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How do you design and build a computer system you might ask?

Good question!

The first stage is usually to understand what the computer system needs to do. We do this by talking to the people who might use the system or we speak with the people, team or organisation who has requested the system.

Once we understand what the system needs to do (the requirements), we break these requirements down to understand the technical building blocks (computer code, servers, storage, networks etc) required to deliver the requirements. We create diagrams and documents on computers to show what the technical building blocks look like and how they work together. The result of this process is hopefully a design of the computer system to be built.

We then have to do the actual building of the system. I don’t do this myself, instead I work with computer engineers/developers to write the code that forms the building blocks of the computer system. There are also people who test the code once it’s been written to spot any mistakes we make so we can fix them. We build the system out block by block, until at the end we hopefully have a working computer system.

But the work doesn’t end there. Computer systems usually need regular maintenance and updates (a bit like your phone or laptop at home getting software updates). The other part of my job is to design the updates to these existing systems and work with the computer engineers to implement them.