Senior Developer

Summary

A senior developer delivers and integrates software to form a complete service.

At this role level, you will:

plan and lead development on sets of related stories

have an understanding of the whole system and take responsibility for teaching this to others

work with other disciplines to understand what needs to be built

coach and mentor more junior colleagues

operate the production services you build

find ways to improve system robustness, resilience and stability

Background

Description Background
Takes a logical, analytical approach to problem solving and pays close attention to detail. Prior Knowledge and Skills

Work Activity Components

Title Details
Documentation and version control (PROG)(Level2) Documents work in accordance with agreed standards. Applies version control in accordance with agreed procedures.
Reviews and monitoring (PROG)(Level 4) Participates in reviews of own work and leads reviews of colleagues' work.
Policies, standards and guidelines (PROG)(Level 4) Applies agreed standards and tools, to achieve well-engineered outcomes. Identifies issues related to software development activities. Proposes practical solutions to resolve issues.
Senior Developer

Behavioural Skills

Title Details
Conceptual Thinking Acquiring understanding and insights regarding the underlying issues in complex problems or situations through the development of abstract representations, the identification of patterns and the analysis of hypotheses.
Creativity Taking innovative approaches to problem solving and/or devising inventive and creative solutions.
Attention to Detail Applying specific quality standards to all tasks undertaken to ensure that deliverables are accurate and complete.
Cross-Functional and Inter-Disciplinary Awareness Understanding the needs, objectives and constraints of those in other disciplines and functions.
Interacting with People Establishing relationships, contributing to an open culture and maintaining contacts with people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Effective, approachable and sensitive communicator in different communities and cultures. Ability to adapt style and approach to meet the needs of different audiences.
Teamwork Working collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal.

Technical Skills

Title Details Depth
Application Systems Technical or functional understanding of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications and/or other bespoke software deployed within the organisation in order to provide system configuration, audit, technical, and/or functional support. Familiar with
Application Development Tools Software tools which automate or assist part of the development process. Proficient in
Configuration Management The discipline that gives precise control over IT assets and components by recording and maintaining information about the 'configuration items', including hardware devices, computer programs, software licences, documentation, network devices, and data centre facilities (virtualised and static). Familiar with
Programming Languages A set of codes and syntax (supported by software tools) that enables the unambiguous translation of specified functionality into source code for the creation of computer programs. Proficient in
Operational/Service Architecture Knowledge of the IT/IS infrastructure and the IT applications and service processes used within own organisation, including those associated with sustainability and efficiency. Familiar with
Structured Reviews Methods and techniques for structured reviews, including reviews of technical work products, test plans, business cases, architectures and any other key deliverables. Proficient in
Software Testing Tools Software tools which automate or assist any part of the testing process across all or part of the testing lifecycle. Familiar with
Middleware Software which forms part of the operating platform infrastructure. Familiar with
DevOps The collaborative approach consisting of agile practices, processes, and procedures designed to facilitate rapid IT service and product delivery. DevOps emphasizes people (and culture) and seeks to improve collaboration between development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams with the aim of shortening the systems development life cycle to provide continuous release of high-quality software. Familiar with
Agile A collection of methods, practises, tools and techniques, underpinned by the Agile Manifesto, that enable teams to deliver high value products and services in small, workable, increments. An Agile culture typically encompasses concepts such as Servant-Leaders; ceremonies, Stand-Ups, Sprints and Retrospectives; and the deployment of tools and techniques such as Backlogs and A/B Testing. Proficient in

Other Skills

Title Details Depth
Techniques for Effective Meetings Methods and techniques for running effective meetings and for understanding and influencing the roles played by participants. Aware of
Coaching Techniques Methods and techniques for coaching individuals or groups by a balanced combination of support and direction, which could include use of virtual learning environments plus add-ons to augment feedback specific to work items, workflow or career plans. Familiar with
Standards Writing Techniques Principles, methods and techniques for establishing, documenting, and maintaining standards. Aware of
Project Planning and Control Techniques Methods and techniques associated with planning and monitoring progress of projects. Aware of

Training

Title Details
Corporate Policies, Standards, Procedures, Guidelines and Tools Policies, standards, procedures, guidelines, software tools and operating system facilities used in everyday work.
Systems Development Systems development, including development life-cycles and methods, organisation interfaces, typical corporate application architectures, project and programme management, risk management and change control.
Advanced Programming Methods and Techniques Complex methods and techniques for the creation of program code. Typically for use in scientific calculation, for improving operational efficiency of programs or for enhancing the productivity of experienced programmers.
System Testing Methods and procedures for planning, specifying and executing tests, including levels of testing, e.g. Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing, User Acceptance Testing, Regression Testing, Live User Testing, etc.
Software Configuration Installation, configuration and tuning of applications or systems software.
Coaching Concepts, methods and techniques for providing coaching in subject specialisms to individuals or groups (e.g. GROW model).
Mentoring Methods and techniques for providing mentoring support to less experienced individuals.
Security Awareness Tools and techniques to help users and employees understand the role they play in helping to combat information security breaches and for IT and security professionals to prevent and mitigate risk.

Professional Development Activity (PDA)

Title Details PDA Group
Deputising Standing in for supervisor or manager on a temporary basis during periods of absence. Broadening Activities
Job Shadowing and Special Assignments Undertaking temporary periods or secondments in other roles, particularly those that offer a new perspective on own function or exposure to other environments and cultures. Broadening Activities
Research Assignments Exploring a topic which is not part of own normal responsibilities and presenting findings to colleagues and/or management Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Knowledge of Activities of Employing Organisation Developing an understanding of the potentially diverse range of activities (service, governance, administrative, regulatory, commercial, charitable, industrial, etc.) undertaken by the employing organisation. Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Knowledge of IT Concepts and Techniques Undertaking study, learning and, where possible, practice in IT concepts and techniques external to own function. Increasing Knowledge
Participation in Professional Body Affairs Taking an active part in professional body affairs at branch, specialist group, committee or board level. Participation in Professional Activities
Negotiating and Influencing Undertaking learning and practice of negotiating with and influencing others. Developing Professional Skills

Qualification Components

Title Awarding Bodies
FEDIP Senior Practitioner The Federation for Informatics Professionals
Registered IT Technician (RITTech) BCS The Chartered Institute for IT

Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework Skills

Skill Level

Availability and capacity management

Availability and capacity management involves ensuring services are available with as little down-time or disruption as possible, whilst making sure we have sufficient resources to support emerging business needs.

Working Availability and capacity management

You can: manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and performance targets

Development process optimisation

Training and capability improvement involves identifying and advocating ways to develop the skills, knowledge and performance of individuals or organisations.

Working Development process optimisation

You can: identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions

Information security

Information security involves maintaining the security, confidentiality and integrity of information.

Practitioner Information security

You can: understand information security design solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered with mitigation of security threats as a core feature

Modern standards approach

Modern development standards involves using the latest technologies and best practices to improve the quality of the software development process.

Practitioner Modern standards approach

You can: competently apply a modern standards approach and guide others to do so

Programming and build (software engineering)

Practitioner Programming and build (software engineering)

You can: collaborate with others when necessary to review specifications use the agreed specifications to design, code, test and document programs or scripts of medium-to-high complexity, using the right standards and tools

Prototyping

Prototyping a service or product involves exploring, testing and sharing different concepts before committing to the final design.

Practitioner Prototyping

You can: approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others establish design patterns and iterate them use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate

Service support

Service support involves fixing service faults and maintaining the underlying infrastructure, ensuring processes are in place to keep the service running efficiently.

Practitioner Service support

You can: identify, locate and fix faults

Systems design

IT systems analysis involves assessing current systems and implementing new ones, to improve the performance and efficiency of an organisation's applications.

Practitioner Systems design

You can: design systems characterised by medium levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity select appropriate design standards, methods and tools, and ensure they are applied effectively review the systems designs of others to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology

Systems integration

Practitioner Systems integration

You can: define the integration build co-ordinate build activities across systems understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities

User focus

User focus involves understanding the user needs to develop a detailed understanding of the problems that need to be solved.

Practitioner User focus

You can: collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user champion user research to focus on all users prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use

The Professional Body Responsible for this job family is BCS. This job role profile was created in collaboration with BCS, using Role Model Plus.

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