January 2026: Delivered reliability improvements for the Free School Projects UI and streamlined CI/CD workflows, resulting in more reliable user flows and more accurate quality reports. Highlights include UI button interaction fixes on the dates details page, and CI/CD/test configuration improvements that exclude Cypress tests from coverage and builds.

Monthly Summary — December 2025 (DFE-Digital): Key features delivered: - Academies Achievements API: Project Recommendations Data Model Enhancement. Added a new database/API field RecommendationNotesForProject to capture supplementary information about project recommendations, with accompanying tests validating the new property. Commits: e04f1dbf205c6d49215149164d7c5266241f9ddb; 5dcb5c2dbd620c575f33bfcad800638e20dbe5db. - Manage Free School Projects: Project Status CancelledTrustCompetition. Introduced new status to classify projects cancelled without identifying a trust; updated data mappings, UI flows, and status update logic. Added tests for the ProjectMapper and a refactor to use a constant for the selected cancelled status to improve maintainability. Commits: 73272e2e10fae5a86801041b3295b80f16a09707; c16ffa532c2b743a4e3b86b13d09d68ea1f5804f; f4aa134df76a03ad9e6df1cea8ad13c363ff5551. Major bugs fixed / quality improvements: - Clarified project status handling with a new CancelledTrustCompetition status and updated mappings/UI to prevent misclassification; added mapper tests to reduce regressions. Commits: c16ffa532c2b743a4e3b86b13d09d68ea1f5804f; f4aa134df76a03ad9e6df1cea8ad13c363ff5551. - Improved maintainability and test coverage through refactors and test updates surrounding the new status and data model changes. Commit: 5dcb5c2dbd620c575f33bfcad800638e20dbe5db; c16ffa532c2b743a4e3b86b13d09d68ea1f5804f. Overall impact and accomplishments: - Business value: clearer project status taxonomy improves reporting clarity and reduces ambiguity in project fate; enhanced data model supports richer project recommendations analytics and better decisioning. - Technical impact: added field-level DB and API support, increased test coverage, and improved maintainability through constant usage and targeted refactors. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - Backend data modeling (DB/schema), API surface updates, and unit/integration test coverage. - Mapping logic enhancements and test-driven validation for new statuses. - Refactoring for maintainability (constants usage) and code quality improvements.