People profile: Development Manager

Photo of Helen

Name: Helen Joyce

Education: BSc in Mathematics from Leeds University, MSc in Computer Science from Huddersfield University

Position at Red Gate: Development Manager

Start date: July 2001

First job ever: EVER… Hairdresser's assistant! First "real" job was junior developer

Before you arrived at Red Gate what did you do?

After finishing my Masters (in 1998) I worked for a software consultancy in London and worked on a project for Shell as a Software Tester. I divided my time between London and The Hague and was thrown in the deep end in terms of working on commercial projects from the word "go". The experience helped me get a temporary contract in Sydney, Australia, as a Quality Assurance Engineer for a financial company. After several months travelling I came back to the UK and got a job in Cambridge as a Software Tester for a company who made software used by animators to make cartoons. Then, in July 2001, I became the first software tester at Red Gate.

What does your job involve on a day-to-day basis?

  • Solving development team problems as quickly as possible so they can get on with making great products
  • Planning development projects and resource management for new product releases and internal development projects
  • Business requirements gathering for internal development projects
  • Making sure development projects are running smoothly by supporting the project managers in their role
  • Project management activities including to help plan projects, running bug hunts, organizing beta programs and releases
  • Line management of technical testers, developers and project managers
  • Communicating development issues with the Technical Support, Sales and Marketing departments

What do you need to be a Development Manager?

I need a notebook and a pen with me as I am rarely at my desk. By attending project meetings and being amongst a project team I can support the project managers to make sure everyone on their team is working efficiently. I take notes of what's been happening, new problems, and changes to the project plan so I can communicate project status to other departments. I also need to analyze the risks of any active project to make sure we are writing good quality products with the right feature set in a reasonable time. This means a development manager needs a good understanding of the products and the technical complications of developing software.

Having been a Software tester for a number of years I have a sense of curiosity with what developers are up to and how they made technical decisions. I think it's essential to ask questions as a development manager to make sure project teams are keeping focused on the key objectives. It's also important to see the big picture of releasing software. Having managed several major project releases I can appreciate the effort required to write and release commercial software. Now as a development manager I need to think about projects before the coding starts and get involved when the original ideas are being researched and keep involved after the release with supporting, marketing and selling the products.

Why did you choose Red Gate?

Red Gate was a much smaller company when I joined and it was a very exciting place to be in terms of writing cutting-edge software with relatively short development life cycles. It's still a very exciting place to work and the products remain interesting to develop in terms of being technically challenging. When I first met the (somewhat smaller) team at Red Gate, it was fairly obvious that employees got their opinions heard, and knowledge was shared openly, and I guess I wanted to be part of that supportive culture.

What are your favourite Red Gate perks?

Red Gate's Feel Good Fund for keeping staff happy is above and beyond what other companies offer and a lovely perk! A good coffee machine and breakfast cereals are also appreciated!

What's your most memorable Red Gate experience so far?

It's a bit sad, but watching Simon accidentally break the conference call phone (which took us weeks to install and understand how to work) by popping the champagne cork too close to it and soaking it in bubbly. And attending a conference where most of the people I spoke to had heard of Red Gate…awesome.