The first section of the reading discusses how you as the interviewer should conduct the interview and what type of questions to ask. This chapter basically tell you what not to do when interviewing a potential employee. This such as don’t ask brain-teasers, don’t ask them to code on paper, don’t block the internet and dont ask questions you don’t know the answer to. Basically you want them to feel like they are in a work environment.

The next chapter is about keeping up the moral in the office. Low moral will cost the company money, developers will not work as well if they’re moral is not high enough. You need to keep you employees happy, you can’t MAKE them happy but you can do your best to keep the office in a general sense of content. You want your employees to have passion for the work that they’re doing and not think of it as “just a job”. A few things you can do is have daily meetings or bringing in developers that are very passionate to help bring out the passion in the other developers.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The first section of the reading talks about the hiring process and what you should and should not do. If you already have a team of unorganized developers, bringing in another one will not help your situtation only make it worse. There should be little to no job description, it should be vague as it attracks more abstract minds. You want to hire someone that does not need constant direction and can learn things on their own. You should be hiring developers that are passionate about what they do.

The second part of the reading goes over the interview process. When in an interview make sure you ask a lot of questions about the company and get to know their process and how they treat developers. If you are a software craftsman you should not just be looking for good pay and cool projects, you should be looking at what will make you a better developer.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The first part of the reading talks about adapting technical practices and getting other developers or managers on board. Just telling developers or a manager that your going to be using something like TDD might make them question that practice because it will end up taking longer. What should be done is ask questions like do we want this to be bug free or do we want the code clean. Then once they see the advantages talk about what technical practices to use.

The second part of the reading goes on to say that the goal of being a software craftsman is to find pleasure in your work. Purpose and mastery are ideal characteristics when looking for a job, but that cannot always be done. The more experienced you become the easier it is to find jobs like this. To find this you need to know where you are in your career and work to where you want to be, nobody else can do this for you.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

In the first section of the reading the book it explains how to learn to say “No”. Sometimes you’ll work with managers or clients that expect too much from you, it is not professional of them to ask you to do more than you can. If you know a workload is going to be too much for you to handle do not hesitate to say no. To be a professional you must know when to say no to a client. The client is trusting you and your expertise, so do not agree to something you can’t do just because they are paying you.

In the next section talks about not rushing during coding. If you rush during coding chances are the quality will depreciate. If the quality is not up to standards then the code will be extremely hard to change later on. So the best way to code is to take your time if you want your software to be able to be maintained in the future.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

In the first section of the reading first goes over what software caftsmanship is. It goes on to say that it is about a developer mastering his/her skill and being the best they can be while being professional and responsible. A craftsman will also look for partners to work with that are as professional as they are. It is also about having a good reputation, so projects being worked on are taken very seriously. Being a software craftsman is a lifestyle, not just a job.

The second section of the reading starts off by basically saying it is your responsibility as a professional to keep learning and keep up with current technology. It goes on to say that you own your career, no one else, so you must always be learning and practicing. Some companys may help you learn new things but it is not their responsibility and you would be lucky if they do.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The first part of this reading started out by saying you should be in the field that you enjoy. Just because you make more money doesn’t mean it’s meant for you. Another point was made that just because you’ve been coding for a long time does not make you a senior coder. It all depends on what you’ve been working on and the diversity of your skills that makes a senior coder.

The next part of the reading focuses on companies being agile. It takes about how being competitive means delivering software faster and with better quality. Most companies end up making this all about their process and tools. Just because a company practices agile ways does not mean they will improve. The most important part is hiring developers that can handle this and can make it happen, without these developers that have mastered these process and tools, then it will not improve the product or speed.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The first part of this reading discusses teams. Teams are a very important part of completing a project. “The Gelled Team” is a very efficient way of forming a team, it usually consists of 12 people, some programmers, some testers and a project manager. This team needs to learn eachothers habits and learn to be able to work with them, this can sometimes take a long time but is necessary. This team can then take on multiple projects and is much more efficient.

The second part of the reading focuses on learning to program outside of school. A lot of programmers haven’t even gone to school, they teach themselves. The ones that do go to school are not ready to start coding right away, it takes years of learning the way an office works and how to perform efficiently.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Testing by kyleottblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.