7.45 AM
Good morning! I arrive at a time that suits me, due to flexible working hours. Normally there are people already in the office working. First I look at news and emails, hen prepare for our stand-up meeting later in the morning, doing a little summary of yesterday’s work before organising today’s to-do list.
8.00 AM
It’s time for our daily morning meeting. People share what they did yesterday and key tasks for today, including any impediments they have encountered. Sometimes the team will do a little brainstorm to help solve issues. Engineers in this department really enjoy solving problems. Problem-solving is like an entertainment activity that we all enjoy.
8.20 AM
After the meeting, I fix a cup of tea or coffee to get the day started and have a little catch-up with workmates in the Social Kitchen.
8:30 AM
My colleagues have given me some code to check, which I do carefully as well as reading the review comments, then proceed to deal with any issues raised in the comments. Build a new version, re-test, and re-modify the code to make sure it looks and works well before submitting the revised list of changes and responding to comments.
9.00 AM
Weekly project scrum meeting. This generally includes planning the subsequent project iteration cycle and reviewing the previous project cycle. We usually also discuss what we accomplished the day before, what we will do today, and the various problems we’re likely to encounter. FPA Software team are running agile as we want to achieve compact iterations. Our project iteration cycle is about three weeks. The regular meeting is normally shorter, because engineers want to solve problems more than spend too much time in meetings.
9.30 AM
With noise-cancelling headphones on I go through the task list, design and implement features or fix bugs, discussing any design problems with a workmate.
10.30 AM
Catch up with external team about project progress, share information and provide help.
12.30 PM
I have lunch at my desk with web browser on, reading news and casual chat with friends. Fortunately, the company is on the second floor of the mall, so it is very convenient to buy a variety of food.
1.00 PM
Time to top up my drink, depending on what I had for lunch. I try not to fall into a food coma!
1.20 PM
Back to coding. Might be called to the lab to assist external team with product.
3.30 PM
Weekly software project backlog refinement meeting, to add detail, estimates, and prioritise the remaining tasks in the software backlog.
4.20 PM
Finish meeting, go back to my desk, reply to messages and take a look at the to-do list to get a general idea of how much work has been done and is left for today. Programming is a creative job, so people take time to think, read, and learn, especially when we need to create new things or use new technologies. At work, I spend 30% of my time sitting in front of the computer typing code, and the other 70% of my time reading, studying and thinking, of which thinking is the most important. Of course, most of the reading and thinking is in the office environment or sitting in front of the computer. However, when I encounter a problem at work, I stand up and take a walk to change my mood.
4.30 PM
Home sweet home.