Meet Anna
Anna went to the University of Maryland – College Park for her undergraduate studies and is now attending Johns Hopkins for her Master’s in Computer Science.
Anna Whittaker
Senior Consultant
USA
USA
Alma Mater
University of Maryland
Favorite TV Show
The Office
Favorite Musician
Ella Fitzgerald
Dream Vacation Destination
Bora Bora
Let’s start off by learning a bit more about your life prior to Pega. Where are you from originally and what is your educational background?
I grew up in Maryland, went to University of Maryland, and I’m now attending Johns Hopkins for my Master’s in Computer Science.
What motivated you to learn how to use Pega?
I started as an analyst at Accenture and was selected to join the Pega practice based on my technical background. I had never heard of Pega at the time, but I’ve been working on Pega applications since then.
"Pega sparked my interest in application development. Now I earned my Pega LSA certification."
How has Pega shaped or impacted your career?
I have spent all of my career after college consulting and building Pega applications for different clients. Before learning Pega, I had very little development experience. Pega sparked my interest in application development in general, and I am now studying for my Masters degree in Computer Science. I also earned my Pega LSA certification earlier this year.
What message or advice would you give to anyone who is considering a career as a Pega Developer?
Always keep learning, because Pega keeps changing. Staying current on new Pega features helps you to become the best developer you can be.
WINNING CATEGORY
Runner Up
PROJECT
Pyra
Pyra uses a modern React UI integrated with Pega’s DX API to give employees a way to get their ideas in front of the right people to effect change in their organization, even while working from home.
ORGANIZATION
srcLogic
TEAM
Alex Vargo, Anna Whittaker, Amanda Shekarch, Daniel Engel, bparlett, Allyson Meltzer, Joe Offutt
"Pyra is a place that allows any employee to propose something new to their organization. Especially with the changes that COVID-19 and working from home have brought, we wanted to make sure our company doesn’t miss out on the next great idea."
How did you find out about the Pega Community Hackathon and why did you want to participate?
One of my coworkers heard about the Hackathon on LinkedIn and reached out to our team to start brainstorming ideas.
Tell us about the Hackathon project that you worked on - How did you or your team come up with the idea? How did you or your team go about the process of building this Hackathon submission?
The concept behind Pyra is something our company has been wanting for a while—a place that allows any employee to propose something new to their organization. Especially with the changes that COVID-19 and working from home have brought, we wanted to make sure our company doesn’t miss out on the next great idea.
We took this idea and discussed the boundaries of how it would work. How should an idea be chosen? How should ideas be grouped? Is everyone’s vote equal? How can everyone in the company be engaged, even if they don’t initially have an idea to bring forward? After we determined the requirements, we started working on our DX code in React, and simultaneously building the Pega application.
Are there any particular elements of this Hackathon submission that you are most proud of?
I am really proud of our React UI. I’ve developed Pega applications for a while, and it can be difficult to give them a look and feel that is unique. The DX APIs gave us the power to make almost any UI that we wanted, and I think that makes Pyra easy and fun to use.
"Working on Pega technology has created opportunities for me to deliver real-world results quickly resulting in internal exposure and experience."