Palegoldenrod

I’ve been working at a pretty cool little web development company called Izilla for about the last 2 years, and today is my last day here for a while. The guys have graciously allowed me to take a six month sabbatical to travel, starting this weekend, and tonight we will all head out for some food and drinks.

I’d like to take the opportunity to do something I haven’t done before - plug Izilla and maybe more importantly, the guys who work there.

At Izilla my position is officially Senior Developer / Analyst but I have been wearing a few hats:

• project manager of a portfolio of web projects - usually new developments or significant enhancements to existing sites, and also long term management of a few maintenance projects
• process review manager - responsible for review of the software development process and for recommending and implementing improvements to the process; reviewing internal development standards and skills;
• managing developer meetings - implement and run regular developer meetings aimed at covering interesting events within the company as well as sharing technical knowledge on solutions implemented, techniques used, advances or improvements in technology, development standards and best practice, training sessions etc
• a few other bits and pieces such as business analysis mentoring, assistance with other projects, product and tool evaluation, input on business service offerings etc

As such I’ve had the opportunity to work with almost everyone at Izilla in some way or other. While I have enjoyed most of my work at Izilla and the various projects I have worked on, I’d like to touch on the most recent site development I have managed since early last year -

SecureNSW - NSW Counter Terrorism Website

The SecureNSW Working Group, made up of members of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and the NSW Police Force engaged Izilla to develop the SecureNSW website - branding / logo design, page design, implement Izilla’s Cognition ECM for content management as well as carry out custom development as required.

I managed the website development project on Izilla’s side, from running the initial workshops in the requirements gathering phase, developing the functional specification, co-ordinating the development, QA and UAT phases and Izilla teams involved as well as the deployment live and ongoing maintenance and enhancements. My core team included:

• Ilona Leibbrandt - account manager
• Matt Thompson - lead developer and deployment manager
• Chris Good - developer
• Llewellyn Robinson - developer
• Amos Robinson - developer
• Mark Davies - site branding and concept designs
• Matt Stow - front end development and design implementation
• Elena Yermakova - quality assurance
• Dean Thompson - content preparation and entry

My team worked well together and produced a sweet final product. I’m proud of what they have done, and in case you stumbled here looking for info on one of these guys, would wholeheartedly recommend any of them!

I’d like to thank the secureNSW working group from the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and the NSW Police Force for the opportunity to work on such an interesting project and see it evolve from concept into reality. It was a pleasure working with you, and I hope to see the site grow further in the future! Also thanks to Holly Robertson of the Department of Premier and Cabinet for all her hard work managing the project on DPC’s side.

Izilla - The Team

What can I say? They are cool people, and work well as a team. For those of you who may not know, I can tell you the following about the group at Izilla, especially in the Newcastle Development HQ:

• They care about quality. They take pride in their work.
• They actually develop to web standards and good design principles. I’ve come across some web development shops that don’t seem to care about web standards, accessibility or compatibility with browsers other than Internet Explorer - or they charge more for the “luxury”. Izilla produces accessible, semantic (no table-based layouts here), compliant markup and CSS as a standard. The team wouldn’t want to send anything less out the door - its a matter of pride.
• They have revived the age-old tradition of high-fives. (Nice work, Amos, hahaha)
• They play a wicked Mario Kart during breaks Who has the trophy at the moment guys? Elena? lol
• They get along well together and have a sense of humour. Lunch and a beer at the pub on Thursday is a ritual.
• They know their stuff. Both our design and development department excel at their specialties and are continually improving their skills with enthusiasm. The vibe is good in the office

And if you’re thinking it, no this is not a sales pitch. This is me high-fiving the guys I work with, because they do their job well. And I want everyone to know

I had fun working with you all - thanks for the good times, and Izilla - thanks for the opportunity to pursue my dream of travel. I’ll keep you posted of my adventures and see you in six months!

Carly Lyddiard