I had a lot of fun doing this project at work. It was a challenging project, with a tight deadline. There were a few surprises on the way, and a lot of late nights, but we got it done on time.

The project started when I was given an ASP.NET desktop application and told to help the original programmer turn it into an ASP web application.

The program told the user if they'd be entitled to Pension Credit and how much they were likely to receive. Pension Credit was a new benefit and they wanted the web application to launch at the same time the benefit did.

It wasn't till I met the programmer David Joseph and started talking to him that I realised he hadn't finished the original program yet.

I designed an architecture that separated the code that worked out the pension credit entitlement from the code that controlled the user interface. I also created a testing framework that would test the programs calculations against test cases provided by the policy team.

Dave translated his existing code into ASP and fitted it into my architecture. He then continued to finish it while I wrote the user interface.

I set up a schedule of regular code reviews where we read each others code to ensure it was correct, readable and to suggest ways it could be done better. This proved to be very successful, improved both our skills and saved us time in the long run.

The project manager Clare did an excellent job of keeping us on track and keeping us free from the stresses and pressure that were building up around the project.

This was one of my first big projects and I learn a lot, including the value of testing, code reviews, a well defined problem and asking questions that seem obvious.