[IPC spring 2018] How to train your minions

Ever wondered what the fast track to being a full-stack developer is? It's true we learn best by delivering, but what how should we structure our learning approach to maximise results?

In this talk I'll share my method of bringing juniors up to speed in order to work on large, critical, customer-facing projects. It's been verified on tens of developers over the last 7 years, and refined by personal input from each and every one of them.

Transcript

1. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR MINIONS
   Georgiana Gligor
   @gbtekkie
   A battle-tested method of producing senior engineers
   

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2. !2
   ๏ Geek. Mother. Do-er.
   ๏ Crafting enterprise apps
   ๏ Large-Scale Application Architect
   ๏ RomaniaPHP Conference Organiser
   ๏ Systems Engineering PhD Student
   Georgiana Gligor
   @gbtekkie
   gb@tekkie.ro
   

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4. don’t kill that spirit
   

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5. ‹#›
   DREYFUS MODEL OF SKILL ACQUISITION
   

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6. ‹#›
   CODE KATA
   http://codekata.com/
   

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7. ‹#›
   

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8. ‹#›
   

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9. ‹#›
   

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10. ‹#›
    2nd month
    1st month 3rd month
    

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12. ‹#›
    FIRST MONTH
    

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13. ‹#›
    GOAL
    Understand the environment in which PHP
    applications are deployed and be aware of
    specific constraints under which we operate.
    

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14. ‹#›
    ๏ pick an easy data crawl + basic data display project
    ๏ implement it traditionally (one PHP file per
    business need)
    ๏ it must be live at the end of the month
    METHOD
    

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15. ‹#›
    external

    data source
    persistance
    basic

    frontend
    crawler
    

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16. ‹#›
    ๏ cURL for crawling data
    ๏ forbid using a database - learn the power of the filesystem
    ๏ no frameworks
    ๏ no version control at this point
    CONSTRAINTS
    

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17. ‹#›
    

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18. ‹#›
    

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19. ‹#›
    ๏ google + stackoverflow
    FOCUS
    ๏ WAMP
    ๏ click
    ๏ database-centric thinking
    embrace the PHP manual
    Linux
    command-line
    requirements-oriented mindset
    }
    

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20. ‹#›
    NON-TECHNICAL
    SKILLS
    

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23. ‹#›
    SECOND MONTH
    

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24. ‹#›
    GOAL
    Start learning OOP.
    Learn MVC.
    Automated deployments.
    

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25. ‹#›
    ๏ keep the easy data crawl + basic data display project
    ๏ remove all the code we produced in the first month!
    ๏ pick an easy, well-documented MVC framework
    METHOD
    

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26. ‹#›
    ๏ raw PHP methods
    FOCUS
    ๏ learn from tutorials
    ๏ bash commands
    learn to integrate libraries
    use the framework documentation
    simple deploy pipeline
    read 3rd party libraries source
    }
    

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27. ‹#›
    NON-TECHNICAL
    SKILLS
    

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30. ‹#›
    THIRD MONTH
    

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31. ‹#›
    GOAL
    Learn an enterprise-level framework.
    Start using BDD.
    Deep dive into TDD.
    

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32. ‹#›
    ๏ keep the easy data crawl + basic data display project
    ๏ pick an enterprise framework
    ๏ allow database usage
    METHOD
    

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33. ‹#›
    

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34. ‹#›
    

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35. ‹#›
    ๏ ad-hoc requirements
    FOCUS
    ๏ manual testing
    ๏ code specification
    customer-driven requirements
    automated validation
    independent thinking
    }
    

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36. ‹#›
    NON-TECHNICAL
    SKILLS
    

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38. THANK YOU
    Georgiana Gligor / @gbtekkie
    Affordable quality system architecture. In-house PHP trainings.
    

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