Software craftswomen: Claudia Rosu

Mar 29, 2016 by Madalina Botez in  Software Craft Women In Tech

In celebration of Women’s Day, this March we salute yesterday & today women’s contribution to the development of the technology and IT fields. Follow #famousITwomen to find interesting stories. They might motivate and encourage you to do something out of the ordinary in your career. 

The importance of women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math has been gaining a momentum in the last years. At I T.A.K.E. Unconference, we value women’s contribution in IT and we believe their dedication to the software craft can be an inspiration for other practitioners.

In the latest posts we invited you to learn more about the contribution women have in IT as Fransizka Sauerwein, Alexandra Marin and Grace Hopper.

Now it’s time to introduce you Claudia Rosu, software craftswoman speaking @ I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016.

 

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#1. What’s your professional story?

Why did you choose to develop a career in this domain?

First, I will say that I am proud to be a software developer. Since primary school I loved to solve math problems. Later, during high school, I was encouraged to follow Computer Science, as I had good logical and analytical thinking skills. Looking back, I would follow the same path, and I would change just a few things. 

What I would do differently is to rely more on my skills and spend more time reading. One story that changed my professional growth for the better: early in my career, my senior developer colleague told me that it is great to have a girl in the team as we pay more attention to details and we don’t leave bugs in the code :). 

 

On the reading side, I would include technical and non-technical books, which help us develop skills to: write quality code, communicate and collaborate better, focus on continuous improvement. With confidence in my skills and discipline in reading, I can now deliver quality software that helps the users in their activity. Extra, I am organizing and facilitating community events, speak at various gatherings to share my experience & learn others.

 

#2. Share with us a lesson you’ve learned since you’ve been working in IT

It is said that to be a great programmer you need strong technical skills. This is what I have learned during university. And it is true. What I didn’t know is that this is not enough. Having other skills like creativity, courage, openness and initiative is even more important. Since realizing it, it is easier for me to improve as a professional, on both soft and technical skills. 

 

#3. Whom do you admire as a women IT practitioner? Why?

I admire most Rebecca Wirfs-Brock. I believe she can be a true inspiration for all women working or want to work in technology. I’ve met Rebecca 3 years ago at the first I.T.A.K.E. Unconference and since then I have learned a lot from her knowledge and experience. Improving the way I am doing software design is easier because of her insights on this topic.

 

Want to meet Claudia? Join her & other amazing speakers at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2016!

Rebecca Wirfs-Brock | #womenintech interview

Mar 23, 2017

Rebecca Wirfs-Brock is the object design pioneer who invented the set of design practices known as Responsibility-Driven Design (RDD), the first behavioral approach to object design. She is the lead author of two software design books and design columnist for IEEE Software. By accident, she started the x-Driven Design meme (TDD, DDD, BDD…). Although best known for software design, she is has a passion simply expressing complex requirements and effectively communicating software architecture. Rebecca joined #itakeunconf in 2013 as keynote, at the first edition of the unconference.

When sharing more about #womenintech, Rebecca is one of the most important role models ladies in the field mention or look up to. Read on to find her professional story and lessons learned along the way.

 

#1. What’s your professional story? Why did you choose to develop a career in this domain?

 

I went to university with no idea what I would major in. I liked both sciences and the humanities. I had a part time job at school grading tests. We’d scan the tests (which were marked in pencil) onto a tape, then take that tape to the computer center. They would run a job to print out students’ test results and grades.

I wanted to learn how that program worked. So for fun, I took my first computing class learning FORTRAN. And I was hooked. Writing programs was not only fun; programs could do something useful. So that is how I discovered programming—by accident. I liked solving problems by programming. I still do.

 

#2. Share with us an important lesson you’ve learned since you’ve been working in IT

I’ve learned that you won’t know if something is possible unless you try doing it. Sometimes we hold ourselves back because we don’t think we can do what seems like some seemingly impossible task. If you are a part of a team, you can do even more great things than you can on your own.

Being a software engineer at Tektronix (a company that made oscilloscopes and workstations, among other hardware products), I learned that with good team collaboration, the right management support, and the belief in what we were doing, we could do amazing things. I have taken this spirit of collaboration and can-do attitude with me throughout my career.

#3. What piece of advice would you give to the next generation of #womenintech?

Keep learning. The programming languages, tools, libraries, and database technologies you work with 10 years from now will be different from those you use today. There’s always something new to learn. Don’t just limit yourself to learning new programming languages and tools or the latest popular libraries. Take some time to learn things outside of your daily work. For example, I turn to blog by Adrian Colyer, The Morning Paper, https://blog.acolyer.org/. I find reading about technology trends and research stretches my brain. And then I get on with my daily work.

Take some time to learn things outside of your daily work. For example, I turn to blog by Adrian Colyer, The Morning Paper. I find reading about technology trends and research stretches my brain. And then I get on with my daily work.

But more importantly, take time to find, study, and learn about well-designed code and systems. Learn what makes one codebase more easily maintained than another, or what makes one easier to understand or test. Read others’ code. There’s a lot you can learn.

 

 

At I T.A.K.E Unconference, we aim to move the needle by offering to women in tech access to a fast-learning, practical & inspirational community for their growth. Join the 5th edition, 11-12 May, Bucharest and meet remarkable tech ladies.

The week to celebrate #famousITwomen

Mar 09, 2015

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The week to celebrate women in IT kicks off. Let’s bring upfront the stories of #famousITwomen who’ve made breakthrough contributions along the history.

This week savour your coffee with 3 minutes inspirational stories that should be known by anyone in the industry. See how women paved the way to computers and software as we have them today. Here’s the first story.

Follow the upcoming stories on the I T.A.K.E. Unconference blogThey might be motivating and encouraging for you to do something out of the ordinary in your career. Stay tuned, as you may also find a win between and let yourself surprised by the contribution of #famousITwomen.

Rebecca Wirfs-Brock and Object Oriented Design

Mar 11, 2015

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The week to celebrate women in IT goes on with the woman who defined the Object Oriented Design – Rebecca Wirfs-Brock. Let’s bring upfront the stories of #famousITwomen who’ve made breakthrough contributions along the history. 

Object Oriented Design is about behaviors, not about entities and relations. We owe this idea to a woman: Rebecca Wirfs-Brock.

[Updated based on Rebecca’s feedback]

Early in her career, Rebecca Wirfs-Brock worked as a tester at Tektronix for graphics libraries. In those days, it was customary for testers to write just as much code as programmers in the form of automated tests. She decided to become a programmer because, despite the equally difficult work, testers were paid less than programmers. She became a principal engineer at Tektronix for Smalltalk, the language that inspired Java, Python and many others. This was a great opportunity for the industry, since she introduced the world to “Responsibility Driven Design”, the technique that influenced all modern design techniques such as TDD or BDD. Those of us who used UML owe her the idea of stereotypes. She now lives in Portland, and has been consulting enterprises on architecture and design for the past 30 years.

We were fortunate to have Rebecca a keynote speaker at I T.A.K.E. Unconference. You can watch her keynote below.



Hope Rebecca Wirfs-Brock’s story aroused your curiosity to learn from history more about IT famous women.

This week, stay tuned for the upcoming stories and win an invitation to I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2015. 

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