Section 06 · ePortfolio

Goals

Reflecting on the DataCare Connect capstone, I have set short, mid, and long-term goals against which my professional growth is measurable.

Short-term Goal · 0–12 months

Target: Full Stack Developer (.NET / Web) at Blue Wren Holdings Pty Ltd, Yatala QLD — $150,000 – $200,000 / year, full time, sourced from Seek.com.au.

Gap analysis — what I need to develop

Required skill	Current level	Action plan
ASP.NET / C#	Foundational (Restaurant System, 2020)	Complete Microsoft Learn ASP.NET Core path; build a personal ASP.NET MVC project
WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)	Beginner	Complete WPF tutorial series; build a simple desktop CRUD application
.NET ecosystem (NuGet, EF)	Beginner	Learn EF Core through official documentation and a personal project
SQL Server (MSSQL)	Familiar (SLIIT projects)	Deepen knowledge of stored procedures, indexing, and query optimisation

Action steps — next 3 months

Complete the ASP.NET Core fundamentals path on Microsoft Learn (free, self-paced).
Build a personal project: a simple inventory management desktop app using WPF and a SQL Server backend — deliberately mirroring the Blue Wren Holdings environment.
Contribute to an open-source .NET project on GitHub to build a visible track record in the stack.
Update GitHub profile with the above projects before applying.

Mid-term Goal · 1–3 years

Target: Senior Full Stack Developer or Technical Lead at a software product company.

By this point I aim to be the most experienced .NET developer in a small team, capable of making architectural decisions independently and mentoring junior developers. Key milestones:

Earn Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate or equivalent.
Lead at least one significant internal system rebuild from legacy to modern .NET stack.
Develop strong WPF and MAUI skills for cross-platform desktop application development.
Build depth in CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps) — DataCare Connect did not have a CI/CD pipeline, and that gap was identified as a future improvement.

Long-term Goal · 3–7 years

Target: Software Architect or Engineering Manager in a product-focused organisation.

In the long term I want to be the person who decides how systems are designed, not just how they are built. The DataCare Connect project taught me that architectural decisions — modular React component structure, separated routes/controllers on the backend, relational schema rather than document store — had downstream consequences for the entire team’s velocity. I want to develop the depth of experience to make those decisions confidently and the communication skills to explain them clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

Key development areas

System design and distributed architecture (microservices, event-driven systems)
Engineering leadership and team management
Business domain knowledge in at least one vertical (healthtech, fintech, or social infrastructure software)
Continuous engagement with the ICT professional community through ACS membership and conference participation

Capstone Reflection — Career Concept

The DataCare Connect project was the most demanding piece of software work I have done. Building a production-ready platform in eight weeks, with a real client, real security requirements, and real social consequences, was a different experience from undergraduate coursework.

What worked well

Modular architecture made Sprint 4 additions possible without disruption. Daily stand-up discipline kept the team aligned. Treating security as a first-class concern from day one meant we never had to retrofit bcrypt or JWT.

What I would do differently

Run the requirements audit at the project midpoint, not the final sprint. Write Sprint 1 user stories with specific acceptance criteria. Use three-week sprints for a team of three.

Career meaning

I now know I can take ownership of a production codebase, navigate ambiguous requirements, work transparently in a small team, and deliver something real and usable. Those are professional skills, not academic ones.