Matthew
John Baker
Project Manager
Software Developer
Life as a Project Manager
Seasoned Project Manager & Senior Developer in software development, focusing on developing plans, schedules and assigning tasks to the right people. Leading the team in the best direction for projects to stay on course, while identifying project blockers and then deploying solutions. Keeping the clients' expectations through regular updates using current project management software (Asana, Tello or Google Sheets of burn down charts).
I do this by planning out a detailed project specification, meeting with developers on a regular basis to understand their strengths and weaknesses. I then assist by balancing out areas of slower sections of the build, with regular code reviews to understand when the team is struggling with deliverables, with a special focus on team communication and testing.
I deploy Gitlab for all projects in each team for code review during the merge process. This allows for greater view on the development progress via branch features. Deploying CI/CD environment is key to remove the wasted time of manual deployment. Quicker test cases after automated unit testing is done through the Gitlab pipeline.
As a Project Manager & Developer, I have worked from the ground floor up over 24 years. I have developed in all major languages. I work from design to database, through code and server deployment in both LAMP and MEAN stack. I understand the full development cycle, from client related expectations and budgets to the development floor. This allows for me to identify issues and formulate solutions in realtime, to stay within budget where possible, or sit with the client and have those courageous conversations to meet their expectations before it becomes breach of contract, while readjusting project scope and cost.
Now say that three times fast :)
Life as a Developer
Since my first website in 1999, when I was typing away in Windows Notepad (not to be mistaken for Notepadd++), I was hooked. Html, CSS and Javascript were mind blowing. I was not new to messing with code; qBasic was fun to play with and then I had some fun building levels in Quake, but that is just what it was, for fun. Then I got my first job at a company doing pretty much everything I.T related, one of them building a website. Obviously, it was not anything to brag about, but I did it in two weeks, and after lots of learning I got a three-page site up.
Forwarding to 2025, I decided to look at the things I have learnt, what has been left behind over the last 24 years. I have enjoyed working with so many different languages; from C++, then VB to Delphi, then porting over to PHP. I loved Flash and ActionScript. Then onto the years of frameworks; CodeIgniter, CakePHP, and my own MVC based framework. Then the next few years doing Joomla themes, plugins and components, finally moving over to Wordpress and settling on Laravel. And all the in-betweens; ObjectiveC, Swift, Java, jQuery, Mootools :) C#, asp then ASP.NET, 3D Studio Max & After Effects, and databases… oh the databases. With OOP that was all a lot of “fun”; from pulling one’s hair out, to crying, to wanting to change my profession. In the above I set up all my own environments, all my own servers and stacks, as well as Github & Gitlab setups. I finally settled on the below
Current Setup
- LAMP Stack (Ubuntu on AWS/Linode/Digital Ocean)
- Laravel
- VUE
- nodeJS
- Bootstrap
- Gitlab
- GitHub
- BitBucket
- Visual Studio Code
- 3D Studio Max
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- AutoCad
- PHPStorm
- Fleet
- Mac with Docker
- Windows with Docker
- Jira for Project Management
- MS Teams for Teams / Prefer Slack
Having worked in the industry for so long, I have seen all sides of it. From the small one-man band Wordpress site, to the millions spent on national projects. From working for small companies, to big agencies, to freelancing, and finally running my own business with a development team. Each stage has had its joys and its "I'm done!" moments. I have seen great project managers and the 24/7 pusher "nothing matters but the deliverables". I have taken wisdom from owners down to my interns, there is always something to learn. In the end finding a balance is not easy. Creating an environment that people want to be in is not easy, and taking the knocks when you as a developer or as a leader fail, well it "sucks". But stepping up and taking responsibility and accountability is paramount in making what you do unique, and when other developers want to work with you or for you, well it is humbling.
This site serves as an online profile, but also as a blog of knowledge for whatever strikes me as a little wisdom, maybe none, maybe some.
I hope this finds you well in 2025...