Datta Vellal

2015

Designated Senior Lead, Software Development, in July, and anchored the first modules of the next-generation platform in October. Triaged the release that put Vermont's change function live on its public deadline and stood by through the go-live weekend, brought portal pages under about three seconds and was named TExeter Thought Leader. Exeter closed in November after its acquisition; I declined the acquirer's offer and spent four months choosing my next company.

  • ~3s pages under load
  • 4LinkedIn recommendations

Vermont deadline met with ~20 India engineers. US rating of India team 3.5/4. Senior Lead designation.

What mattered most

  1. 01

    Anchoring the next-generation platform's first modules

    The delivery head named me anchor for the first modules of the exchange's next-generation platform: application, pre-screener and My Accounts, each with its own development team.

  2. 02

    US review: the lead called in for firedrills

    The US delivery lead's review said I take on any problem and see it through, and that I give the people working with me cover so fair use does not turn into abuse. It rated the India team's delivery 3.5 out of 4.

  3. 03

    Named TExeter Thought Leader after one year

    After TExeter's first year, company leadership recognized me as its Thought Leader for building a brand for knowledge sharing and for setting up the attitude and processes the next organizers needed to carry it on.

  4. 04

    Vermont's public deadline, met

    Vermont's health insurance exchange needed its change function live by a public deadline. I had triaged the release's open tickets in January, and I stood by through the go-live weekend with about 20 India engineers. The Governor then announced the deadline was met.

  5. 05

    Pages under three seconds, with the evidence

    I took on portal page performance, used user caching to bring exchange pages consistently under about three seconds and proved it with repeatable load tests that I reported to the US head of development.

“I have never seen a problem that Datta is unwilling to take on.”

US delivery and release lead, Exeter GroupExeter, 9 July 2015Read the capsule

By month

Also in 2015

  1. 20 November 2015LinkedIn recommendation from a direct report of nearly three years on leading the team to on-time deliveryRecognition
  2. 3 November 2015LinkedIn recommendation from a direct report of two and a half years on leading calmly through release chaosRecognition
  3. 2 November 2015LinkedIn recommendation from a US colleague on owning the work and bridging onshore and offshore teamsRecognition
  4. November 2015Declined UnitedHealth Group's offer to move with the acquisition and chose to find my own next roleRole
  5. November 2015Exeter Software India closed after UnitedHealth Group acquired the companyRole
  6. November 2015Took about four months to choose my next company and joined Amazon in February 2016Role
  7. November 2015Left Exeter Software India after two years and eight months, as Senior Lead, Software DevelopmentRole
  8. 28 October 2015LinkedIn recommendation from an Exeter colleague on managing a 30-plus developer team and company initiativesRecognition
  9. 16 October 2015Designed a staged fix to take a clear-text system password off disk and proved its first stepProject
  10. 15 October 2015Published the team's Java, JSP and JavaScript coding standards and asked two engineers to add security rulesProject
  11. 14 September 2015Planned and ran a hotfix release across three workstreams: a branch merge, renewals fixes and open bugsProject
  12. 1 July 2015Designated Senior Lead, Software Development, and included in a rewards program for merit 'beyond doubt'Role
  13. 1 April 2015Coordinated the FEAT team that ran the day-long fun events at Tarang 2015, from choosing events to prizesProgram
  14. 13 January 2015Triaged a hotfix release's open tickets by owner and fix effort so the delivery head and PMO could set scopeProject