HCL Technologies · Sep 2017 – Jun 2021
Vehicle specs, for an automaker
Sat with the client's own engineers until we understood what they actually needed. That part won the bid. The code came second, and was easier.
- Role
- Developer, hands-on
- Team
- [HOW MANY]
- Stack
- Java 8 · REST · Oracle
The problem
An automotive client needed issue and variant management across vehicle specifications, and did not yet have a clear picture of what the system had to do. The requirements were the hard part; the code came second.
What I decided
- Ran requirements directly with the client's own engineers rather than through an intermediary, which is what made the proposal specific enough to win.
- Optimised the RESTful API layer ahead of adding features, on the grounds that page load time was the complaint users actually voiced.
- Pushed a core module from 0% to 80% test coverage before refactoring it onto Java 8 Stream and Date/Time APIs — the coverage was what made the refactor safe.
Outcome
Contributed to winning a USD 200K project bid, improved page load times 25%, and gained 15% performance from the core module refactor.
Requirements, not code
Expand the bid story. This is the one case study where the value you added was mostly in the room, not in the repo — say so plainly.