Chris Shennan
Senior PHP Developer / Indie Hacker
I'm an experienced web developer specialising in solutions using open source technologies including PHP, Symfony, Laravel, CodeIgniter, JavaScript, Docker, AWS, PHPUnit, Nginx, Apache and MySQL.
I'm always interested in trying my hand at new and exciting projects and expand my knowledge and experience. Often this means I am working with a mix of technologies I'm already familiar with as well as new ones.
What I do
I have more than 17 years' experience building software for clients from various industries including agency, media and insolvency. Below is a quick overview of my main technical skill sets and technologies I use.
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PHP / Symfony / Laravel
- Extensive experience with PHP, both natively and via frameworks like Symfony & Laravel. Comfortable working on legacy and greenfield projects.
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Testing
- Writing and maintain tests that are run as part of the CI/CD pipeline to minimise issues in live environments.
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AWS / DevOps
- Configuring and administering UAT & production infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines using various providers including Amazon Web Services and Digital Ocean
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Docker
- Creating containers for use in all environment from development to production to ensure consistency between them all.
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Version Control
- Versioning and maintaining code and implementing CI/CD pipelines using services like GitLab & GitHub.
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Documentation / Scoping
- Analysing requirements for new features and change requests and documenting these requirements for the team to be able to prioritise.
Latest Blog Posts
Testimonials
Chris was an invaluable member of the team during his time at The Drum. He provided great technical leadership and worked incredibly hard to move the company's technical stack forward.
He also had a really broad experience which helped us with our general infrastructure and approach to analytics.
Digital Development Lead, The Drum
Christopher's skills with code, back-end infrastructure and basically every facet of digital product development are unrivalled.
There is simply nothing the man does not know about, and during our time at the Drum he helped give this lowly designer a peek behind the curtains on what really goes on within Docker containers, Apache server setups and PHP environments.
On top of everything he is friendly, approachable and eager to teach. A true gentleman.
Senior UX Designer, Cigna
Chris has been central to the success of the Herald & Times Group sites over the past two years. From a starting point in Jan 2013 when our servers were running at full capacity and couldn't handle more traffic, Chris implemented a number of changes that improved performance, increased reliability and more than doubled our server capacity without incurring any costs.
While Chris's core skills lie in PHP and MySQL, his wide-ranging skill set and capacity for learning has helped us in everything from Javascript coding to iPhone app development.
Digital Innovation Manager, Newsquest (Herald & Times)
