Rick Hoen – Pega Developer @ MN Services
The idea that lives with many people; “A Junior Developer is just programming all day long”. A working day looks much more varied than is often thought. In this blog, Rick Hoen tells you what a typical day as a Junior Pega Developer looks like.
Startup
7:00 am: The alarm goes off at 7 am, and then I get ready for the day. In the meantime, I grind coffee beans and put delicious fresh filter coffee in my thermos that goes to work.
8.30 am: I arrive at the headquarters of Rabobank Group, where I greet my Squad (scrum team) colleagues on the 21st floor and switch on my laptop. First, I check my calendar to see what’s on the schedule for today. I then check my e-mail and indicate the necessary follow-up. Then I check on our scrum board which User Stories are still open in the current sprint, which Stories (parts to be built) have been assigned to me and what their status is. When all User Stories assigned to me have already been completed or are being reviewed by colleagues, I check whether there are still new stories that I can pick up. Now I am well-prepared for the daily Stand-Up.
The “Stand Up”
9.00 am: My fellow squad members and I daily stand-up of fifteen minutes. Here we share the status of our tasks within the team, with which tasks we need help, what possible obstacles there are and what we can do if necessary and which tasks we still plan to pick up.
9.45 am: After the stand-up, I will work (if there are no meetings on the schedule) on the User Story that I have picked up. Usually I start by analyzing what requirements there are. From this, I’m trying to figure out what I think should be built in Pega. Then I get to work on this and I try to actually build these supplies. When I run into obstacles and really can’t figure it out myself, I enlist the help of Senior Developers. I hereby ask how I can best tackle this problem, why this is the best approach and why other solutions are not a good idea in this case. My goal is to keep asking questions, to be critical, and to learn as much as possible in that way. Next time I’ll probably get a lot further without help.
Lunch time
12:00 PM: Time for lunch. We go with a number of Squad members to the first floor to 1 of the 5 restaurants within the Rabobank or walk into town to eat something outside the door.
1:00 PM: After lunch, I continue working on the User Story that I picked up. When we have to connect to applications, components or systems from other Squads, we often have meetings about this to coordinate this. Meanwhile, we regularly connect with our offshore colleagues in India. As one of the most productive Squads we also have a lot of fun together at the same time and that makes the work extra fun.
Wrap-up
5:00 pm: When the work for this day is finished, I take the train back to Amsterdam. Now I first go to the boxing gym for a nice punching bag training. After a hard day’s work and especially being rational and analytical, I can now just ‘get out of my head’ and do a good solid workout. Then it’s time to settle down on the couch at home next to my friend and end the day relaxed.
See you tomorrow!
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