at UMC Utrecht. The goal is to develop a mobile application that enables the research groups at the academic hospital to recruit more participants for their studies. There is a very short timeframe available for the development of the product, with only two months to deliver a fully functional application.

When I started the project was still in its initial stages, with only a design prototype and minimal user stories in place. Furthermore, there was just an idea and wish from the internal client to achieve the goal. The team consists of the scrum master, external product owner, external designer, myself, a junior front-end developer, and a senior back-end developer.

My responsibilities encompass everything needed to develop a completely new mobile application:
- researching the latest technologies and advancements
- using this additional knowledge to create a technical plan
- extensive coding to transform the user stories and design into a pixel-perfect app
- closely collaborating with the designer
- thoroughly testing from a user's perspective
- discussing interim results with the product owner and the internal client
- designing and implementing the build- and release pipeline
- building and uploading new versions to the test- and production environment
- resolving bugs after (partial) launch

The goal of the project is to replace the highly outdated Android, iOS, and web applications with entirely new applications developed using the latest technologies.

When I started a lot of preliminary work had been done in the areas of content, design and user stories. Furthermore, the previous engineer had set up a minimal basis for the codebase. The team consists of the manager, product owner, myself, junior back-end engineer, tester, an internal client, and an external designer.

My responsibilities encompass everything needed to develop a completely new mobile application:
- researching the latest technologies and advancements
- using this additional knowledge to create a technical plan
- extensive coding to transform the user stories and design into a pixel-perfect app
- discussing interim results with the product owner and the marketing department
- thoroughly testing from a user's perspective
- designing and implementing the build- and release pipeline
- resolving bugs after (partial) launch

...

We were a young software company founded by four computer science graduate friends. During our education we learned to work together on complex problems and to do this efficiently. With the company we specialised in the development of mobile and web applications.

In the innovation team my task is to develop a proof-of-concept for pioneering ideas. After it has been shown that the concept is feasible a fully functional demo application is developed.