Asidua

Michael

I chose to study Computer Science at the University of Ulster because I am interested in software development and the inner workings of complex software systems.

Being given the opportunity to put the theory learnt in University into practice in a respected software development company such as Asidua has been an invaluable experience.

Most of the development technologies I’ve worked with in University are non Microsoft based, it was therefore a great benefit to be able to get ‘hands on’ with software applications and technologies that are developing and powering some of today’s most successful businesses. Since the start of my eight week placement at Asidua I’ve got to grips with the likes of Visual Studio, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SQL Server, ASP.NET, C#, web services and cloud computing.  Being able to add the skills learnt using these applications and technologies is extremely beneficial to my future education and career.

I would absolutely advise anybody going into university to consider applying for an Asidua scholarship. In addition to the excellent training and experience there are financial aids to help with the rising costs of higher level education. 

If you want to learn more about my experiences in Asidua, please read my regular blog updates below…

12th August 2011
With some project test scenarios completed I performed a full write up for my line manager and others to follow on the project. I also took extracts from this write up and used them as articles in Asidua’s Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base provides a learning database with articles for developers to read up on certain aspects of software, technologies and projects. During my work in Asidua I have used Knowledge Base and in addition there was always somebody to talk to if I needed any help with the technical stuff, I am after all still learning. My line manager was able to help me out with any problems I came across.

As this is coming near the end of my time in Asidua for this summer, most of the team in which the other scholars and I have been part off, took us out for lunch and gave us a proper send off which was fantastic. I’d like to take this chance to thank them all for their generosity.


5th August 2011
The second scenario was to check whether we could successfully communicate from an on premise CRM instance to a cloud based web service to an on premise sandbox (console) application and back again. This would form the basic architecture for the actual developed project in the future. During this time I learnt a lot about how teams develop software professionally and also how the different parts of an overall solution, developed by different people come together.


29th July 2011
The first scenario was to check whether we could successfully communicate between an on premise CRM instance and cloud based web services. For this I developed the plugin which called the web service (developed by another scholarship student). I also had to learn how to deploy the service in a simulated cloud environment using Microsoft Azure on Windows Server OS. This was an excellent advantage as I had never used either Azure or Windows Server. We successfully implemented the scenario as planned and it gave us a good starting point for our cloud based project. This was supposed to be my last week as the summer placement is typically 8 weeks long but because of the project I was working on I was asked if I would like to continue for a couple of weeks during the summer. I was only too happy to accept as the experience is very enjoyable and the financial aid is a bonus.

22nd July 2011
This week I began working on a cloud computing project which I had no previous experience of prior to this placement process. I found this work both challenging and rewarding. Using the skills learnt in the previous weeks and with the help of the other scholars we set about developing test scenarios designed to determine what is capable within the cloud in regards to current projects and resulting technologies. I found this to be extremely interesting and it felt great to be working as a part of a busy team with other scholars of similar experience. 

15th July 2011
CRM provides additional functionality through the use of plugins. This was my next learning objective and I began by coding some functionality into CRM itself by using plugins to manipulate input data going into my sites DB. When data is entered into my sites GUI and sent to CRM, a plugin is fired and in turn calls a WCF Web Service which I also began developing this week. Learning about the different components which when interlinked create a working solution to a problem is a very enjoyable experience.

8th July 2011
Having done some DB work my line manager and I decided it was plausible to move onto working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. At the highest level CRM acts as a fancy GUI frontend to SQL Server but also incorporates business logic and multi user support. CRM also provides SDK’s for working with CRM functionality from third party applications. I began incorporating CRM into my website rather using SQL Server. In effect CRM was acting as a middle man but provided a far friendlier interface than SQL Server could. I very much enjoyed learning about the different elements of CRM software as a whole and in particular the elements specific to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It is sure to benefit any future projects I work on during my time with Asidua.

1st July 2011
Once the website supported database driven logins and user registrations as well as password resets and IP address logging, I decided with the help of my line manager to create an administration page which could monitor user accounts and change the functionality of the site through the site interface. This meant that no direct interaction with the DBMS was necessary and that my site was acting as a complete GUI for the system. During this week I also added some security measures to the site, such as prevention of SQL injection. This should benefit me in any future website work. This was the week in which one of the most important events in Asidua was taking place. The Fifa Tournament, which I entered provides a getaway from the work side of things and gives a good opportunity to get to know your colleagues. I wasn’t very good but I enjoyed the banter. I’m sorry I won’t be there to see who finally wins.

24th June 2011
Once I was familiar with C# and the Visual Studio environment I began development on a website in order to put the skills learnt in University and week 2 into practice. Once the website was developed graphically in ASP.NET I began coding in the functionality and behaviour of the web controls using C# behind the scenes. I decided it was a good idea to make the website database driven in regards to user logins. For this I started using SQL Server to store the user credentials. This gave me a good understanding of even more Microsoft applications as I had only ever used MySQL and PostgreSQL DBMS’s previously.

17th June 2011
With only having developed in Java, PHP and Python in university and in my spare, I was especially interested in working with Microsoft based technologies and applications. I started getting to grips with Visual Studio, ASP.NET and Windows Forms. For the majority I was developing in C# which is syntactically similar to Java which I was happy to discover.

10th June 2011
On the first week of the scholarship I was really excited about starting the summer placement but was unsure as to what to expect. We (the other scholars and I) where given a guided tour of the premises in Weavers court and shown our workstations. Soon after we had a team meeting where everybody introduced themselves to us and we did the same. During the first week we also had inductions for the different aspects of employment in Asidua which gave me an overview of the company and what our role within it was. I also met my line manager Ben who I would be working alongside for the duration of the placement. Ben was very friendly and made me feel at home.