Jill Clarke - Software Developer

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BCS Learning & Development Ltd 2020

The right of Jill Clarke to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, First Floor, Block D, North Star House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1FA, UK.

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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-78017-501-0

PDF ISBN: 978-1-78017-502-7

ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78017-503-4

Kindle ISBN: 978-1-78017-504-1

British Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available at the British Library.

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The views expressed in this book are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or BCS Learning and Development Ltd except where explicitly stated as such. Although every care has been taken by the authors and BCS Learning and Development Ltd in the preparation of the publication, no warranty is given by the authors or BCS Learning and Development Ltd as publisher as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained within it and neither the authors nor BCS Learning and Development Ltd shall be responsible or liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising by virtue of such information or any instructions or advice contained within this publication or by any of the aforementioned.

Publishers acknowledgements

Reviewers: Mark Berthelemy, Stephen Mariadas and James Millar

Publisher: Ian Borthwick

Commissioning editor: Rebecca You

Production manager: Florence Leroy

Project manager: Sunrise Setting Ltd

Copy-editor: Gillian Bourn

Proofreader: Sarah Cook

Indexer: Matthew Gale

Cover design: Alex Wright

Cover image: istock/RandyHume

Typeset by Lapiz Digital Services, Chennai, India

Jill Clarke is an experienced freelance developer and enthusiastic trainer of the existing and next generation of software developers. Her initial roles as a Cobol programmer laid the foundations for a working life programming many different systems in a variety of industries using many different programming languages.

She runs her own company (Bear Computer Services Ltd) where currently much of the work she does is in training developers (via JBI Training) at many well-known companies both large and small in new languages, methodologies (she is a professional Scrum Master), techniques and tools in traditional software development as well as the ever expanding web development sector. She still loves working as a developer and does development work for both enjoyment and profit as well as to keep her skills fresh and up to date.

She is a member of BCS and in her spare time she volunteers on the BCS Women committee and can also occasionally be found volunteering at The National Museum of Computing (based at Bletchley Park) where she developed the Software Gallery along with Bob Jones. She was runner up in the BCS IT Trainer of the year award in 2007 and is a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute.

Starting at the beginning, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my brother and parents (Vern and Beryl) who always encouraged me in this career (and in life) even though programming was a less popular career choice in the 1970s when I first sat an aptitude exam.

From my early days as a junior programmer Id like to thank my first mentor (John Wright) who helped me when I was working in Birmingham and all the many people since who have helped, inspired and supported me in my career. The developer community is rich with these types of people; find a company and role where you can benefit from and contribute to this supportive atmosphere.

For the book Id like to thank Ian Borthwick and Rebecca You who approached me about writing it. The people who contributed to the case study chapter all gave freely of their time and experiences, they were enthusiastic and honest and bring the subject matter to life, thank you:

Jeremy Clarke

Emma Bostian

Chris Ashton

Eva Dovc

Simon Kemp

Zara Ahmed

Id also like to thank Jon Bambaji and the team (Mervyn, Pavlos, Nigel and Bill) at JBI Training who cleared time in my schedule so I could write the book.