Job Objective: My objective was to relieve the CTO of her software duties so that she could spend time building out a business that monetized the software suite she created to automate the parent company’s operations.
Challenges: The CTO was the only person who understood the software, its design, history, and business logic. My challenge was to understand the code so that I could debug and enhance it without distracting the CTO. This amounted to reverse engineering the 30 separate software applications that performed finance, HR, supply chain management, tools and supply inventory, project management, vendor management, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, personnel management, architectural design, job estimation, contract management, employee training and certification, staff discipline, union procedures, disaster recovery, data protection, and data security.
How I dealt with the challenges: My first priority was to not interrupt normal business operations and to be as independent as possible. This required care and disciplined work processes. As I ascended the learning curve, I captured my learning in documentation and narrated videos, created reference documents, and commented the code for future developers.