Developer Spotlight – Henry Oforeh
- Interviews
This month’s Developer Spotlight features Henry Oforeh, a Senior Software Developer at AOT Technologies. Henry has been working on a project with Schneider Electric, where AOT engaged an agile team to work on an exciting Azure cloud project.
Can you tell me a bit about what you’ve been working on?
I joined team AOT on the Azure cloud project with Schneider Electric. My main responsibilities were migrating the existing legacy solutions written in the .Net Framework to .Net Core 3.1 and .Net Standard 2.0.
In addition to this, I also worked on building a data optimization algorithm to help reduce operational costs (4x) arising from unnecessary database transactions. While these were the main assignments I have been working on, I also assisted in developing another application to help upload data from various IoT devices to blob storage in Microsoft Azure.
Some of the tasks involved in these projects included rewriting, refactoring, cleaning, and repackaging existing libraries for current and backward compatibility. Configuring build and release pipelines within Microsoft Azure was also added to my portfolio of responsibilities.
What does the day-to-day look like, and what do you love about your job?
In addition to regular agile meetings with the team; including remote standups, sprint planning, and retrospect, I also do regular deep dives into the legacy codebase to get a better understanding of what to improve or fix in the future. I also write unit tests where necessary.
The part I love most about my job is that each new day presents unique challenges. I get a great deal of motivation and fulfillment by satisfying the client and gaining an in-depth knowledge of the technology stack. I cannot also overemphasize the joy of collaborating with my fellow AOT colleagues, who are a pleasure to share knowledge with and are always ready to assist each other. I like to think of us as a team of specialized forces or commandos on a serious mission that must be accomplished.
Throughout this project what are some of the obstacles that you faced? How did you handle these challenges, and what did you learn from them?
During the migration of the main client application, one of the challenges we faced was to prevent disruption on the existing main branch where there were also periodic cuts to production by the other agile team. This also created a challenge of falling behind in new features or code changes.
One of the strategies we used to get around this was to create a separate feature branch as our main and push the latest code changes to the same. This worked to address the issue by taking the painstakingly careful approach of doing a down merge from the other main branch into our feature branch every day. My takeaway from this is that sometimes doing things the hardest way might be the only option to prevent a major crisis from happening!
Looking back on your time on the project, what are three key takeaways from the experience?
- You cannot go wrong by asking questions, no matter how knowledgeable you are in any domain.
- Teamwork is always an advantage.
- It always pays to be prepared well ahead of time, even if it means putting in extra hours.
What do you enjoy about working at AOT, and what advice would you give to people starting out in their career as a software developer?
Apart from the cultural diversity and ease of communication within the organizational structure, AOT matches the way I am wired as an individual, which is getting involved in projects that make me push beyond boundaries and my comfort zone. While I have a lot to contribute, I also like the fact that there are so many established professionals I can learn from.
My advice to people starting out as software developers would be to, first of all, understand what it takes to become a successful software developer and also to try as much as possible to always upskill.