Technical

level 8

• Unable to contribute independently to project work

level 9

• Able to contribute to project work with constant supervision

level 10

• Able to contribute to project work with some supervision
• Pull requests may not be “good enough” without significant feedback on code quality
• Able to follow patterns already present in a project without necessarily understanding what the pattern is or why it is used
• Unable to produce novel solutions to new problems
• Agrees to complete any task asked of them regardless of whether they understand it or not.
• When they get stuck - they think the problem is them and not the difficulty of the task given to them

level 11

• Able to contribute to project work independently
• Able to solve most problems presented to them
• Solves problems in the first or only way they can think of
• Solutions just get the task completed. May be able to articulate pros and cons of a given solution but unlikely to be comprehensive or able to offer alternatives
• Willing and able to introduce new patterns to projects
• Doesn’t necessarily recognise what patterns they are introducing and why

level 12

• Solves tasks in a way with some consideration to a big picture
• Sees the big picture purely from an intermediate developers perspective
• Able to articulate pros and cons of various solutions to any given problem
• Keeps up with the latest tech and wants to use it
• Has a good idea about best practices
• Usually hates working with legacy code because it doesn’t always resemble their idea of best practice
• Starting to have some ingrained habits - good and bad
• Understands that code they write is optimised for something but is not necessarily able to decide what it is best to optimise for

level 13

• Understands the big picture beyond just the developers perspective
• Is able to make decisions on code and architecture taking factors into account beyond using their favourite tech and patterns. E.g how easy it will be for less experienced developers to - contribute effectively
• Will have clear strengths and weaknesses but is able to contribute effectively even in tech or application layers they aren’t familiar with
• Good and bad habits are firmly ingrained. Improving takes both the humility to see their weaknesses and the motivation to actually do so
• Knows best practices and knows which compromises to accept when challenged
• Keeping up with the latest tech is starting to feel like a “young person’s game”. Staying up to date requires active effort

level 14

• Recognised expert in their field of specialisation
• Actively working on/creating the latest tech
• Has taken active steps to break bad habits they recognised they had by level 13
• Able to apply experience in seemingly unrelated areas in order to provide valuable insight