Reflection: Three years at Intenda

What three years of working on enterprise applications taught me about software development, teamwork, QA, and why I went from loving frontend development to thinking about APIs.

Looking back, my time at Intenda has been one of the most significant chapters in my career so far.

When I joined Intenda in August 2023, I was stepping into a new environment and, in many ways, a new stage of my career. I had experience building websites and working on smaller projects, but working as part of a larger enterprise development team introduced me to a completely different way of approaching software development.

Firstly: I learned Git.

I could say that over the past three years, I had the opportunity to work with React and Fraxses Opus UI, contribute to enterprise applications, fall in love with C#, SQL, and so on. But here is what I want to say first: I learned how to use Git. Because of the scale and complexity of the applications we were working on, as well as the nature of the business rules that needed to be implemented, Git immediately became your best friend.

One of my first major tickets was to create functionality that parsed SQL queries sent to the backend. It got me interested in backend development. This is where the experience became fun for me as a frontend developer. Prior to this, I would have done some simple backend work here and there, but getting exposed to an application of that scale opened a new world for me. I started learning how to collaborate more closely with backend developers and, honestly, started admiring what they do in the process. I have since put a good foot forward into backend development.

Secondly: I learned what it means to work collaboratively within a larger team.

I learned to think more carefully about maintainability, scalability, business requirements, and the impact that seemingly small changes can have within a larger system.

One of Intenda's areas of expertise is the logistics industry. Getting exposed to a system that handles large-scale logistics operations was one of the highlights of my time there. One of the things you actually yearn for as a developer is to see how your contribution to an application or system makes a difference. This was it. It was through this experience that I fell in love with C#, .NET and SQL Server. Seeing how these technologies connect and how they can be used together to build applications of that nature was one of the most enjoyable parts of the experience.

Thirdly: the team made it easier to navigate the complexity that comes with being a developer on such a team.

I even had to spend some money to learn a bit about project management. That speaks to the environment itself. It was an environment full of fun ideas, complex solutions and learning experiences. More importantly, it was an environment that encouraged growth.

One of the highlights was contributing to the Opus UI website during its transition towards becoming an open-source platform. Opus UI is such an interesting stack and probably one of the most interesting technologies I have encountered when it comes to building complex, data-driven desktop systems. Opus UI excels at this. Regardless of what you throw at it, you can get from an idea to an MVP remarkably quickly. Although, in an era of AI and LLMs, speed is becoming less of an issue, what was special about working with Opus UI was that you actually understood your code, even when the system became complex. That is something I think we are slowly losing with AI, but perhaps that is part of the greater good.

The QA environment.

I think it would be an injustice not to mention the QA environment. As a frontend developer, a button is just a button. Until a QA tester clicks on it. Then you discover: nah. You need four more scripts to make this button work the way it should. And you might need an extra one for when the network is slow. And actually, because of Firefox, you might need to pull in another script. I am being dramatic, but this is where you grow as a developer. Because the next time you have to create a button, you will make sure it is a good, solid button. And people tell you frontend work is easy. Please!

Lastly: you get to see systems mature.

Not only do you grow as a developer, but you get to experience the systems you are contributing to mature over the years. You see decisions made earlier begin to have consequences later. You see features evolve. You see complexity grow. You see what works, what doesn't, and what it actually takes to build and maintain enterprise applications. That broadens your understanding of what is needed to build software that lasts.

Most importantly, I have grown significantly as a software developer.

Three years ago, I was excited to get the opportunity. Today, I leave with a much broader understanding of software development, enterprise applications, teamwork, and the continuous learning that comes with this career. I went in loving frontend and came out thinking about APIs. I am in love with all of it.

I am grateful to the people I had the opportunity to work with, the challenges that pushed me, and the experiences that helped shape the developer I am becoming.

What's next?

I hope more APIs and complex systems. With a bit of: “Build this new screen to consume the API.”