See all Work History & Feedback
Related links:
This assignment was for advancing an existing Flex project with a Java backend. Over the course of three months (about 20 hours per week), I was able to close many tickets on the Flex side.The Flex project's architecture made this assignment challenging. Best practices had not been implemented and every component was tightly coupled. This was a large Flex project, so the poor architecture made the code difficult to follow. Alex and Yuri from InCheck were very knowledgeable and pleasant to work with. Vlad was responsible for the Java backend. Though skilled and responsive, I often found it difficult to get more than the essential information from him. The prior Flex developer was of no help, perhaps because his time was allocated elsewhere. Whatever the reason, it was not a problem since I had the full code, though it did make for a longer time period to get up to speed.At the end of the assignment, many - though certainly not all - of InCheck's issues had been fixed. Some things will only be attained with a schedule and a budget that allows for a complete refactoring of the application.After checking in the final changes, I delivered a 21-page document with detailed information on the state of the Flex code.
Dan's Discount Jewelry hired me to do a complete redesign of their website.
Rev. Dr. Mel White is an author and LGBT rights activist. His son, Mike, is a movie writer whose credits include School of Rock. Together, they formed a team on The Amazing Race 14. Mel wanted a complete overhaul of his website to coincide with the premiere of the The Amazing Race 14 in February, 2009.
I served as director of web development for the LGBT advocacy organization, Soulforce, for four years.
This was a large Flex and Java project. Travis was quite familiar with both technologies and was always available for discussing the project. Travis had previously hired a Java/Flex developer to work on the project a few months before. After a basic prototype was created, I was then brought onboard to take lead of the Flex side. I developed several components, redesigned different screens, and generally worked on getting the project towards a more finished product ready to be beta tested in the field.The project was not completed at the end of my assignment. I feel this is due to Fireleg and Travis needing more than skilled programmers at this point. There were several areas of the project that, I felt, had a vagueness about them that made it difficult for me as a programmer to provide a solution. This is not a criticism of Fireleg or Travis, but rather my viewpoint as a Flex developer looking to have satisfied clients. With regard to this specific project, I think there is more work that needs to be done on the planning side and getting the solution more precise on paper before engineering it in Flex.
