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+\font\twelverm=ptmr7t at 12pt
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+\nopagenumbers
+\headline={\hfil Rohrer \number\pageno}
+{\obeylines
+Holden Rohrer
+Ms Rosner
+Hire Me
+10 Mar 2021}
+
+\centerline{7Factor Research Essay}
+
+7Factor is a boutique software development and consulting firm.
+Jeremy Duvall, the founder, created the company after working at other
+consultancy companies because he saw a problem.
+There was a lack of coordination between the sales team and the
+programming team.
+The programmers were being pushed into unreasonable deadlines based on
+promises that couldn't be realistically fulfilled.
+This wasn't just a bad work environment for engineers, though; it led to
+poor outcomes for clients as well.
+Over its existence, 7Factor has worked for many clients to create,
+develop, and improve solutions for their unique problems.
+7Factor employs their own DevOps (a mix of developing programs and
+administering their use on a server or serverless platform) tools and
+cloud-based solutions.
+7Factor focuses on using modern technology instead of legacy tools so
+that they can respond quickly and improve over time.
+
+WellEntry is a product line that 7Factor has created and sold to
+companies that need a COVIDtracking solution without wanting to build
+one themselves.
+This is the project that I'll be working on during my internship, and
+I'm excited to see how it's been written and what I'll be able to
+contribute to it.
+Its entire ``stack'' (the software used to run the web application) is
+based on JavaScript, which is a language that I've used before.
+I, however, haven't worked with most of the frameworks that the
+WellEntry team is using on top of the basic runtime, so I'll be
+interested to learn these.
+In addition, there are many coding practices that WellEntry uses that I
+haven't yet had a chance to work with.
+These include test-driven development (writing code based on
+expectations from unit tests), cloud-based infrastructure, and Kanban.
+
+Kanban is part of the principles that 7Factor uses in all of their
+development projects.
+It is a project management philosophy where work is organized into small
+tasks that team members can work on individually to create new business
+value without having to spend too much time on coordinating these
+efforts.
+Version control software, which I have worked with before, is also part
+of this philosophy.
+7Factor uses GitHub and a Continuous Deployment pipeline to manage
+changes to the projects they work on and hosting them.
+They also use Cloud-Native tooling like Amazon Web Services's EC2 and
+database management software.
+This makes 7Factor more able to use modern and efficient deployment
+technology like Terraform, Ansible, Chef, etc.
+During my internship, I hope to see some of these technologies in action
+on the projects that I'm working with.
+I've dabbled with some of this before, but I'm really interested in
+seeing how they get fully used in a team setting.
+
+7Factor also consults with various companies as long-term retainers or
+shorter-term advice contracts and business software discovery.
+7Factor defines seven key principles that it uses in all of its
+contracts, whether they're continuous long-term projects or helping a
+company migrate from one platform to another.
+These seven factors start with ''force multiplication.''
+The company and its staff want to ``teach, elevate, and strengthen''
+each other to continuously improve.
+This leads into the second aspect: automate and continuously improve
+every piece of software that they work on.
+This prevents legacy code or processes that get forgotten about.
+It helps the team prevent unnecessary work on figuring out a problem
+that's already been solved.
+7Factor also has ethical commitments.
+Similar to the Hippocratic Oath, they want to do no harm.
+Within and without the team, 7Factor is ethical and responsible, focused
+on doing the right thing over doing the easy thing.
+Focusing on ways to help their team improve over time, 7Factor follows
+the philosophy of Kaizen in their culture.
+The teams at 7Factor work on continuously improving and learning from
+themselves and others.
+They ``embrace change and thrive in uncertainty,'' which is very
+valuable for their consulting position.
+7Factor also prioritizes equality and diversity.
+Recently, 7Factor has also made a diversity push to increase the
+diversity of their staff to be more inclusive of everyone's voices and
+reach better solutions.
+But above all of these is to Build Good Things.
+Elegant architecture, rugged testing and implementation, cutting-edge
+technology, and innovative services are very important to the 7Factor
+Motus Operandi.
+In the past, 7Factor has worked for Delta, Aveanna, Cox Automotive,
+Welnys, iVita Financial, and others.
+They've received glowing reviews because the company is focused on
+helping their customers through the unique pains and problems of their
+issues.
+
+\bye