Becoming part of a team

As of this writing, I am a few weeks into my first job as a junior web developer. I am thrilled to become part of an active development team. I had practiced and learned on my own, and now I must do so in a team. The first few days have taught me a few things about working in a business setting. I have learned that it is important to keep track of the time that I put into my tasks. I am becoming more familiar with the process of submitting pull requests and receiving code reviews. I have learned to keep track of cards and organize my assignments with Trello.

Doing real work for the real world

When working on projects for real clients, it is important to be accurate and transparent with the cost of development. It also helps developers have a better estimate on the amount of time a feature will take to build. That is why it is important for me to track my times. I was introduced to a program called "Minute7". It is a simple and handy tool for tracking time. I simply enter the client, the task, and the times I started and concluded working on a task. It is not overly complex, and it helps those on the business end accurately quote clients and make more informed decisions.

Working with teammates

With my new assignments, I get to practice the process of submitting pull requests. I am more comfortable creating branches for specific requests, and leaving helpful descriptions for the developers reviewing my code. After my code is reviewed, I go back through my code to make the appropriate changes. If everything looks good, I merge and delete the branch I was working on. Git and GitHub are very useful and robust tools especially when working in a team.

The team needs to keep track of who does what, so that is where Trello comes in. Trello is what I can use to keep track of the tasks assigned to me, and what the team can use to stay organized with who is doing what. I have learned to provide relevant links to my work, and how some tasks will later be split into tasks with cards of their own. Trello keeps everything organized into separate boards, and it makes it simple to find what needs done.

Starting my first job in web development is very exciting. I am learning how a team works to satisfy many clients and create work of high quality. The team must have an estimate on the time an assignment will take, review the code for said assignment, and keep track of who is working on it. It was highly satisfying to complete my first tasks, and I am excited to learn more.