Entelect blog

Building Better Teams and Solutions

Edinah Lidonde — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:58:46 GMT

Edinah is a Software Development Manager whose journey and vision offer valuable insights into creating effective and inclusive tech environments.

With a background that spans from aspiring aeronautical engineer to a pivotal figure in software development, Edinah's story is one of passion, perseverance and profound impact. In this interview, she shares her daily responsibilities, the inspirations behind her career and her strategies for overcoming challenges, all while fostering a culture of diversity and innovation within her team.

Can you share a bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day for you is like?

I am Software Development Manager at Entelect. My mandate is to create a great employee experience that results in delivery and in turn a positive customer experience.

In essence, a typical day entails ensuring we get the job done, meeting the commitments we have made to our customer. I do this with my team. Hence why it is important that they have what they need to succeed.

There are days where the focus is one-on-ones with members of my team. I enjoy these as it gives us an opportunity to connect outside of our normal project-related engagements.

Other days, the focus is on spending time with my customers, as this is where I get to understand what problems they are looking to solve and what role we as a team can play in helping to solve them.

It is amazing working with a group of talented individuals to bring a concept to life.

This involves doing what is necessary. From ensuring team alignment, understanding if we are progressing as planned, and if there are any issues that I need to assist with resolving.

What inspired you to pursue a career in software development? Was it always something you wanted to do?

I actually wanted to be an aeronautical engineer when I was younger but got the opportunity to study at Rhodes University. This involved my aunt submitting a BSc in Science application on my behalf. I was a bit uneasy about taking a BSc in Science, so I ended up pivoting my majors to Computer Science and Information Systems.

I was not clear on what my career would be in the end but attending the Graduate Career Fairs enabled me to meet two amazing people - Lungile Mdlophane and Dave Stevens. They were passionate individuals who were engaged in an organisation that enabled them to solve problems through Business Consulting. I remember thinking to myself, "There it is…that is what I want to do."

Can you speak to your journey of entering the field of software development and how you progressed to your current leadership position at Entelect?

Through my interaction with Lungile and Dave, I ended up participating in the BSG Brilliance competition. I was fortunate to be selected as one of the winners and this resulted in me spending a week shadowing a consultant at BSG.

Once the week was done, I could not wait to submit my application as there was the option to work whilst completing my BCom Hons in Information Systems at Wits. I still remember the call letting me know that I had gotten the job. I kept asking whether they were sure!

Once at BSG, I got the opportunity to work on a few system implementation projects which I really enjoyed. I always believed in the importance of the culture of an organisation. So, when looking at where to next, I did a bit of homework on Entelect, spoke to individuals who knew people who had moved there and really felt it was the place for me.

I submitted my application and after three rounds of interviews, I succeeded in getting a job as a Software Development Manager.

What unique perspectives or approaches do you think you bring to your team and Entelect, as well as our customers?

There has been a theme in the feedback I have shared. The people you meet and those around you can have a significant impact on your life. My aunty did not have to apply on my behalf, but she did. Lungile and Dave did not have to entertain a conversation with me, but they did.

Our roles require us to engage with people often, some of whom we know, but often people we don't. So, whenever I need to do something that involves me engaging with someone new, I remind myself that the worst they can say is no.

That gives me the oomph to start a chat or make a call to seek assistance when needed. This has resulted in me learning to build a good network that enables my teams and our delivery.

What obstacles or biases have you faced in your career journey, how did you overcome them, and what advice would you give to other women aspiring to leadership roles in previously male-dominated fields?

I was once working on a project, and we had one computer we could use to create cards to test. One of the IT individuals changed the settings, and we could no longer connect the computer to the card printer. This was an issue as we were preparing to commence testing of ATMs which require test cards to do so.

I then phoned the individual who made the change and failed to convince him that the changes he had made needed to be rolled back so we could proceed. I then called one of our male counterparts and told him exactly what to say and the changes were reverted.

We ended up laughing about the situation as he had watched me try to convince someone for 10 mins and he did in two, saying exactly what I had at the start of the conversation.

The reason why this stands out for me is that it is one of the few times I realised that the issue was not what I was saying but potentially who was delivering it. When such situations arise, it is important to focus on the result. Is there another way you can achieve what you need? If so, do it and move on.

I think I was only able to do so as I had a good working environment and a supportive team.

The culture of an organisation is driven by its people, not the cool stuff you get for free.

So, my advice is to do your homework on potential employers, find a way to chat to current and former employees so you know what you're signing up for.

Can you describe a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career, and what lessons did you learn from it?

My most memorable project is the same one where I encountered a bias. We also encountered a problem which resulted in a financial loss. I was heartbroken and disappointed, but I had two options… shrink or get up, drive the resolution and prevent future failures. We managed to recover part of the money and I created a run book that made future phases of the project run a lot smoother.

In your opinion, what initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster diversity and inclusivity in tech teams?

I don't think there is a single initiative or strategy that can foster diversity and inclusivity. It should be in the organisation's DNA. Culture is not driven from the top down but also from the bottom up. An organisation that values diversity and inclusivity will have a standard of what is acceptable and what is not.

These do not have to be policed but embraced by the individuals within the organisation.

What do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in the tech industry, and what role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

There are more and more women coming through into the tech industry. This is mainly being driven by more female students taking up STEM subjects and making up a bigger percentage of students pursuing IT-related courses. As a result, I see more female representation in leadership positions in the future.

I hope to play a role in creating an inclusive environment. Where people succeed in their roles regardless of their gender, have a voice and space to make a meaningful contribution to their organisation.

Crafting a New Narrative

Anabela Barreiro — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:30:00 GMT

Anabela Barreiro is a Team Lead and Scrum Master at Entelect whose love of gaming and tech led her into a career in software.

From a short stint in software testing to business analysis and now team leadership, Anabela's journey is a compelling blend of personal passion and professional determination. In this interview, she shares insights into her daily responsibilities, her career progression and her vision for fostering inclusivity and diversity in the tech space.

Can you share a bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day for you is like?

In my role as an Entelect Team Lead and Scrum Master at our client, my day primarily consists of various team-related discussions—these are mostly based on what is happening at any given time. I spend a considerable amount of time on team events, discussing project work, supporting the team to get their tasks over the line, and helping wherever it's needed. The extent of my involvement with my two client teams varies depending on each team’s specific needs.

Additionally, I am involved with Agile initiatives both at Entelect (Agilists Anonymous) and the client, ranging from training and agile journey assessments to lean coffee sessions.

What motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in software development?

My journey into software development began with my love for gaming and tech in general. It wasn’t a lifelong dream, more just a way to get into the tech space.

It turns out that gaming and the software development space I entered weren’t as closely linked as I initially anticipated, but I ended up sticking with software, and I have enjoyed working in this field ever since.

Can you speak about your career journey and how you progressed to your current leadership position at Entelect?

I started my professional journey with a short stint in software testing as a Quality Assurance Engineer. About a month or two into that role, an opportunity arose within the company for a Business Analyst position. I decided to give it a shot, and that marked my transition into the realm of business analysis.

Upon joining Entelect as a Senior Business Analyst, I received excellent support from a leadership perspective and had many opportunities to explore new growth areas, take on additional responsibilities, and develop the skills needed for my eventual progression to my current role as Team Lead.

As a woman in a leadership role in the tech industry, what unique perspectives or approaches do you bring to your team and customers?

As a woman in a leadership role within the tech industry, I strive to foster a more balanced and inclusive environment for our clients and teams. We (women) draw from our unique experiences and the challenges we have faced in the tech industry, considering additional factors that influence our people/teams, and actively work towards building inclusivity.

I believe our collective resilience as women adds valuable strength to our teams, a quality we have built over time working in this industry.

What obstacles or biases have you faced in your career journey, how did you overcome them, and what advice would you give to other women aspiring to leadership roles in previously male-dominated fields?

Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to work in environments where seizing opportunities and consistently delivering my best has earned recognition. This journey has been instrumental in my personal and professional growth, pushing me to embrace new challenges and striving for continuous improvement.

To my fellow women aspiring to leadership roles, I would encourage you not to shy away from advocating for yourselves.

Don’t hesitate to speak up about your accomplishments and contributions. In an industry where we may find ourselves in the minority, the path to growth and opportunities isn’t always laid out for us.

Taking the initiative, raising your hand, and actively building your professional brand can bridge that gap and bring you closer to reaching your goals.

Remember, your voice and achievements deserve to be heard and acknowledged.

Can you describe a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career, and what lessons you learned from it?

Some of the projects that stick with me the most are those with significant challenges or obstacles that initially felt almost insurmountable.

One particularly memorable project involved a strategic initiative to track COVID-19 cases. We had to form a new team quite hastily for this project and faced the challenges of lacking established work processes and having to swiftly dive into the project work and delivery to meet the demands of a high-pressure business focus.

Despite the hurdles we faced, it was a rewarding experience collaborating on this project. We managed to build a strong sense of team by dedicating time to activities that brought us closer together and fostered a better understanding among team members.

What do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in the tech industry, and what role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

I believe our success in fostering a positive future for leadership is when women holding leadership roles becomes the norm.

We should ensure that women have an equal and influential voice in shaping the future of businesses in the tech industry, valuing the diverse perspectives that we bring to the table.

Personally, I aim to recognise the existing challenges that we face and actively work on building practices that foster inclusivity. I also assist by supporting and empowering women in our business who exhibit the potential to become future leaders, helping to contribute to a more balanced leadership landscape.

Asking Questions and Building Teams

Beth Lizard — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 22:00:00 GMT

Beth Lazard is a QA at Entelect who improves the software her team builds by asking the difficult questions.

Beth found her way from a business science degree into quality assurance, and from South Africa to Entelect's Netherlands office. She shares what a typical day looks like, what has surprised her about the Dutch tech scene, and why intentional team building matters for making tech more inclusive.

Can you share a bit about what you do and what a typical day looks like for you?

I'm a QA, which involves improving the quality of the software we develop throughout the software development process. This includes getting involved early in the process, such as during refinement, helping to improve the team and the way we work, as well as identifying gaps in our processes.

A typical day involves stand-up, reviewing the board, creating test cases or testing, asking questions, and engaging with the team to create clarity. There might also be ceremonies to attend. I have ad-hoc catch-ups, share test cases with the team, get feedback on them, and make changes accordingly. I'm also an active mentor to other QAs and participate in the ElevateHer programme.

What motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in the software industry? Was it always something you wanted to do?

I didn't know what I wanted to do initially. I completed a business science degree as I was interested in economics. I didn't study IT at school, so I registered for marketing and did the first year to discover which subjects I enjoyed. I found that I liked information systems. I enjoyed the link between the business side and the software side.

Computer science was purely about code, without the understanding of the application or business benefits. At a career day, I was considering either a BA or developer role. I enjoyed development, but not all the time. When I saw the QA role, I was curious about it. The description was interesting and matched how I describe myself. I like to ask questions and find ways to improve things, though not necessarily solving them myself. There's also an automation route where there's a bit of development that I can explore, and I can change my focus when needed.

Can you describe your career journey and how you came to be at Entelect?

When applying for jobs from university, I did apply to Entelect. However, another company was interested and I got that role before pursuing things further with Entelect. I was there for two years. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't growing. There wasn't much opportunity. I always remembered Entelect. I went to one of the open days and there was a good vibe, so I reached out to Charmain to ask if they had any roles. I didn't want to stay in the same industry and was keen on being a consultant so I could explore different avenues. After calls and interviews, it happened quickly and I was excited to join Entelect. It was meant to be!

What has it been like working in the Dutch tech scene? Any cultural differences that surprised you or that you particularly appreciate?

Work-life balance is genuinely a thing here. There's been a lot of adapting to cultural differences. I'm on a fully Dutch team, and I enjoy being funny and making jokes, but there are South African nuances that we don't realise until we're in a totally different environment, so the banter isn't easy to cultivate. However, there is the possibility of joining a multi-cultural team.

I've been in teams that say they're agile, but I feel Dutch teams are very adaptable to avoid making people work overtime. It's natural to reassess rather than planning to work overtime. From the QA side, I've also observed there's more willingness to try new technology, though this is just from my experience.

What's your special sauce? What unique perspectives or flavour do you add to your team/client?

Asking difficult questions. I pick up domain knowledge super quickly, and I'm very observant, which leads to asking difficult and insightful questions.

Can you talk about a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career and what you learnt from it?

I was a QA on a team when another QA joined. I created a document for him, and when I spoke to him recently, he said he still references it and uses it to share with others. My most memorable accomplishments are those that have a long-lasting impact on helping others.

If you could give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be?

Don't overthink it. I'd give myself this advice right now as well!

What initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster more gender diversity and inclusivity in tech teams?

Applying intention to the construction of teams, such as trying to place women in teams with at least one other woman. Awareness of people and different behaviours in general is important. There's a lot of unconscious bias. Being aware of it allows us to challenge it and push back against it.

What do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in tech? What role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

Simply having a place there based on meritocracy, where talented women can also strive for leadership positions. I'd like to help others get there whilst also challenging myself and making it seem possible.

Navigating Tech Leadership

Jackie Norris — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT

Jackie Norris is a Tech Lead at Entelect with a talent for spotting tomorrow's problems today, and backup plans for her backup plans.

With a career that has taken her from a small engineering company to a start-up building apps for the towing industry and six years at Entelect, Jackie has navigated the challenges of the tech industry with remarkable skill and determination. In this interview, she shares her journey, insights and the unique perspectives she brings to her team and the broader tech community.

Can you share a bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day for you is like?

Lots of meetings!

I’m officially a Tech Lead but find myself doing a mix of Team Lead, Tech Lead, Solution Architect, and development manager responsibilities. In a nutshell, I’m responsible for helping figure out what we need to build, how we are going to build it, and helping a team deliver the final product to the client.

I’m an early bird, so my day starts around 7:15-7:30 with a cup of tea, during which I check emails and review my day. This usually leads me to make a to-do list of what I need to get done and some stretch goals for the day.

Before standup, I take care of admin tasks like signing off timesheets or project-related admin. Then I prep for standup by double-checking the board, etc. During the standup with the team, I ensure everything is progressing, identify any blockers, and help the team get unblocked and make progress.

From standup to lunch, I schedule meetings which could be 1:1 with the team, client workshops, planning sessions, estimations, etc.

I try to spend the rest of the afternoon on focus work, which could involve creating architecture documents, project and flight plans, doing a bit of coding , sitting with a team member who is stuck on a problem, or bouncing ideas around.

What motivated you or inspired you to pursue a career in the software industry? And was it always something that you wanted to do?

Coding has always been something that came easily to me and that I really enjoyed doing. I had an amazing programming teacher in high school. She laid a great foundation but more importantly saw that I was passionate about it and made sure to push me to not just do what was asked but to challenge myself further.

Can you speak to your journey of entering the field of software development and how you progressed to your current leadership position at Entelect?

In the last year of my degree, I got a part-time job at a small engineering company (KSES), where I learned a lot about project planning and time management while working on frontend projects. My next stop was Inivit, where I gained valuable experience and mentorship, switching from Java to C# and working with Angular. I then joined a startup called Dreamtec, leading the development of mobile apps for the towing industry. This experience deepened my understanding of design patterns and testing.

Moving to Entelect was challenging at first, but it was here that I began working with fellow female developers and dedicated BAs. I started as a Senior Engineer and after 2.5 years, I was promoted to Tech Lead. During my 6 years at Entelect, I have worked on 8 projects, continuously growing in my role and responsibilities.

As a woman in a leadership role in the tech industry, what unique perspectives or approaches do you think you bring to your team and Entelect, as well as our customers?

I believe that I’ve been successful because I’m good at seeing not only the current problem but also future ones, and ensuring that we are considering them or planning around them. I tend to have backup plans for my backup plans.

What obstacles or biases have you faced in your career journey, how did you overcome them, and what advice would you give to other women aspiring to leadership roles in previously male-dominated fields?

Working in a male-dominated field is tough. I was always a tomboy and had similar interests to most guys, so I think it has been easier for me since I’m generally seen as one of the guys. I was also lucky that a lot of the males I work with would generally call out bad behaviour and made sure to ask for my input. However, some people will always be idiots and think that just because you are female, you can’t get the job done. I usually just focused on succeeding and proving them wrong.

Can you describe a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career, and what lessons did you learn from it?

I’ve worked on a lot of projects, but I think building the Uber-like app for the tow truck industry was probably one of my best. To have only 4 years of experience and to be trusted to run with the mobile app showed a lot of trust. During that time, I learned the most. I also really liked that it had a positive impact on the world. Many projects just make the rich richer, but those apps also tried to help reduce tow trucks rushing and causing accidents by trying to be the first at the scene.

In your opinion, what initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster gender diversity and inclusivity in tech teams?

Continue focusing on hiring women, but not just to chase a number—be sure to maintain high standards. I would also like to see more education given to leads on how important it is to make everyone on the team comfortable and to ensure they are aware of any gender-based bias.

How do you approach mentorship and supporting other women in the tech industry? Did/do you have a mentor?

I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of up-and-coming females in my team. As a lead in Entelect, we are expected to grow everyone on our team, but I do tend to stay in contact with the women on my team so that I can continue to support them and let them know that I’m here if they need my assistance.

What technological trends or advancements do you foresee shaping the future of software development, and how are you preparing yourself and your team to adapt to these changes?

The obvious one is AI. I honestly don’t think that it will replace us, but I do think that it will help us become more efficient. It is important to stay up to date with these trends and ensure that you aren’t left behind.

Finally, what do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in the tech industry, and what role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

Leadership and upper management have changed a lot in the last 10 years, and I suspect that it will continue to change and adapt. We need to focus on how every person is different and brings their own strengths and weaknesses to the table, irrespective of gender.

I would love to see women be totally equally represented in leadership - gender really has no part to play in this day and age. We can all help to lay the foundations to see more equality in the future.

Driving Progress

Landi Lombard — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:00:00 GMT

Landi Lombard is a Team Lead at Entelect whose superpower is creative problem solving, and who went into tech precisely because someone told her not to.

With a career spanning integrations development, mobile, machine learning and product ownership, Landi brings a unique perspective to her team and the tech industry. In this interview, she shares insights into her daily responsibilities, career motivations, and her journey through the challenges and triumphs of being a woman in tech leadership.

Can you share a bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day for you is like?

Our project at Entelect is an augmented team, meaning we collaborate closely with the customer, following their project plan and deliverables. My role is heavily focused on system analysis, working alongside Business Analysts who gather requirements. We then figure out how to integrate these requirements with existing systems to get the necessary data.

A significant part of my job involves negotiations and collaborations with third parties, ensuring they stay on track and assisting with testing. Besides system-focused tasks, I also lead a team, conducting one-on-ones and focusing on their growth. Additionally, I oversee three junior developers.

What motivated you or inspired you to pursue a career in the software industry? And was it always something that you wanted to do?

While other kids dreamed of becoming teachers or doctors or nurses, I dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot. But my eyesight is really bad so that didn't work out for me.

Later down the line I was taken to a career assessor. I love a challenge, so when someone told me that IT was definitely not the direction I should go in, I immediately thought “I’ll show you!” and went very deliberately in that direction. It also scratched my problem-solving itch. So I was able to show people that they were wrong while solving problems, which I love doing.

Can you describe your career journey and how you came to be at Entelect?

I studied Electrical Engineering at university and interned at various software companies, realising I wanted to be a developer. I started in integrations development, moved to Android and iOS, and then to .NET machine learning and reporting. I value efficiency and realised that training a group to be 80% efficient was more impactful than being 100% efficient alone, leading me to become a product owner.

I embraced a role with no prior experience, working hard and learning on the job. After building team processes from scratch, I shifted to a squad model with smaller teams and product managers. I then focused on integrating the customer's voice into the team. After serving as a product manager, I joined Entelect as a Senior Business Analyst. Six months ago, I became a Project Lead and recently, a Team Lead, and so far, I haven’t messed it up yet.

As a woman in a leadership role in the tech industry, what unique perspectives or approaches do you think you bring to your team and Entelect, as well as our customers?

My superpower is creative problem solving. So I think that's the biggest thing that I bring to any team, as well as my diverse viewpoint. After all, if 90% of the people in the tech industry are men, then we're going to end up with very biased products that aren’t going to work for the majority of the people who are going to use them.

I also have a big emphasis on collaboration. I learned quite early in my career that you can't get people to do what needs be done unless you foster a space where there is collaboration and you're focusing on that.

I have the skill of being empathetic but also still holding people accountable and have an acute attention to detail.

Have you faced any bias or obstacles in your career journey? How did you overcome them?

My strong, goal-driven nature can be intimidating, possibly helping me overlook biases. But one significant bias I have noticed is the expectation for women to be 'nice' in the workplace, which often clashes with competence and accountability. Women can be kind without compromising their goals, and it's important to reject the notion that they must conform to 'soft' roles to be liked.

Can you talk about a particularly memorable project and what you learned from it?

One major learning experience was working for a sales-driven company trying to break into the US market. We promised a client a feature we didn't have and had less than three weeks to build it, leading to chaos and stress.

The thing that I've learned from that and which was also a factor in choosing to work for Entelect is the importance of great leaders and their ability to look after their teams. The other thing that I learned is that culture is not pizza and beer; it is how you handle difficult conversations and how you work together as a team. Without psychological safety, a team cannot do its best work.

What initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster more gender diversity and inclusivity in tech teams?

Girls need to see people that look like themselves in the tech industry and that's what's going to inspire them.

Early involvement in school programs and offering job shadowing days is a great opportunity for young women to see that there is space for them in the tech field, whether they want to go in a coding, UX or data direction.

Mentoring junior women is also vital, especially in helping them navigate challenging situations and say no to unrealistic deadlines. Having someone that went through the same experience there to help you is really great.

Increased representation and talks by women in the field can further encourage inclusivity and visibility.

What technological trends or advancements do you foresee shaping the future of software development, and how are you preparing yourself and your team to adapt to these changes?

I’m particularly excited about machine learning, data, and blockchain, which will solve challenging problems creatively. Although our team isn't currently exploring these technologies, I'm keen to see how predictive analysis can leverage the data on our new platform.

What do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in the tech industry, and what role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

I admire Malcolm Gladwell's work for blending data and insights. He highlights the overrepresentation of tall, white males among Fortune 500 CEOs and how we all need to be aware of and try and change stereotypes. I hope to see more inclusivity in leadership, with women and diverse people across the board represented.

My role is to lead by example and actively support and mentor other women, helping them grow into the best versions of themselves. Creating an environment of equality, respect, and opportunity is key to shaping a more inclusive future in tech.

Charlotte Kruger on Joy, Facilitation and Making the World a Better Place

Charlotte Kruger — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:15:02 GMT

Charlotte Kruger is a Product Owner, a facilitator and someone who brings an almost irrepressible joy to every room she walks into.

With nearly ten years at Entelect and a career that has taken her from software engineering in South Africa to impact banking in the Netherlands, Charlotte has built a reputation for creating the conditions in which other people do their best work. We sat down with her to talk about her journey, her philosophy and what she believes it will take to build a truly inclusive tech industry.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do and what a typical day looks like for you?

I am a product owner for a mission-driven bank in the Netherlands. They want to be front runners in impact banking, so everything we do, we always ask ourselves: how is this making the world a better place? For people, for the planet, for animals.

I work with the team to maximise value and make sure we are focusing on the things that make the biggest difference.

A typical day involves a lot of meetings, though I would push back on the idea that meetings distract you from real work. I feel meetings are wonderful opportunities to collaborate and get actual work done together. The secret is in facilitating them productively, always being clear on why the session is happening, what needs to be achieved, and who is responsible for what by the end.

I also spend considerable time ensuring alignment across a wide range of stakeholders, making sure no one is left behind and that everyone understands what is coming their way. It is busy, but deeply purposeful.

What motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in tech, and was it always something you wanted to do?

In school, I had IT as a subject and I was one of the few girls in the class. My teacher was a woman as well, and she was just so strong and inspiring. It seemed I had a natural aptitude for it, and alongside that came an awareness of the potential a career in tech could offer, which led me to pursue a bachelor's degree in computing with a major in software engineering.

However, it was during my internship that my path began to shift. I remember thinking: you know what, maybe this isn't for me. Tinkering on other people's code, trying to decipher their intentions, was not where my passion lay. Fortunately, my internship placement gave me the opportunity to do more than just develop. With no one else available to handle the analysis work, I stepped into that space quite naturally. I have a knack for organising, structuring and coordinating, and that exposure to business analysis changed everything.

From there, I made the move from software engineering into business analysis, which is how I came to join Entelect. I was clear about my terms: I would join only if they could support my transition. They agreed, and I found myself in Boot Camp as one of just two BAs in an environment that was heavily geared towards developers. Rather than a setback, I saw it as an opportunity to take initiative and show what I could bring to the table.

I have been with Entelect for nearly ten years now, and the last three have been as a product owner, a role that remains relatively rare within the company.

What has it been like working in the Dutch tech scene? Have you noticed any cultural differences, or things that have surprised you?

One thing that struck me immediately was the attention and respect given to the person behind the work. It is not simply a case of getting things done at any cost. In my experience, there has been a genuine awareness and space for the human element. If someone needs a day to themselves, or is a little distracted, that is understood and accommodated rather than pushed past.

The country itself is also visually stunning and a wonderful place to be. The weather can be the worst sometimes (winter), but as I always say, pick your battles. Nothing is perfect.

What do you consider your special sauce, the unique perspective or flavour you bring to teams and clients?

Joy and enthusiasm. It is something I get complimented on quite often, which is just the best kind of validation, because it comes so naturally to me. Knowing that people notice it and appreciate it means that it genuinely makes a difference, and that it is not something that is always present in every room.

And then, of course, facilitation. Being the guide and not the hero.

Can you talk about a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career, something you still think about and feel proud of?

Facilitation is going to be a recurring theme here! My career highlight takes me to a two-day workshop I facilitated in the Netherlands earlier this year, where our team was working on a complex banking onboarding problem. Rather than lengthy back-and-forth conversations, I guided participants to work things out independently, draw diagrams of what they imagined the flow should look like, and externalise their thinking visually. Working alone together, as I like to call it.

My role has never been about the material. It is about holding space for the people who know what needs to happen and creating a framework for them to work their magic. Watching that shared understanding emerge and come together was deeply rewarding.

If you could give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be?

Just be authentic. And if I were to qualify that a little further: you do not always have to apologise for not being everyone's cup of tea, because you simply cannot be. Some people like coffee.

What initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster more gender diversity and inclusivity, particularly in the tech space?

Gender diversity in tech is not only about hiring more women. It is about creating an environment where people can genuinely thrive and advance. That means helping colleagues become aware of their own biases, fostering openness and respect for difference, and building communities that actively support women and other underrepresented groups through events, networking and learning opportunities. I am proud that Entelect already walks this talk, with initiatives like ElevateHer, GirlCode and Ladies That Code leading the way.

What do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in tech, and what role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

I see myself as an amplifier: sharing stories, highlighting best practices and showing through real examples the impact that women in positions of power can have. Mentorship programmes, sponsorship initiatives and clear pathways for career progression all matter, but so does encouraging honest, open dialogue about diversity and inclusion. Bringing different perspectives into boardrooms increases the odds of producing outcomes that reach more people. And frankly, your bottom line is affected by diversity and inclusion. Why would you limit who is in the room creating a product that will ultimately serve an enormously diverse range of people?

From Coding to Leadership

Renette Ros — Sun, 31 May 2026 22:15:00 GMT

Renette Ros is a Technical Lead at Entelect with a lifelong curiosity about how things work and a stubborn refusal to let anyone tell her what she can't do.

Since joining Entelect as a graduate in 2017, Renette has grown into one of the go-to people for technical help in her team and plays a key role in shaping the future of her client's platform. She shares insights into her daily responsibilities, her journey into the tech industry, the challenges she has overcome and her vision for fostering gender diversity and inclusivity in tech.

Can you share a bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day for you is like?

My job title is Technical Lead – but that means very little because at a lead level, everyone’s job changes based on what is needed in their environment. I do some of what the Team Leads do: I have one-on-ones with my team members and take care of their growth, have regular catchups with my managers (Entelect and the client) and keep an eye on my team’s delivery. In my current role, a lot of my job is thinking about the future of our platform, working with the architecture team to set standards and figure out how our tech should evolve for the future.

When people need technical help, I am one of the go-to people because of my deep knowledge of our domain and the technology we use.

What motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in software development? Was it always something you wanted to do?

I have always been interested in understanding how things work and why they work and have also been fascinated by computers since I was a child. My dad and my older sister are both also in IT so it seemed like an interesting career to me!

Can you speak to your journey of entering the field of software development and how you progressed to your current leadership position at Entelect?

I joined Entelect as a graduate in 2017 after finishing my honours degree. Shortly after Bootcamp I joined a project team. In the early days I felt like an impostor – I was one of few women in the team, and my undergrad degree is in BIS Multimedia not in Computer Science. The next year I started getting involved in internal training initiatives and mentoring one of the new graduates that joined our team. At the end of 2019 – after being involved in a few different projects in the space – I moved on to a new client. This was a small team with a culture of ownership, technical excellence, and a willingness to experiment that allowed me to influence the technical direction of the team. I would have been perfectly happy just staying in the “technical” box, but my Team Lead at the time refused to go easy on me. As our team grew and the previous leads left, I took on more and more lead responsibilities.

What obstacles or biases have you faced in your career journey, how did you overcome them?

When I was younger and choosing subjects in high school, I was faced with a lot of doubt around my choice, i.e. “Are you sure you mean IT?”. I’ve never taken well to people telling me what I can or can’t do, so I just stubbornly ignored them all. My direct teams – regardless of gender – have always supported me and had my back.

What advice would you give to other women aspiring to leadership roles in previously male-dominated fields?

Your perspective is valuable. Even if – especially if – you feel like an impostor because of a different background.
Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do.
Just because you are a woman, it doesn’t mean you should do the admin or organise the socials. If anyone tries the “but you are so good at it” line, my favourite response is that growth isn’t optional.

Can you describe a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career, and what lessons did you learn from it?

From 2018 to 2020, I was involved in the Entelect Challenge – a coding competition organised by Entelect where contestants build bots to play a game against each other. This was my first step into a leadership position and gave me an opportunity to experiment with different technologies and practice making decisions. After we built the 2019 game engine using Kotlin multiplatform, the Solutions Architect who was overseeing the project encouraged me to submit a talk about it to a local tech conference. When my talk got accepted it blew my mind – this little side project we did was interesting to other people!

Things we think are normal can be amazing or ground-breaking to other people with similar problems.

In your opinion, what initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster gender diversity and inclusivity in tech teams?

Make sure there is a support network! Being the only woman in a team isn’t great, and the same goes for other minorities.
D&I programs might be valuable, but don’t make only women run them.
Improving diversity needs to be a continuous process – you can’t only do it during Women’s Month and then forget about it for the next year.

Finally, what do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in the tech industry, and what role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

I’m hoping to see more women in technical and non-technical leadership positions, and for the ones already in leadership to be more visible. Since I am here right now, I want to be visible, inspire more women to step into leadership positions and learn from, collaborate with and be inspired by other women already in leadership positions.

Margo Weenink on Growth, Confidence and Thriving Abroad

Margo Weenink — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:56:04 GMT

Can you share a bit about what you do and what a typical day looks like for you?

I spend the majority of my time with the client, where I hold the role of Senior Software Engineer alongside an unofficial lead engineer position. My days tend to follow a satisfying rhythm. We kick things off with a stand-up at nine in the morning, which I like to keep tight and purposeful, no longer than fifteen minutes.

After that, I work my way through any open pull requests and respond to questions from the team. Being a trusted knowledge source is a big part of what I do, so I make time to advise and guide colleagues, whether that means talking through a technical problem or helping someone think through an approach.

From there, I get into my own development work, always with an eye on what the current priority is. In the tech world, that can shift quite quickly, so I maintain a running list and communicate clearly with the team about where focus should lie at any given moment. Our broader meetings are scheduled rhythmically throughout the week, which keeps things predictable and leaves plenty of uninterrupted time for deep work. It is a role that keeps me on my toes, and I genuinely love it.

What motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in the software industry? Was it always something you wanted to do?

Honestly, software was not the original plan. As a child, I loved helping my dad fix things, and that hands-on curiosity led me to set my sights on electronic engineering. When my physics marks did not quite meet the requirements, I did not give up on the idea of a technical career. Instead, I sat down and put together a proper action plan to find something that would suit me just as well.

A BSc in IT turned out to be the perfect fit: technical, deeply practical, and full of opportunities to solve real problems. So while software was not necessarily what initially caught my attention, the underlying instincts were always there. A desire to fix things, to tinker, to understand how something works and then make it work better. Looking back now, I am tremendously glad I went down this road. I love what I do, and I suspect I love it even more than I would have loved the path I originally had in mind.

Can you describe your career journey and how you came to be at Entelect?

I am something of an Entelect original. My husband went through the Entelect Graduate Bootcamp the year before me, in 2017, and watching how effectively it shaped and developed talent made me very curious. I was referred, and decided to attend an open day to find out more.

At the event, I ended up in a wonderful conversation with someone whose depth of knowledge and warmth really struck me. It was only later that I realised I had been chatting with Shashi, our CEO, who also went on to interview me. That experience was genuinely inspiring and played a big part in my decision to join the company. It set the tone for everything that followed.

What has it been like working in the Dutch tech scene? Any cultural differences that surprised you or that you particularly appreciate?

I will be honest: it was a tough start. Emigration has a way of quietly chipping away at your confidence, and trying to prove yourself in a completely different country, within a new professional environment and a different language, is no small thing. When I first joined my Dutch client, I was quite shy and struggled with imposter syndrome. I spent a lot of time listening and observing, and with everything around me being in Dutch, it could feel overwhelming.

The turning point came after my first Entelect review period. I sent out eleven feedback requests to colleagues at the client, and every single one of them responded. Not one person raised a concern about my language. The feedback was warm and encouraging, and people were actively inviting me to contribute more. That meant the world to me. It was a clear signal that I was seen, appreciated, and valued, regardless of whether I was having a good Dutch day or a difficult one. I have come out the other side of that period considerably stronger, and I am in a really good place now.

What is your special sauce? What unique perspectives or flavour do you add to your team and your client?

I genuinely care, and I think that comes through in everything I do. I care about the people on my team, not just the work, I believe that a team performs best when each person is able to pour from a reasonably full cup, and sometimes that means reshuffling tasks so that someone can get a breath of fresh air and work on something different for a while.

I also have an almost instinctive attention to detail. On my very first project, I found that I had quietly begun to notice everyone's shoes without really thinking about it. It became a bit of a team joke, but it is a good illustration of how naturally I pick up on the finer details around me. That quality has turned out to be genuinely useful in software development, even if noticing people's footwear is perhaps a less transferable skill.

Can you talk about a particularly memorable project or accomplishment in your career and what you learned from it?

My very first project stands out most clearly. I had just come out of Bootcamp and landed in a team that immediately believed in us as new developers. A few months in, my Tech Lead asked me to figure out how to build a very specific feature, something he openly admitted he did not know how to approach because it was a relatively new concept in the space. I did not feel especially confident at the time, but he did not question for a second whether I would be able to do it. He simply trusted me.

That belief transformed what felt possible. I tackled the problem and found a way through. Since then, I have been fortunate to work under several excellent leaders who have shaped the kind of leader I want to become. One lesson I carry from all of it is this: no matter how you feel about a project or a team, whether things are going brilliantly or proving very difficult, there is always something to take away. You owe it to yourself to find that lesson and learn it properly.

If you could give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be?

You are enough. You belong. You are absolutely allowed to take up space.

I would want my younger self to know that the self-doubt and the feeling of not quite fitting in are not evidence of anything real. They are just noise. The sooner you stop waiting for permission to show up fully, the sooner you can start doing the work you are genuinely capable of.

What initiatives or strategies can organisations implement to foster more gender diversity and inclusivity in tech teams?

True allyship, in my view, requires both sides. Men and women working together, with a genuine appreciation for the different strengths each brings. The emphasis should be on encouraging those differences rather than smoothing them out.

Women are often asked, implicitly or explicitly, to adapt themselves to fit a mould that was not designed with them in mind. Instead, organisations should be asking how women's approaches to building and growing teams can strengthen the whole. Women frequently bring distinct perspectives on collaboration, communication, and people development, and those are enormously valuable in tech. The key is to approach difference with curiosity rather than seeing it as something to be corrected.

What do you envision for the future of women in leadership positions in tech? What role do you hope to play in shaping that future?

At the moment, there is still a tendency to assume that women need to prove they can do the job before they are given the opportunity, whilst their male counterparts are often trusted with that opportunity first. I hope that changes. My vision for the future is one where unconscious bias against women in tech diminishes steadily and meaningfully, where the bar is consistent regardless of gender, and where women in leadership feel like a natural state of affairs rather than an exception.

As for my own role in shaping that future, I hope it is through showing up fully, leading with care and competence, and being the kind of leader I was lucky enough to learn from early in my career. If I can give someone else that same sense of being believed in, regardless of where they come from or what they look like, then I think I will have done something worthwhile.

Resilience as a Business Analyst in the Age of AI

Senaly Singh — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 07:25:44 GMT

I still remember the moment the question stopped being hypothetical.

I was sitting in a requirements workshop, slightly behind on my notes, when I opened a tool and asked it to draft the user stories from the discussion we'd just had. Within about forty seconds, there they were: structured, reasonably well-written, formatted correctly. Good enough that I could have submitted them after a light edit.

My first reaction wasn't relief. It was a quiet, unsettling thought: if that took forty seconds, what does that mean for me?

That question is one a lot of Business Analysts are sitting with right now. The World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report estimates that 92 million jobs will be displaced by AI by 2030, even as 170 million new ones emerge. The net figure is positive, but that statistic doesn't do much to quiet the nerves of someone watching a tool draft their deliverables in real time.

At the recent BA Summit SA, I spoke about what I think is the more useful response to that anxiety: not resistance, not resignation, but resilience. And resilience, I've come to believe, starts with an honest reckoning of what we actually do.

We Were Never "Just" Business Analysts

Here is something most job descriptions won't tell you: the BA role has always been far more than its artefacts.

Most of us aren't just Business Analysts. On any given week we are the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, the translator between an engineering team that thinks in systems and a business stakeholder who thinks in outcomes. We are the person who remembers that this exact requirement was tried two years ago and quietly failed for reasons that never made it into any document. We are the one in the room who notices that two teams are about to optimise for conflicting goals, and says so before it becomes a crisis.

We have always been something closer to connective tissue than documentation machines. AI enters a role that was never simple, and that matters.

The Co-Analyst in Training

The shift that has helped me most is a simple reframe. I stopped thinking of AI as a replacement or a shortcut and started treating it like a junior analyst on the team.

A junior analyst can draft a first pass at user stories. They can summarise a lengthy workshop discussion. They can flag potential gaps in a requirements document, or suggest approaches you hadn't considered. They bring genuine value. But they need direction. They need context. They need someone experienced enough to know when their output is technically correct but fundamentally wrong.

That is exactly what AI needs too.

When I use these tools now, I'm not handing over responsibility. I'm accelerating the parts of the work that don't require my judgement, so I can spend more time on the parts that do. I guide the prompts. I challenge the outputs. I use the tool as a sparring partner, asking it to critique my thinking, poke holes in my assumptions, play devil's advocate on a solution I've become attached to. The results are better when I treat it as a collaborator I'm supervising, rather than an oracle I'm querying.

This matters more than it sounds. PwC's 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, which analysed close to a billion job postings across six continents, found that workers in AI-exposed roles who engage actively with AI tools are seeing their wages rise twice as fast as those in roles least exposed to it. The people who are thriving aren't the ones waiting to see what AI does to their job. They're the ones who decided to figure it out first.

From Documentation to Strategy

If AI can produce documentation, and it can do so increasingly well, then documentation alone cannot be where the BA role lives.

This is uncomfortable to acknowledge, but it's also clarifying. Because the moment you accept it, the path forward becomes visible.

The work that AI genuinely cannot do is the work that has always been the most valuable part of what we do, even if it's been obscured by the volume of artefacts we produce. It can't walk into a room where the business sponsor and the engineering lead have subtly different ideas of what success looks like, and find the language that brings them to the same picture. It doesn't carry the memory of why the last re-platforming failed, or the intuition that the solution being proposed is solving a symptom rather than the problem underneath it.

Analyst roles involving socially oriented tasks, navigating stakeholder conversations, discussing nuance and exploring alternative paths, are considered among those least easily displaced by automation, precisely because they require something that cannot be replicated in software: the judgement that comes from being genuinely present in an organisation, over time.

The artefacts are automatable. The alignment work is not.

This is where reinvention begins: stepping deeper into solution design, not just capturing requirements but co-creating outcomes. Becoming the person who connects the dots across teams and business areas, who asks the questions no one else thinks to ask. Are we solving the right problem? Are we optimising locally at the cost of something bigger? What risk are we not seeing?

AI can help structure the answer. It cannot define the question.

Investing Instead of Resisting

It is easy to fear automation. It is harder, and far more powerful, to invest in it.

In my own practice, I've been experimenting with teaching AI how I think: giving it context, iterating on prompts, using it to pressure-test requirements before they reach stakeholders. The more intentional I am about the inputs, the better the outputs become. It's less like using a tool and more like developing a working style with a very fast, very literal collaborator who has no ego and infinite patience.

That's not a minor thing. The BA role has evolved before, from documentation-heavy gatekeepers to facilitators of value delivery, from process mappers to product thinkers. This is the next evolution point, and it is one we can choose to move toward deliberately rather than be pushed into reactively.

So, Who Are We?

If AI can write the story, who are we?

We are the ones who understand why the story matters. We are the connectors across silos, the translators of complexity, the people who notice when the right answer to the wrong question is still the wrong answer. We are the custodians of alignment: not the documents that record it, but the conversations, the relationships, and the hard-won organisational knowledge that makes it possible.

Resilience in the age of AI is not about defending territory. It is about stepping into higher-value work, work that the tools are making more visible precisely because they're taking on so much of what used to obscure it.

The tools are changing. The core of what we do is not. Curiosity. Critical thinking. Contextual awareness. The ability to bring people together around the right problem.

AI can support those strengths. It cannot replace them.

The question isn't whether AI will change our role. It already has. The real question is whether we are willing to evolve with it, and if we are, the future of the Business Analyst is not smaller. It is more strategic than ever.

So You Want to Build a Game?

Callum Taylor — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 03:00:00 GMT

Game development sits at the intersection of creative design, software engineering, and real-time performance optimisation. Whether you're an experienced software developer looking to break into games or simply curious about how your favourite games are made, understanding the fundamentals of game development — from early design decisions through to performance consideration — is essential.

This article walks through the key concepts you need to know to get started: the early decisions that shape your entire project, why game engines exist and how they work, how to write game logic in Unity, essential design patterns that keep your code manageable, and the performance traps that trip up even experienced developers.

1 | Decisions to Make Early On

Before writing code, there are several foundational decisions you should think about. These choices influence the systems you'll build, the tools you'll use, and the overall complexity of your project. The further along you are in development, the harder — and more expensive — it becomes to change them.

Starting with an Idea: A Pirate Adventure Game
Let's use a concrete example to discuss these decisions. Imagine you want to build a pirate game. You want to sail the seas, shoot cannons, loot enemy ships, stash treasure on your own island, trade it for gold, and evade getting caught. You have an idea — now let’s look at some of the questions you will need to answer.

Genre
The genre defines the core gameplay systems you'll need to build. For instance, if we make our pirate game an adventure role playing game (RPG) we will need to build an exploration system, a levelling system, a combat system, and a narrative or quest system. If you were to choose an action platformer or real-time strategy game instead, it would change which systems need to be built. Committing to a genre early means you can design your systems consistently rather than adapting them to work as afterthoughts.

Dimensionality: 2D or 3D
Whether you work in 2D or 3D or a hybrid of both, affects a multitude of systems, and the overall complexity your game. If we choose 3D a top-down perspective for our pirate game — it means we must think about ship movement in 3D space, projectile movement in 3D, and how our player will interact with the game in 3D.

Player Count
Single-player and multiplayer games require fundamentally different architectures. Multiplayer requires synchronisation between server/clients, latency management, and a different approach to state management. If you begin building a single-player game and later decide to add multiplayer, you will likely need to rework large portions of your systems. It is best to pick one approach and commit to it — or plan for both from the start.

Target Platform
PC, console, mobile, and web each have different performance constraints, inputs, distribution requirements and costs. For our pirate game, targeting Steam on PC will keep things simple. If we had to expand to mobile later, it would require rethinking controls, optimizing performance, and changing UI layouts. Platform choice also heavily influences which game engine you'll choose since some engines support different platforms.

2 | Why Use a Game Engine?

Game engines simplify game development by providing the essential systems and tooling for you. Unity, for instance, handles rendering (2D and 3D, shaders, lighting, post-processing), physics simulation, scene and entity management, input management, audio management, and asset management. If you decided to build a game from scratch with your own engine, you'd need to implement your own systems – which is no trivial task. Rather use an engine and focus on what makes your game unique — the mechanics, the feel, the content, and the systems that create a compelling player experience.

For our pirate game, Unity is a strong choice. It supports 2D and 3D workflows, handles single player well, has excellent PC platform support, and allows you to script and build custom game logic in C# for our systems.

To give an idea of the amount of effort it takes to build your own engine, The Witness – Jonathan Blow, took roughly seven years to develop using his own custom engine he built with a team. Large game studios like EA have dedicated teams that solely work on and maintain their proprietary engines like Frostbite. There are situations where writing your own engine makes sense — for example, if your game needs to be deterministic, or if your game's systems are simple enough that a full engine is more overhead than it's worth. But these are generally the exceptions in the indie space, not the rule.

3 | Game Engine Architecture

Understanding how a game engine is structured helps you make better decisions about where to put your code and how different systems interact. At a high level, a game engine consists of two layers: the game layer (your custom logic and your assets) and the engine layer (the systems that run your game).

Figure 1: Game engine architecture — showing how the game layer, engine layer and system layer interact

The game layer consists of your assets, scenes, and configuration (data and levels), and your game logic (your code). The engine layer sits beneath that and contains four key systems: the Input system, the Physics Engine, the Rendering Pipeline, and — tying everything together — the Game Loop.

The overall flow: input arrives → the game loop updates game logic → the physics engine simulates the world → the renderer draws the scene → the result is pushed to the screen → and the cycle repeats. Every frame, every second, for the entire duration your game is running.

4 | The Game Loop: Heart of the Engine

The game loop is the core of any real-time game. It runs continuously, processing input, updating the game state, simulating physics, and rendering a new frame — in that order. Everything you see in a game is the result of this loop executing many times per second.

Figure 2: The game loop cycle and a simplified code implementation

To maintain 60 FPS, each frame needs to finish processing in approximately 16 milliseconds. If all the steps can't be completed within that window, frame rates drop, creating a bad experience for your player. This is why performance optimisation in games is so tightly coupled to the game loop — every millisecond counts.

5 | How Does Unity Let You Build Games?

Unity provides an extensive set of tools and systems that help you build games. Understanding the core building blocks — GameObjects, Components, Prefabs, and Scenes — is essential for working effectively in the engine.

GameObjects
A GameObject is the fundamental entity in Unity. Everything in your game world — the player pirate ship, an enemy navy frigate, a cannonball, a UI panel — is a GameObject. On its own, a GameObject has a position, rotation, and scale (via its Transform component). It acts as a container to uniquely identity an entity in the game and track it’s related components.

Components
Components are what give GameObjects their behaviour and appearance. You add components to a GameObject to extend its functionality. A MeshRenderer makes a mesh visible in the game. A Rigidbody gives it physics. A BoxCollider allows collision detection. A custom script adds your own game logic. Components can be added and removed before and during runtime, giving you flexibility.

Prefabs
A Prefab is a reusable blueprint of a GameObject, including all its components and their configurations. You define a Prefab once, say, a Player Ship with a Transform, MeshRenderer, Rigidbody, BoxCollider, and a PlayerController script, and then instantiate it as many times as you need. All instances share the same template, so changes to the Prefab update all instances.

Scenes
A Scene groups a hierarchy of GameObjects and their components. You can think of it as a level in your game. Unity lets you save and load different scenes, making it easy to separate your main menu, gameplay, and game over screen.

Packages and the Asset Store
Unity's package ecosystem and Asset Store let you bring in pre-built tools, systems, and assets created by other developers. Whether you need a pathfinding system, a UI framework, or a set of 3D ship models, there's likely something available. This dramatically reduces the time needed to build common functionality from scratch.

6 | Writing Game Logic

Unity provides three main options for writing your game logic. Choosing the right one for each task keeps your codebase clean and consistent.

MonoBehaviour
MonoBehaviour is the base class for any script that attaches to a GameObject as a component. Use it when you need to hook into Unity's lifecycle methods, such as Awake, Start, Update, and others, or when you need access to Unity's APIs for input, physics, coroutines, or the editor.

Plain C# Classes
Not everything needs to live on a GameObject. Pure data structures, such as a Weapon class holding a name, damage, and fire rate, game logic that doesn't depend on Unity's API, utility classes, and manager objects are all better expressed as plain C# classes. They're easier to test and don't carry the overhead of Unity's component system.

Scriptable Objects
ScriptableObjects are Unity assets that live in your project rather than in a scene. They're ideal for shared data, such as weapon configurations, enemy stats, and level parameters, that needs to be accessible across multiple scenes and systems. Designers can edit them directly in the Unity Inspector without modifying code.

Coroutines, Events, and Async/Await
Beyond class types, Unity provides three key tools for managing timing and communication between systems.

Coroutines are Unity-native generators that can pause execution and resume after a fixed time or after a specific event. They're ideal for sequences over time — spawning waves of enemies with delays, driving animations, or sequencing dialogue. Avoid using them for heavy computation or network I/O.

Events (using C#'s Action or UnityEvent) decouple systems from each other. Rather than having your Health UI reach directly into the Player object to read its health, the Player broadcasts an OnHealthChanged event, and the UI subscribes to it. This makes your systems independent and much easier to maintain. Avoid long event chains or circular dependencies.

Async/Await is the right tool for I/O-bound work that happens outside the game loop — network requests, file I/O, web API calls, and database queries. Avoid using it for game loop logic or per-frame updates.

7 | Essential Design Patterns

As your game grows in complexity, unstructured code becomes increasingly difficult to reason about and extend. Design patterns provide proven, reusable solutions to common structural problems. Three patterns are particularly valuable in game development.

Finite State Machine (FSM)
Game logic often involves entities that can be in one of several distinct states — a character might be idle, walking, jumping, attacking, or dead — and transitioning between them based on conditions. Without structure, managing these transitions with a tangle of if/else statements quickly becomes unmanageable.

A Finite State Machine models this explicitly: you define a set of states, the valid transitions between them, and the conditions that trigger each transition. The result is logic that is easy to understand at a glance, easy to extend with new states, and far less prone to unintended side effects.

Object Pooling
Every time you create (Instantiate) or destroy a GameObject in Unity, memory is allocated or deallocated on the heap. When this happens frequently — as it does with projectiles, particle effects, or enemies — the garbage collector must periodically clean up unused memory, causing visible frame drops.

Object Pooling solves this by maintaining a collection of pre-created objects. When you need a new cannonball, you take one from the pool and reactivate it. When it hits something, you deactivate it and return it to the pool. No allocation, no garbage, no hitches. The pool manages a fixed size of objects, resetting their state rather than destroying and recreating them.

Observer Pattern
Tight coupling — where one system directly references another — is the enemy of maintainable game code. If your Health UI class holds a direct reference to your Player class to read its health value, the two are permanently linked. Change the Player class and you risk breaking the Health UI. Delete the Player and the UI throws null reference exceptions.

The Observer pattern solves this by inverting the relationship. The Player class broadcasts an event (OnHealthChanged) when its health changes. Any number of listeners — the UI, an audio system, a screen shake effect — can subscribe to that event independently. None of them need a reference to the Player; they just need to know what the event signature looks like.

Command Pattern
In many games, different player inputs or game actions share a common structure: they need to be executed and sometimes undone. A switch statement or a chain of if/else blocks that maps input events to action logic becomes difficult to read and extend as the number of actions grows.

The Command pattern encapsulates each action as an object that implements a common interface (Execute and optionally Undo). The input system or game logic simply calls Execute() on whichever command is current, without needing to know what that command does. This makes it straightforward to add new actions, record player input for replay, or implement undo functionality in a turn-based game.

8 | Performance: What to Avoid

Ideally, the game loop should run 60 or more times per second. Any inefficiency that happens every frame compounds rapidly. These are some common performance traps and how to avoid them.

Searching for Components in the Game Loop
Searching for a component or entity inside the game loop means the engine needs to traverse through your scene hierarchy to find it. This is an expensive operation. Instead, cache your component references as the game starts or during an expected loading scene.

Allocating Temporary Collections in the Game Loop
Creating a new List or array inside the game loop allocates heap memory on every frame, which triggers garbage collection overhead. Cache your collections on start, clear and reuse them rather than recreating them every time. Prefer standard for loops over other enumerators that allocate memory.

Frequent Instantiate and Destroy Calls
As discussed in the Object Pooling section, creating and destroying GameObjects at high frequency generates garbage collection pressure and frame spikes. Use object pools and disable or enable objects instead.

Physics Calls Every Frame
Physics operations — raycasts, overlap checks, and similar calls — are computationally expensive. Avoid calling them every frame unnecessarily. Use physics layers to restrict queries to relevant objects, batch calls where possible, and prefer non allocating variants to avoid heap allocations.

Unnecessary Math Operations
Small optimisations in maths can add up when applied across thousands of objects per frame. For example, comparing the distances between two vectors typically involves computing a square root (Vector3.magnitude). Squaring both sides of the comparison and using Vector3.sqrMagnitude instead is faster because it skips the expensive square root operation. These micro optimisations matter when you are trying to save milliseconds.

Boxing and Unboxing Value Types
Value types (structs, ints, floats, bools) are stored on the stack. When they are assigned to a reference type variable or passed to a method that expects an object, they get "boxed", copied onto the heap, which creates garbage. Prefer generic collections, avoid passing value types as object parameters, and use structs for small, frequently created data structures.

Summary

Game development is a rich and demanding discipline, but it becomes far more approachable once you understand its underlying principles. Here's my main take aways:

The genre, visual style, player count, and release platform lock you into specific systems early on. Make these decisions deliberately because changing them later is costly.
Use a proven game engine. Choose one that fits your needs and focus on what makes your game compelling. Writing your own engine is a valid challenge, but it's a multi-year investment.
A game engine is composed of interlocking systems, input, physics, rendering, and the game loop, that work together to produce each frame. Understanding the game loop is foundational to everything else.
In Unity, work with the engine's built-in abstractions (GameObjects, Components, Prefabs, and Scenes) and choose the right tool for each job: MonoBehaviours for components, plain C# for logic, ScriptableObjects for data, Coroutines for timed sequences, Events for decoupled communication, and Async/Await for I/O work.
Use design patterns to keep your code clean and extensible. Finite State Machines tame complex conditional logic. Object Pooling eliminates garbage collection hitches. The Observer pattern decouples your systems. The Command pattern makes actions generic and reusable.
Always keep performance in mind. Avoid unnecessary memory allocation and computation inside the game loop. Cache references, pool objects, batch physics calls, and profile early.

Now go build something amazing! Callum Taylor