Full-stack Laravel developer
I’m Michele Depalma, a full-stack developer since 2022. I design and build custom business software, ERPs and SaaS products: I read the requirements, talk to the people who will use the software, write the code and take it to production. Often on my own, from start to finish.
Download my CV PDF, 1 pageI hold a technical diploma in electrical engineering and industrial automation. During my studies, from 2005 to 2012, I learned to program Omron and Siemens PLCs in C and BASIC. That is where my way of thinking comes from: logical, structured, and with a view that runs from software down to hardware.
In 2021 I attended Aulab’s intensive coding bootcamp and moved into web development. Since 2022 I have worked as a full-stack developer in a team that builds custom business software, ERPs, e-commerce sites and SaaS products for small and medium businesses and the public sector.
I work directly with clients, by email, on calls and during acceptance testing. I answer in plain language and explain what changes for the people who use the software.
I’m pragmatic and detail-oriented. In this job you never stop learning, and that’s how I like it.
Path
Technical studies in electrical engineering and automation. I program Omron and Siemens PLCs in C and BASIC.
Intensive coding bootcamp, front-end and back-end. I move into web development.
I join a development team that builds custom software for businesses and the public sector.
Business software, ERPs and SaaS across 11 industries, often as the sole developer, from analysis to production.
Invoice numbering that never collides, warehouses run with barcode scanners, quotes generated straight from a technician’s job report. Even on code written by someone else, without rewriting it.
See it in: manufacturing ERP, roofing ERP
A subscription service for many businesses, each with its own isolated data, a customer area and an admin panel that tracks recurring revenue and retention.
See it in: insurance SaaS, marketplace
Exercises done on a tablet with no connection sync themselves when the network comes back, without losing answers and without duplicates. On iPad too.
See it in: learning platform
The system recognises an Italian compliance certificate or a company registry extract, pulls out the dates and, when the expiry isn’t written down, applies the one set by law. No AI, just rules validated on real PDFs.
See it in: construction compliance
Stripe, PayPal and bank transfer. Upgrades that show the proration before you confirm, downgrades only at the end of the period, and a site that keeps working even when Stripe doesn’t answer.
See it in: insurance SaaS, marketplace
Dyslexia-friendly fonts, text-to-speech that highlights each word as it reads, voice dictation for answers. And layouts that hold up with a font 60% wider than normal.
See it in: learning platform
Zero-downtime releases, with backups and database migrations rehearsed on a copy of production. Incident diagnosis over SSH and forensic analysis of a compromised server.
See it in: manufacturing ERP, sports management software
From the specification to the right questions. I find contradictions before they turn into code, and I keep what’s in scope separate from what’s extra.
See it in: seven analyses
In acceptance testing · Sole developer
Insurance sub-agents were managing clients, agency agreements, policies, due dates and payments across scattered Excel files. I built a subscription service with three areas: intermediary, policyholder and administration.
In staging · Sole developer
Students aged 6 to 18, supported by tutors and speech therapists, need to do accessible exercises, even on a tablet with no connection.
In production · Inherited project
An ERP used every day, left behind by the two previous developers with no handover. On my first day, nobody could log in.
In staging · Sole developer
Checking that suppliers, subcontractors and workers have valid, unexpired documents, site by site.
Complete, in staging · Built almost entirely by me
Connecting homeowners who need work done with construction companies, from the listing to the contract.
Other projects
In development
CRM, site survey scheduling and a rooftop data collection flow, with photos for every question, that generates the quote on its own once approved. 288 tests.
Sole developer, analysis and development
Ongoing
Purchasing, goods receipt with shipping costs split by weight, inventory. I wrote a rounding function that gives the same result as Excel on every PHP version.
Inherited project
Ongoing
Samples, training with certificates, cashback and data exchange with the client’s warehouse. I rebuilt the import with a reconciliation report covering 18,487 professionals.
Lead developer in a team of 3
Evolution
Online sign-ups, a real-time waiting list, instructor payment calculations. And the analysis of a compromised server: I stopped a cryptominer and verified that the code was intact.
Inherited code
Analysis and consulting
Projects I analysed and designed before development: specifications, questionnaires, kickoffs, database schemas.
15 roles with permissions by company, area and operation. Quotes from CAD files.
Contradictions and out-of-scope requests found in a handwritten questionnaire.
Italian digital identity (SPID and CIE), pagoPA payments, official records management. WCAG 2.1 AA obligations and qualified cloud hosting.
An 11-section questionnaire on recipes, batches, quarantine, ISO 22716 and HACCP.
A database schema of ~800 lines and a study of a European standard with 1,467 attributes in 14 languages.
A permission matrix across 5 axes and 9 profiles. AI assistants with privacy by design agreed with the DPO.
CRM, ticketing, accounting and a voice assistant. Analysis in progress.
When I find a bug, I write a test that reproduces it, then I fix it. The suite must be green before every push, and I check the result on screen with Playwright before calling it done.
Database backups and migrations run forwards and backwards on a copy of production. One single release carried 27 of them.
I separate what was agreed, the extras we settle on and what is out of scope. Temporary choices are written down and approved.
I reply point by point, describing the practical effect for the people who use the software.
I often run several projects at the same time, in many cases as the sole developer: you can see it in the case study dates too. I manage it thanks to a method I built for exactly this.
Every project has a written memory (goals, decisions, status and open points) that I update at every step. I can leave a piece of work for days and pick it up again without rebuilding the context.
Claude Code is my main tool, with 11 agents and 14 commands I wrote myself, from a kickoff on a specification to code review. I delegate part of the code to a second agent, with written instructions and conventions. No change lands in a project without review and a green test suite.
Architecture, priorities, what gets released and what we tell the client are my decisions. External emails and documents are treated as untrusted content.
10 projects built and 7 analyses since January 2025, across 11 industries:
Insurance · education and accessibility · manufacturing · construction · e-commerce · herbal products · sports · public sector · railways · wellness production · gyms and healthcare
Arduino · Android · local AI · in progress
An old phone on a radio-controlled toy car, with an animated face and an AI running on my PC, no paid services. An Arduino “presses” the buttons of the original remote, which I opened up and traced down to the chip, and I drive it from the browser with a keyboard or gamepad while watching the phone’s video. Now I’m teaching it to find its way around the house with ARCore.
Open source · MIT
An Artisan command that turns SVG files into ready-to-use Blade components, normalising their colours. Works from Laravel 8 to 13 and is published on Packagist.
composer require mickj/laravel-icon-generator
Code on GitHub →
Godot 4 · Android
A 3D app that teaches children aged 8 to 12 how to code, with command blocks and an animated character. It works offline and needs no account.
Python · in use since September 2026
It reads the inbox, groups conversations, separates new text from quoted text and turns client requests into tasks in the right project.
Outside work I’m into game development, retro gaming and emulation, educational apps for kids and applied AI.