Hello everyone, and welcome to my first blog entry of the semester!

For this week’s self-directed professional development, I listened to the podcast

SOLID Principles with Uncle Bob (Robert C. Martin) on Hanselminutes. (hanselminutes.com) Even though the focus of the episode was on SOLID design principles, I found that many of the ideas connected back to the object-oriented design principles we covered in CS-343 last week. The principles were inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, and abstraction, and also tied naturally into our current topic of UML class diagrams.

Summary of the Podcast

Here I am just going to give you guys a tiny summary of the podcast. It’s about 45 mins.

In this episode, Scott Hanselman interviews Robert C. Martin, known as “Uncle Bob,” about how object-oriented design principles shape the flexibility and maintainability of software. He explains why well-structured code allows systems to grow and adapt, while poor design leads to fragile, hard-to-maintain projects. Uncle Bob also emphasizes the importance of thinking carefully about class responsibilities and relationships early in the design phase, which is exactly what UML class diagrams are meant to capture.

Why I Selected This Resource

I chose this podcast because it offered a professional perspective on how design principles go beyond theory and impact real-world software. Since we just studied the four pillars of OOP and are now practicing UML diagrams, I wanted a resource that would help me bridge those two areas. The episode did exactly that: it showed how principles like abstraction or encapsulation are not just coding rules but also influence how we design and visualize systems.

Personal Reflections: What I Learned and Connections to Class

Listening to Uncle Bob made me reflect on how the four OOP principles are deeply connected to UML diagrams:

• Encapsulation: In diagrams, private attributes and public methods show how data is protected yet accessible through controlled interfaces.
• Inheritance: The “is-a” relationships in UML are not just arrows; they communicate how subclasses extend parent classes without duplicating logic.
• Polymorphism: Method overriding and dynamic behavior become clearer when you see how subclasses can stand in for parents in a diagram.
• Abstraction: Interfaces and abstract classes in UML help highlight shared behaviors without tying designs to specific implementations.

What stood out to me was how Uncle Bob framed design decisions as long-term investments. A UML diagram isn’t just a class picture, it’s the foundation for whether the software remains adaptable or becomes rigid.

Application to Future Practice

Going forward in CS-343, I’ll use these insights to strengthen my UML class diagrams. I plan to treat encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and abstraction as a checklist when building diagrams. For example, when defining relationships, I’ll ask whether inheritance truly makes sense or if abstraction through an interface is better. These habits will not only help me in this course but also in future projects where design clarity and flexibility are essential.

Citation / Link

• Hanselman, Scott. SOLID Principles with Uncle Bob – Robert C. Martin. Hanselminutes Podcast, Episode #145, January 5, 2009. Available online. (hanselminutes.com)

This resource helped me connect the four pillars of object-oriented programming we studied last week with the UML class diagrams we are now practicing. It reinforced that principles and diagrams go hand in hand, shaping how professional software is designed and maintained.

From the blog Rick’s Software Journal by RickDjouwe1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.