The Apprenticeship Pattern Expand Your Bandwidth is something that should be learned at the beginning of your career, even in schooling. This pattern is about learning the ability to learn a large amount of information about more than one subject at the same time. You must be able to retain the vast income of knowledge, you won’t have to do it for very long, but it can be overwhelming. Overcoming the overwhelming feeling and successfully learning much more information than you’re used to is the crux of this Apprenticeship Pattern. There comes a time when your focus must spread from your everyday work and onto new information.

This pattern coincides with that of Draw Your Own Map quite a bit. These two patterns are all about taking your future into your own hands. Expanding your bandwidth is a skill you have to learn to help your path become clear. If you want your map to expand then your knowledge too must expand. Sometimes when you need to take in a vast amount of information at one time it can be stressful and confusing. However, once you have retained this new information it unlocks new opportunities and new paths to be taken.

In my personal school experience I feel this skill was necessary at times, even at the very beginning of my pursuit of a Computer Science degree. I remember the knowledge jump between Intro to Programming and Data Structures was enormous, but not only larger, it moved faster too. My fellow students and I had to learn new information constantly all while applying our already new knowledge. It was that way for about the first third of the semester. We had such vast amounts of information coming in, but after that first third of the semester we had already learned most of what we would be doing. There was still more information to come of course, but it was more or less experimenting in more detail with things we had already done. We expanded our bandwidth at the beginning so that the rest of the semester we were prepared for a variety of projects. It was as if the flower had bloomed for us finally and our paths were much more open.

From the blog cs@worcester – Zac's Blog by zloureiro and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern “Sweep the Floor” talks about how as a new member of a development team you should take the jobs that people dislike and work on the things that are an annoyance. This strategy is something that will help a person to become a valued and respected member of the team that they have recently joined since they did something others felt was a pain. The pattern suggests that you take the leap that others are unwilling to because it will build your reputation among your colleagues. The pattern also talks about how when you start a job after college, that you are effectively starting from square one and the education you received only raises what people will expect of you. This pattern also talks about some negative impacts that may happen, which are that you might become the team’s gopher and be stuck doing the menial tasks that others do not wish to.
This pattern reminds me of my sports teams in high school because the younger and newer players would be stuck carrying the equipment, like basketballs/soccer balls, because they were still learning and were going to be the next generation of the team. I felt that this hierarchy was necessary and built character in many of my teammates and myself. I can see myself wanting to impress and help my future development team in the future, so I will apply this in my future job. I felt that it’s important that the pattern mentioned the possible downsides of this pattern which is being stuck as a floor sweeper. I respect people with more experience than me, but after some time has passed I will not allow myself to be stuck as a floor sweeper and I am not afraid to voice my thoughts and opinions on these matters. Trust is an important part of teamwork, so this is something that can easily help me and others to build that trust with their new team. This pattern didn’t change my thoughts on what I expected in the software development field because having the new workers do things that are a hassle or really low level things is common practice in every job in every field.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern is about how when starting an apprenticeship you need to use enthusiasm to help the team since it is the only thing you have over the more established and experienced members of the team. It starts out saying how most people starting out have a problem when they start out in their career, they try to hide their enthusiasm.  They do this because they are worried about looking foolish or sticking out from the group. Although it says that there are risks to unleashing their enthusiasm. Such as if the team isn’t welcome coming to new comers the team might mock you behind your back. It also says that if the team values competence more than learning it might not be a good thing to unleash your enthusiasm. It says that if the team seems like a good fit for it they should unleash their enthusiasm because their enthusiasm is one of their biggest strengths. It says that it is one of their biggest strengths because unleashing your  enthusiasm allows out of the box thinking and new ideas that more experienced people wouldn’t think of. Lastly, it says that unleashing your enthusiasm is the most important thing you can bring to the team.

I think that the pattern is very good advice. It tells you what unique skills you can bring that jaded decrepit old hands can’t. I also found it interesting how the pattern says that even though you don’t have experience in a certain way that can be a good thing.In addition I found it useful how it gives you examples of why this is helpful and also when not to do it.I found it thought provoking how it says that your inexperience can be a benefit.This apprenticeship pattern has given me confidence that even though I don’t have much professional experience I can still be a benefit to a team.There wasn’t really anything I disagreed with in this pattern. Overall I agree with it completely and think it something everyone should read when they start out in a new apprenticeship.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tim's WebSite by therbsty and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

My work over the semester has required me to explain what I have learned to my teammates. My explanatory skills are not great, but I have been able to make do with the help of live examples. Chances are likely that I will need to do this continuously throughout the future. Since this is an important skill, I will need to practice my instructive capabilities. Luckily, the pattern “Share What You Learn” from Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman, by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye, addresses this problem.

“Up until now, you have focused exclusively on your own improvement as a craftsman. To become a journeyman you will need the ability to communicate effectively and bring other people up to speed quickly.”

“Share What You Learn” discusses the reasons for passing your knowledge to others. Ethically, it is wrong to only receive knowledge from the community and never give any in return. Being able to capably communicate your knowledge will make you a better developer. Teaching knowledge requires a deeper understanding of the knowledge than just using it. Also, other apprentices may appreciate an explanation from someone with the same level of abilities.

The pattern warns to be sure that the knowledge being shared, can be shared. It is common for companies to keep trade secrets, including software development information, so be careful.

There are a few ways listed for practicing “Share What You Learn.” One way is to write blogs about projects you are working on. The act of writing down your methods will make it easier to remember the details later. Another is to try writing a tutorial for a topic, presented in a way that you wished the topic had been presented to you. Lastly, imagine preparing for a workshop at a conference and how you would prepare for presenting your work.

I must agree with this pattern’s assertions, I believe being able to pass along knowledge quickly and clearly is an essential skill for software developers. As I have experienced this semester, I am not skilled with this pattern and I feel it has impacted our work to some degree. As such, I will need to practice “Share What You Learn” to be a better teammate and developer.

From the blog CS@Worcester – D’s Comp Sci Blog by dlivengood and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The Apprenticeship pattern I would like to focus on this week is “The Long Road.” The pattern explains that becoming a master of software development is a lifelong endeavor. This conflicts with our cultural obsession with quick results and rapid progression. Developers who wish to become masters need to understand this and learn to focus on long-term goals to help them build their skills over time. Mastering new skills can take many years, but preparing ourselves to dedicate our time towards learning such skills can open up many new possibilities. The pattern emphasizes that The Long Road towards mastery is not for everyone and that there are plenty of other paths to take. However, choosing to aim towards mastery with this path enables us to better understand the fundamentals of the craft, helping us maintain our abilities in a field that is constantly changing.

I chose to discuss this pattern because it has been referenced by several of the other patterns I have posted about. After reading through it, I definitely understand why The Long Road is so important to these other patterns. The book is targeted at those who wish to master software craftsmanship, which requires a lifelong dedication to development and programming. As such, the other patterns might not be as effective for a reader who lacks this dedication or has different goals. Reading this pattern has made me more aware of the necessity of lifelong dedication on the road to software mastery. It has also made me question if I have this dedication myself and if this path is really the right one for me.

I’ve never really had an ultimate goal in mind while studying software development. I know I enjoy programming and want to learn more about it, but I don’t know how I want to apply myself professionally. The Long Road sounds quite appealing in some aspects. It would allow me to focus on programming instead of taking higher-paying jobs which don’t interest me. It would also allow me to use the skills of others to set goals for myself instead getting discouraged by them as I often do now. However, the time and dedication required for The Long Road are frightening to me. Because of my recent struggles regarding my passion for programming, I am unsure if I would have the motivation to continue learning new software development skills for the rest of my life. I think, for the time being, I should focus on nurturing my passion for programming. This will, hopefully, help me decide if I should pursue a different path or if I am ready to walk The Long Road.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Computer Science with Kyle Q by kylequad and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The white belt is discussing the situation where you are feeling yourself come into full fruition with your first language. However, once you reach this area it is common to feel that your progress and knowledge is starting to plateau. It often becomes harder to learn a new language per-se when it is easiest to fall back into the one you are so comfortable in. What wearing the white belt means, is being able to fully put aside any of your other knowledge and be able to accept that you are new to this and must re-learn in a new way. By approaching a new situation with a stance of “not knowing” as the pattern says, you will be able to have a broader grasp on the subject. This will also allow for you to be able to progress in the new skill much quicker due to the fact that you are not letting previous, possibly contradicting knowledge of another skill have any affect on your current learning. This is often the easiest way to not feel like you are plateau, but instead staring up another steep cliff of learning. That is how you can ensure that you never stop learning. In this pattern it is worth mentioning that a skilled industry veteran ended up “wearing the white belt” after reading a book that caused him to change how he wrote code entirely. The codebase he writes now he has claimed to be “better tested, more loosely coupled and more adaptable system”.

I find this pattern one of my favorite due to the amount of times I have had to wear the white belt. I began writing code in Java since I was 14-15 and had been my predominant language up until learning C some 5 years later. I originally struggled with C because I had been trying to relate it too much to Java. After viewing it as a completely different world, unrelated to Java I began to have swift development in C. From there I then had to do the same when teaching myself Angular. Angular was different from anything I had done before but again once I started to view it as such, my progress was much quicker. I even had ended up deleting a large portion of work with Angular that had taken me about 3 days to learn how to do. However, since I deep dove into learning everything about Angular, I was able to recreate it within 2 hours the next day.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Journey Through Technology by krothermich and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.