Life at Calcey

From Senior Software Engineer to Vice President of Research – the story of a Peradeniya University Graduate’s career at Calcey

August 5, 2015 by Shobana

Dhanushka Jayathilake is Vice President of Research at Calcey and has been at Calcey for eight years, serving various engineering positions since February 2008.

Whilst speaking to Dhanushka it’s quite easy to understand the reasons for his longevity in the company. He has a natural and breezy aura about him, which lends itself to the informal corporate culture at Calcey. Not one to fuss about titles or talk about himself seriously, Dhanushka, embodies the quintessential Calcey employee. His cool, calm and sometimes crazy spirit enables him to thrive within the Calcey ecosystem.

Calcey was his third job and, as the saying goes, the third time’s the charm. After graduating from The University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Engineering in 2003, and for a short while working as a software engineer, he got an opportunity to work in two leading software companies. He worked as a Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer for a year and a half. It was during this time period that he met Chamindu Munasinghe, and they worked together on a .NET development project. When Chamindu joined Calcey, he recommended that Dhanushka also apply, and therein began his voyage with Calcey.

Calcey was tough, as the time he joined was the start of what would become one of the company’s largest development projects, to build an online product comparison marketplace for a Silicon Valley client, using the latest Microsoft tools and technologies available at the time. He was assigned a leadership role within the development team, to implement the database layer and oversee deployment and production issues.

He fondly recalls the numerous all-nighters the team pulled sharing sleeping bags and hot chocolate. Code reviews, late nights, customer calls, sprint retrospectives, bug prioritization and the gamut of it all at the same time prepared him to get his act together and work smart as a Lead Developer. This project and his role in it really set the tone for his future; both professionally and personally.
Subsequently, his rise was quite meteoric within the company, being promoted to Technology Lead in 2010, and after that an Associate Software Architect, Software Architect and finally VP of Research in November last year. Dhanushka has improved his knowledge of several technologies, like Java, Python, Android and iOS. All these different technologies have their strengths and uses and are commonplace at Calcey.

Calcey has nurtured Dhanushka’s personality to be very much true to what he was 8 years ago; competitive but relaxed. He indulges in his love for sports and continues to swim and play basketball on and off at Calcey. The laissez-faire management style, coupled with flexible hours and work patterns really contributed to his longevity in the company. Also, something Dhanushka relishes is the freehand he has to research different technologies and provide recommendations to clients.

His fondness for the company is strengthened by the evolving nature of the company’s ethos. The management strategies, processes and practices keep getting adjusted with the times. The informal management and communication style enables a completely linear and transparent operation. Taking a nap on a beanbag for an hour after lunch, and no one being offended by it, has inspired many minds including Dhanushka’s, to think sharper in the evenings.

Dhanushka recalls an early incident at Calcey, to which he attributes his longevity at Calcey.

I remember there was a pre-holiday paan and parippu party at work and everyone was totally intoxicated. I was still at my desk nervously trying to meet a deadline for one of our biggest clients. Suddenly I saw drops of wine dripping on my keyboard. My coworker, clearly in high spirits, had come over, to get me to join in the fun. I still remember freezing, thinking about hardware damage, but he leaned over wiped it with a tissue and dragged me over to the party. We then became best friends. That’s the Calcey difference, the depth and quality of friendships here is unparalleled. I enjoy it and it is probably the primary reason I stayed.

Events

SLASSCOM Tech-Talk on API Engineering draws a large, enthusiastic audience

July 13, 2015 by Shobana

The third in the series of monthly SLASSCOM Tech-Talks was about “riding the wave of the API economy”. The event took place on July-30^th at the ICTAD auditorium down Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07 from 5.30 PM – 7.30 PM. The theme of the event was API Engineering, and technologists from four leading software companies presented inspiring ideas at this forum.

The format of the event was four lightning tech talks followed by a panel discussion open to questions from the audience.

Hasith Yaggahawita from 99X opened the sessions, welcoming the capacity audience and inviting the first speaker, Chamindu Munasinghe from Calcey Technologies, to deliver his piece.

Chamindu spoke about the nuances of designing pragmatic Web APIs.

Next, Kaminda Dimunge from Zebra Technologies spoke about API design concepts for device programming.

Roshni Hewamallika from hSenid Mobile outlined the innovations that have taken place in the Telco Industry through the use of APIs.

After that we had Sumedha Rubasinghe from WSO2 enlighten the audience about common patterns in API deployment.
Once the lightning talks were completed, we had Ruwan Rajapakse from Calcey Technologies invite Chamindu, Kaminda, Sumedha and Duleepa Karunarathne from hSenid to a lively panel discussion.

Ruwan questioned the panelists about the practical benefits that the online economy has reaped through innovations in API Engineering. The audience participated actively, examining design, security and deployment concerns.

Dr. Sankalpa Gamwarige from Zone 24×7 delivered the vote of thanks to the audience and the speakers on behalf of SLASSCOM.
Calcey had the privilege of sponsoring this tech talk.

EventsLife at Calcey

Calcey Super Sixes 2015

June 22, 2015 by Shobana

Bright Sunshine welcomed the Calcey Super Sixes this Saturday. The teams were in high spirits as the tournament got off to a rocking start accompanied by pomp and pageantry. 6 teams participated, and each team played 2 games in a preliminary knockout stage. Players were pre-bought in an IPL-style auction 3 weeks prior to the event.

The teams were as follows – 404, Ada Denawa, Munta Loos, Legacy.JS, HTML 140 and 500Wathure

In a thrilling finale, Ada Denawa snatched victory in a last-ball win over Munta Loos. The jubilant team was allegedly celebrating, with the papare band, into the wee hours of the morning.

The following awards were distributed by the CEO of Calcey, Mangala Karunaratne, at the closing ceremony.
Highest run scorer – Dushantha (Ada Denawa)
Highest wicket-taker – Kanishka (Ada Denawa)
Best Female Player – Shyanika (500Wathura)
Best Batsman – Dushantha (Ada Denawa)
Best Bowler – Iresh (500Wathure)

Here are some interesting moments.

Life at CalceyOpinion

Incorporating a Group Learning Experience into a Software Development Process

June 11, 2015 by Ruwan

We often hear about the benefits that synergy brings into human endeavor, in fields such as science, politics, or sports. In the corporate world, we hear of teams working together as a cohesive group, brainstorming and combining the critical views of several heads to produce a greater outcome than that which would have been produced, had the same persons worked in isolation.

Although it’s hard to explain how exactly synergy works, we could say that it involves constant communication between team members that results in a clash of ideas, which causes a natural selection of the better ideas over time, akin to biological evolution. The better ideas get translated into good practices, as they are absorbed back into the minds of the individual participants in the given synergistic exercise. In other words, the team learns together as a group to do things smarter, and the good practices learned become intellectual infrastructure one can reuse.

We at Calcey have, over the years, explored various methods of “working together”, and have incorporated two notable practices into our engineering process that clearly facilitated group learning. They are, namely:

The Group Code Review and
The Sprint Review (UX Review)

Whilst these two practices might look widely different on the surface, the underlying social phenomenon is quite similar. We gather together in front of a draft solution presented on-screen, be it code or UX, and we brainstorm about it critically. The benefits are:

The presenter of the idea sharpens his communication skills. An audience does not understand a poorly presented concept, and an audience would respond accordingly
The owner of the draft solution, who is also the presenter, is forced to critically evaluate the solution, its limitations and its consequences. No one likes to look silly in front of their colleagues
Critical feedback from the audience comes in thick and fast because there are multiple minds focused on the draft solution presented. There is guaranteed to be a healthy clash of ideas. There are many positive reasons for encouraging this pseudo-conflict, ranging from the owner of the draft solution being too close to it all (not seeing the wood for the trees), to the diversity of competency levels in the audience present
Newcomers to the team learn about the frameworks, patterns and practices used within a given product or codebase
Juniors learn about design, development and usability best practices, and about being more self-critical of their own work
Developers who didn’t work on the immediate solution under review learn about new extensions to the product and codebase
Accountability for the given solution extends to a group of persons, and as such reaches higher levels
There is less opportunity for personality clashes to happen behind closed doors, where one person is “victimized” by his or her peer, unknown to the rest of the team

We found through trial and error that the optimal size of a review group would be around five to eight persons. This modest size helps maximize the conversation. We also find that it’s important to include at least two competent persons outside the immediate team that developed the solution in question, to eliminate groupthink and encourage out-of-the-box thinking.

The final outcome is that our teams got increasingly better at producing quality code, and at translating ill-defined functionality into wonderful, attractive user experiences. As such, we strongly advocate “group review” as a good practice in software development.

Life at Calcey

Calcey Wraps Up 2014 in Style

December 31, 2014 by Chamara

We recently celebrated our end-of-the-year holiday party with a night of food, friends, music and dancing.
It was lovely to see everyone dressed to impress to celebrate another successful year for Calcey.

The photo booth was a welcome addition to the holiday party and was put to good use.

We enjoyed an excellent dinner followed by some entertaining performances and of course lots of dancing.

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season and a successful new year!

AnnouncementsEvents

Calcey hosts The Hour of Code

December 26, 2014 by Chamara

Computers are everywhere, but fewer schools teach computer science than 10 years ago. The good news is, we’re on our way to change this.
In one week last year, 15 million students tried computer science! Computer science was on the homepages of Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Disney. President Obama, Shakira and Ashton Kutcher all kicked off the Hour of Code with videos. Over 100 partners came together to support this movement.

Now the Hour of Code movement is aiming for 100 million students.

Calcey hosted an Hour of Code session for 50 Grade 5 students from Sri Sumangala Boys’ School and joined the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during Dec. 8-14.

The Hour of Code, organized by the nonprofit Code.org and over 100 others, is a statement that today’s generation of students is ready to learn critical skills for 21st-century success.

Enthusiastic students arrived eager to learn and supported by the Calcey team, they took their first steps into the world of computer science.

The fun-filled Hour of Code session at Calcey was topped off with some refreshments and the students received a Certificate of Completion.

Thanks to all the Sri Sumangala Boys’ School students, teachers, parents and of course our Calcey Team for making this event a success!

AnnouncementsEvents

Calcey Hosts Overseas School of Colombo (OSC) 6th Graders for a TRACE Educational Workshop

November 28, 2014 by Chamara

“We realized that there was a whole different world out there competing with the most innovative, unique designs. They followed a process quite similar to what we do in a Design class at OSC. We are thankful to our school for training us so early, in disciplining us to face the challenges which will be thrown at us in the real world eventually.” Anargi Jayakody, OSC Class 6.2A

Calcey recently joined the TRACE team to host the 6^th graders from the Overseas School of Colombo to experience product design firsthand.

Their first stop was electronic car manufacturing with “Vega” . They explored the research, planning, design and creation that goes into these machines and met the people who make it happen.

Since they have been studying product design they put their knowledge to work designing the “ideal water bottle” .

Their task was to design their own water bottle for everyday use. These creative students came up with water bottles integrating wifi, Bluetooth, GPS and just about anything else you could ever need.

Giving children knowledge is the focus of most education systems, but teaching them to be innovative and motivating them to succeed allows them to take that knowledge and do something with it. We hope the students from OSC were able to put their knowledge to use and we can’t wait to see them become the next generation of innovators.

Thanks to the students and teachers at OSC as well as the rest of the TRACE Team for making this event a success!

Announcements

Calcey moves to a cool new office in TRACE Expert City, Colombo

September 15, 2014 by Chamara

Calcey, an agile software product engineering company operating from San Francisco, CA and with its Innovation and Development Center in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has just moved to a new state-of-the-art office premises in TRACE Expert City in Maradana (Colombo 10).

Moving to the new office premises this morning was marked by a simple ceremony with the participation of Calcey’s directors and staff.
The country’s Secretary of Defense who spearheaded the concept of a TRACE Expert City in Colombo was one of the early well-wishers who stopped by to congratulate the Calcey team.

Calcey has at present 80 software engineering and support staff and is growing rapidly. “Not only is the new office premises a “cooler” place to work from, but it also has a lot more seating capacity and offers us a chance to expand our team rapidly in the next three years. TRACE Expert City itself is centrally located with easy access to all modes of transportation. It was a lot of hard work to get the new place up, and all of us at Calcey are now proud of our efforts and the outcome”, said Mangala Karunaratne, Calcey’s CEO.

The new Calcey office is furnished with a colorful interior design concept and comes equipped with all basic amenities plus fun perks like 3D TVs, a full-sized pool table and a climbing wall.

TRACE Expert City is attracting the best Sri Lankan IT and technology companies with a global reach, such as CodeGen Software and WSO2 Inc. The Calcey premises are designed as an “open office” that facilitates a flat team structure and easy project team communication.
The TRACE Expert City is being developed as the new technology hub within Colombo, where innovative minds from the best technology companies in Sri Lanka gather to build new products and services that will benefit the world at large.

Life at CalceyTrends

Social Media spells benefits for our company and its employees

August 7, 2014 by Chamara

With every company conducting its own social media campaigns, it’s becoming increasingly clear that if a company does not utilize social media, they’re put at an extreme competitive disadvantage. Social media has many advantages as it offers the immediacy and interactivity consumers want and anticipate. It can help to intensify customer engagement, bring in quality sales leads and produce higher ROI.

Everyone working at Calcey is a direct representative of the company to the general public. Furthermore, social media has given everyone a voice. Therefore we decided to have a workshop on the responsible use of social media, with the objective of enhancing their personal online branding and the company’s online brand.

Thought Leadership, Engagement, No Cost Sales Leads, Website Traffic and Networking are some of the main benefits we can gain from social media. Social media does more than just help you find customers. It also helps you connect with other businesses and entrepreneurs and learn about their problems and practices.

Social Media Trainer, Amitha Amarasinghe did the workshop at Calcey, which comprised three parts. The first session was about How Social Media Changes Everything Around Us, the second session was about Inbound Marketing Through Social Media for the Software Industry. The final session was about the Safe and Responsible Use of Social Media.

Going forward, it’s critical for your business to integrate social media into your overall customer service experience. When your business is focused on creating a positive brand experience, it can lead to insights that have an impact on all of your customers. And most importantly, it builds trust. Your customers will see that you have their best interest in mind, and that adds value to your business.

We would like to ask the reader, what are the ways that social media has impacted your business? Do you think it has had a positive or negative effect? Please comment.

AnnouncementsEvents

Calcey hosts Sri Lanka’s first CoderDojo session for children from Welipenna

July 30, 2014 by Chamara

It was a proud moment for Calcey when we hosted Sri Lanka’s first CoderDojo session last weekend. CoderDojo is a global collaboration of computer programmers to facilitate free and open learning for aspiring young people. CoderDojo training is usually focused on learning programming languages.

The session was held at Sri Sudarshanaramaya, Welipenna, Madawala. Thirty school children, aged 12~14, from this area were selected to receive training in Leadership, English Language and Computer Operation Skills. Ten children joined this ongoing program, for the CoderDojo sessions.

The CoderDojo program is aimed at instilling programming skills in Small Basic and will consist of twelve-weekend sessions in all. Small Basic is an educational language that introduces essential programming concepts for kids and serves as a stepping-stone for learning more advanced object-oriented programming paradigms like Visual Basic. In fact, the students could simply export their Small Basic code into Visual Basic and study it. The children learned how to write their very first computer program on their first day (a simple “Hello World”), and figured out how to draw shapes programmatically on the screen.

It was nice to see six of the participants were girls, in the context that the software industry is currently trying hard to increase the number of female software developers within the industry worldwide.

The team of trainers included Calcey’s CEO Mangala Karunaratne, Technical Project Manager Asela Indika, Senior Software Engineer Nilanka Seelawardena and myself.

“I walked out of our first CoderDojo session full of satisfaction. I saw the sheer joy in the eyes of these kids when they saw the “Hello World” app they wrote actually work, with a red background and blue fonts. They were so eager to do more. I extend a big thank you to everyone at Calcey who helped us to organize this program, and CoderDojo for the concept. This will be the beginning of something that we all can be very proud of”remarked Mangala, on our way back to Colombo.

The prep and the actual sessions were a lot of fun for us at Calcey, especially because the attendees seemed to enjoy them very much. It is something truly different from the commercial software development that we do. I look forward to the next CoderDojo session this Saturday.