Business Connexion (South Africa), Principal Software Developer

Introduction

Business Connexion Web Site

Business Connexion is a South African company that provides software consultancy to a wide variety of customers in both private and public sectors. I joined the company to help one of South Africa's largest gold mines to develop a risk managemtent system, that included a risk register, risk assessment, risk mitigation, risk reporting and risk monitoring.

This involved working with the customer to understand their needs and then using my experience to help them to develop a solution that met their needs. I was also responsible for the development of the solution, including the development of the architecture, the development of the user interface, the development of the database, the development of the reporting and the coordinate with testing to ensure that the solution met the customer's needs.

I was also responsible for ensuring that once the solution was delivered, that it was supported and maintained, including the development of the support documentation, the development of the training documentation, the development of the user documentation, the development of the training and the coordinate with testing to ensure that the solution met the customer's needs.

April 2012 - November 2013

After some time in South Africa, I decided to return to the UK with my family, however the customer was eager to have me continue working on the project. This was a great opportunity to work with a customer in the UK, and to work remotely and ultimately help the customer get the project finished and used in production.

Challenges and Successes

When I joined the project, there was a lot of options available to the customer, and the customer was not sure which option to choose. I was responsible for helping the customer to understand the options available to them and then helping them to choose the option that was best for them.

We also explored new technologies that were available to the customer, and we were able to help the customer to understand the benefits of using these technologies. I helped develop a POC for a silverlight application, and we were able to help the customer to understand the benefits of using this technology.

However after some issues with getting the silverlight application to work, we decided to use a different technology, and we were able to help the customer to understand the benefits of using this technology.

This was a great learning experience for me, and I was able to help the customer to understand the benefits of using different technologies. In the end we ended up focussing primarily on the development of the web application, utilising JQuery, HTML, CSS and ASP.NET MVC.

Repsonsibilties

During my time at Business Connexion, I was responsible for the following:

• Develop and deliver a web application using ASP.NET MVC, C#, JQuery, HTML, CSS and SQL Server.
• Develop and deliver a reporting solution using SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Co-ordinate with the customer and the various teams within the customer's business as well as the internal teams to ensure that the requirements were met and that the project was delivered on time and on budget.
• Documentation of the solution, including the development of the architecture, the development of the user interface, the development of the database, the development of the reporting and the coordinate with testing to ensure that the solution met the customer's needs.
• Focus on proposals for further enhancements to the solution, including getting budget approval for the enhancements, regular reviews of the enhancements with the customer and the development of the enhancements. This included ensuring that the customer understood the status of the project and how the project was progressing.