SIKKA - Enterprise HR Information System

The Challenge

SIKKA was the single source of truth for all human resources processes at the Directorate General of Taxes, serving a nationwide user base of over 45,000 employees. As a massive, monolithic application built on legacy native PHP, it contained over 700 submodules for managing everything from recruitment to retirement. The system faced significant challenges related to security, maintainability, and performance that required urgent and expert intervention.

My Role and Key Contributions

As a lead developer and security expert, I was responsible for a multi-year effort to modernize, secure, and extend the SIKKA platform.

Award-Winning Security Overhaul

• Following my own prior security audit which uncovered hundreds of flaws, I was entrusted to lead the remediation efforts.
• I successfully led the initiative to reduce the application's critical vulnerabilities by 97% (from 646 to just 16).
• This security overhaul was a massive success, saving the institution from potential losses estimated at over IDR 5 billion and earning me the Best Performer Employee of The Year award.

Development & Modernization

• Lead Developer: I designed, developed, and deployed numerous new modules and bug fixes. Based on git commit history, I was the author of over 71% of the new modules and feature enhancements from 2018 onwards.
• Technology Migration Lead: I spearheaded two high-stakes modernization projects:
  1. A major migration of the system's backend database from Oracle DB 10 to Oracle DB 11.
  2. An upgrade of the application's entire legacy PHP 5.x codebase to a more modern and secure version, ensuring full compatibility.