The main focus of this apprenticeship pattern called concrete skills is to have a fundamental base. A person can’t just rely on having the ability to learn something, but they need to show that they already have some skills that they have learned and improved on over the years. Also, these skills directly relate to software constructing such as being familiar with a certain programming language and implementing different features that can be useful for a company. While it is important and recommended to have many soft skill qualities, you can’t solely rely on this to land a job relating to software. You need to be able to showcase technical skills and so this pattern talks about taking actions to improve skills that are needed for the certain job criteria. It recommends to look at cover letters of individuals who are currently doing the job you hope to seek and copy down discrete skills listed on it that you can use to improve yourself.

I think this pattern has a really great concept that software apprentices can use to improve their knowledge for programming and other aspects of engineering. We can’t just have the mindset that we can learn new things when the time is right and just try to learn it then. We need to do some more research on our own and try our best to not be relying on others to carry us to learn fundamentals. People in work and a team don’t want a team member who they constantly have to monitor and essentially babysit for them to complete their work. We need to learn the essentials for the required job and practice to implement those skills on our own to show a boss or team members that we are capable of doing the work. This will prove that you are in fact able to learn and down the line will be capable of learning a new software or process that is often the case with the technological advancement of the world at a rapid pace. Overall, I think once we follow this pattern in a practical sense and change our mindset, we will see vast changes in our skills as well as the way we look at learning.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Roller Coaster Coding Journey by fbaig34 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For this week’s blog post, I read the section  “Unleash Your Enthusiasm” from chapter two of the book Apprenticeship Patterns by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. The section talked about how software developers especially the newcomers find themselves self-holding back the enthusiasm you have towards the work than your colleagues. Mainly due to the fear of making a poor impression on your coworkers. As I was reading the pattern, I feel like it has a personal connection to me because I see myself in the same situation of holding back on certain circumstances, Mainly I do not want to make a bad impression. The author states that ” Most teams are not hyper passionate or overly enthusiastic about technology. Predictably, they are focused on delivering the next project or improving on the aspects of the development life cycle that are causing them pain”  I completely agree with this statement, I see many people nowadays in the field of technology are not passionate about the work they do daily.

However, I think it is important especially for a team member to be Optimistic, enthusiastic, and eager to learn.  For us, this is the perfect time in your career when it makes the most sense to take risks and speak your mind. Ultimately, we have very little to lose. Also, I believe that ideas and passion will add diversity and energy to a team. One of the risks the author talked how “unleashing your enthusiasm on an established team. If morale is low or if the team is not welcoming of newcomers, you will likely get some eye-rolling behind your back.” I agree with this but on a team that is open to excitement and contributions, you will provide some unique qualities that stand you out. Ultimately, unleashing enthusiasm or some excitement into your team is great because as a newcomer you will have a fresh perspective, which should allow you to offer some useful suggestions for improvement. Overall, this pattern was very interesting, and moving forward I should not be holding back, instead, I should show my enthusiasm qualities towards something and should speak up for what I think is right.

From the blog Derin's CS Journey by and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

When looking into opportunities for employment, a vast majority of posted openings or advertisements for positions include a list of requirements or preferred traits in prospective applicants. More often than not, this will include a minimum required degree in a related field (ie: BA in Computer Science) and a certain amount of experience in a certain language or languages, ability to work with specific frameworks and tools, and oftentimes a certain level of “work experience” in a related position.

While this often makes it relatively clear the sort of attributes employers are searching for when hiring, there is still the case of needing to stand-out, and prove your potential worth to a company. The pattern discussed in chapter 2 of Apprenticeship Patterns (https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/Apprenticeship+Patterns/9780596806842/ch02s04.html), “Concrete Skills” discusses the idea of building up a central “concrete” set of skills which can be demonstrated to possible employers or managers as a way to showcase your skills and ability to contribute. This ties into the pattern “breakable toys” which I discussed previously, where the benefits of building practice projects solely for your own benefit and experience is showcased.

So by having a set of core skills, (comprehensive knowledge of a favored programming language, knowledge of common frameworks and adjacent technologies, web development and front-end development skills) you are able to better standout to employers, and can use these skills in making examples or “breakable toys” to showcase the extent of your abilities and what you can bring to a team.

I would say that the “concrete skills” pattern discusses a simple concept, but one which has value especially when looking to start a career or move on to a new position. Being able to visibly demonstrate proficiency to a prospective employer can showcase an ability to learn new things and improve self-sufficiently. As you would need to have somewhere to get practice or experience working with these concrete skills beforehand, using breakable toys in conjunction with the concrete skills pattern can work as a synergy, the breakable toys serving as examples to demonstrate the concrete skills to others.

Text Referenced:

Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman

https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/Apprenticeship+Patterns/9780596806842/ch02s04.html

From the blog CS@Worcester – CodeRoad by toomeymatt1515 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

            This week I read the section “Craft over Art” which is found in chapter three of the book Apprenticeship Patterns by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. The section focuses on a software developer’s struggle in balancing their own personal want of making something with artistic merit and a client’s need of a product fulfills their requirements. The developer might add components that may be impressive but could also be pointless to or be an outright hindrance to the client’s wants. The developer may also want to polish up a project to a mirror sheen that deadlines would simply not allow for. And additionally, a software developer is a craftsman and not an artist. That doesn’t necessarily mean that a developer can’t produce something with beauty; a craftsman creates beauty by fulfilling a request to their utmost abilities. It just means that the client’s wants should be balanced with the software developer’s personal standards.

            The whole “Craft over Art” concept I agree with and in fact, I’ve thought of the concept on some level before through a practical point of view. Like why would I add features to software that wouldn’t benefit the user in some way? I’d just be wasting time I could use to polish up the existing components of the software. For example, If I were to work on a program that kept track of the transactions of a business and I added an option to play chess, that’d seem kind of pointless. If I really wanted to make a chess program, then I’d set that aside as a side project that I could do for fun. That doesn’t conflict with the “Craft over Art” concept since there have been plenty of craftsman who’ve worked on personal side projects in between their main commissioned projects. Even when just talking about software, I’ve heard of a fair number of programmers who’ve made little side projects like a game for example on their off time. And when working on main projects, I at the very least try to fulfill the minimum requirements so I can go back and polish it up as much as I feel the need to. But even then, there are time where the circumstances don’t allow for much polish so I just have to suck it up.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Rainiery's Blog by rainiery and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For the next apprenticeship pattern that I would like to discuss, my choice was to do the one in the text book entitled “The Deep End.” This pattern was similar to a previous pattern that I have discussed in that it relates to a time when a beginner in programming is preparing to enter the real world of job opportunities. In the other pattern, I learned ways in which I should try to show that I am qualified for a new job if I do not have much prior experience, if at all. A lot of times, employers are looking for candidates who show that they have the skills necessary for the position based on many things (primarily prior experience or certification), but sometimes what is needed is more than that. Sometimes what is needed is the willingness to try more than anything else. For this pattern, the book discussed how to motivate me to dive off the deep end and get the job I want not just the one I think I can handle. If my enthusiasm and my will to excel and learn at the job remains strong, I should not have to concern myself as heavily with how well equipped I am for the job in the first place. I purposely decided to review this pattern because of what is going on in my life right now. I have been setting up job interviews and phone calls recently to try to get jobs after I graduate. In most interviews I have had, my background has been an issue even if the employer does not seem to think so. I am thinking too much about whether I will be able to even do the job if I get it rather than trying to get it as best as I can and then seeing what I can accomplish from there. The book explains that the solution to this problem is to reach for that opportunity even if there is the possibility that it could lead to failure. It states that “waiting until you’re ready can become a recipe for never doing a thing. So when you’re offered a high-profile role or a difficult problem, grasp it with both hands. Growth only happens by taking on the scary jobs and doing things that stretch you.” My solution would be to do just that. I am going to try to get involved in the opportunities that I have been hesitant about pursuing. The risk of failure is often overemphasized and crippling to anyone who tries to find their opportunities especially in the beginning of their journeys. I need to stop weighing the risks so heavily and quite literally “dive into the deep end.”

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tim Drevitch CS Blog by timdrevitch and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

            I was looking for some materials to supplement the work we are doing in Software Quality Assurance and Testing (CS-443) and I came across a nice article from ReQtest entitled What is Boundary Value Analysis and Equivalence Partitioning? I found this to be a good supplement to our in-class activity on boundary value testing, summarizing some of the key ideas. It helped me nail down the concepts and is a nice, short resource for me.

            The article begins describing boundary value analysis. It highlights it is focused on, well, the boundary values, as, “for the most part, errors are observed in the extreme ends of the input values.” This directly relates to the topics covered in class, but is limited as it is mostly focused on single inputs, rather than testing for multiple inputs like we did in class. The article then provides a couple example for an input domain of 1 to 100. The exact boundary values would be 1 and 100, just below boundary values would be 0 and 99, and just above boundary values would be 2 and 101. This seems similar to robust boundary value testing. However, the article doesn’t consider multiple inputs, so there is no noting of nominal inputs or the single fault assumption, or worst-case boundary value testing. Nonetheless, I find it is a concise way of summarizing normal boundary value testing.

            The article then goes on to describe equivalence partitioning, which is the division of, “test input data into a range of values and selecting one input value from each range.” This goes more towards describing the domain of input values and somewhat alludes to physical and arbitrary boundaries. These are not described within the article, but are worthy of noting. The example given is again in the 1 to 100 acceptable range. The article states that one valid input class is anywhere within the 1 to 100 range, another is any value below 1, and the last is any value above 100.

            Together, these two topics do well to sum up the different ranges of inputs for boundary value testing, with equivalence partitioning touching on a little bit of worst-case boundary value testing. Overall, I thought this was a worthwhile article and was helpful. I can see myself returning to it when I actually am writing tests. Boundary value testing is quite useful in many cases, so it’s a topic I’m happy and interesting in learning more about and practicing.  

From the blog CS@Worcester – Marcos Felipe's CS Blog by mfelipe98 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

            The pattern called “Create Feedback Loops” in the Apprenticeship Patterns book focuses on finding ways to identify areas of knowledge which are lacking and how to overcome them. One point which I found summed up the learning pattern quite well was, “An apprentice probably shouldn’t work on not making mistakes early as much as they should be working out how to identify the mistakes you make.” In the context of feedback loops, this means that rather than skimming over the areas of understanding which are lacking, find someone to support the necessary learning and identify/correct mistakes, as this can provide a solid platform for learning. As for the areas which a “white belt,” such as myself, feels comfortable in, there should be people to feel comfortable with going to for review or correction. Essentially, you don’t know what you don’t know, which can be a huge hinderance to progress.

            I find this to be a particularly tricky learning pattern. Not that it’s hard to understand, but finding the proper resources and mentoring is not easy, especially during the current semester full of social distancing and online isolation. I think I’m very open to being corrected or shown a newer and better way to do the things I’m already good at, but finding someone to help me in the first place can be a struggle. I totally agree with the premise, but building a feedback loop is no easy task.

            I think incorporating this at a college level is definitely the best place to start, and I’m happy to be continuing my education at grad school as it gives me more time and opportunities to receive feedback in a lower pressure setting. Sure, my grades depend on my performance, but I don’t have a team/company relying on my work, and I don’t rely on the quality of that work for my well-being and forward progression as a professional. Also, having peers to work with and derive feedback loops from is better for starting as we are equals, rather than getting feedback from higher-level developers or something.

            I think one way I could implement this into my current learning is in the capstone. Perhaps there would be some time to do pair programming. I think this could be super helpful as it’s similar to working through an example problem, but I also have the support of a peer who could share knowledge and provide insight on how my train of thought is flowing, whether positive or negative. I’m happy to incorporate this pattern into my learning.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Marcos Felipe's CS Blog by mfelipe98 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For the past few weeks, we have been working a lot with Docker and how to use it. Coincidentally, I came across an article describing some best practices when using Docker. Some of the things in the article were even things we used in class.

Many things were given to keep in mind. There is size. Images should not waste space, especially as it could be a security concern. Using Alpine Linux is a great way to save space though it may not always be appropriate. It is also important to keep your Dockerfile current. Using the latest tag is one way but the author also says to check regularly to make sure you really are building from the latest version. The author also mentions a new tool called docker scan to find known vulnerabilities in your Docker images. There is a lot of emphasis on Docker containers being simple and easy to create and take down. The system should be designed to do so without adversely affecting your app as that is the whole point of Docker. At the end of the article there are additional links to more articles about Docker by the same author.

I selected this article because it is relevant to the current course material. We have been using Docker in all our classes for the last few weeks. As I was reading the article I recognized where the author says use “Use Alpine Builds” because we do use those in class. The article even explains to use “FROM alpine”, something we start our Dockerfiles with in class.

Because the tips in the article were kept very general, I was able to understand most of it. For more technical articles I often get confused or lost, especially since I have no experience working in the software development industry. Reading this article made me realize how far I have come since I started the CS major. Going in I had no programming experience and little to no aptitude when it came to computers. Seeing the things we learn in class actually be relevant in the real world is a very validating thing. It proves to me that I am actually learning, something that is only more difficult with remote learning.  

I hope to be able to use this article going through the course and on the final project. These tips should help me get the most out of Docker.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Half-Cooked Coding by alexmle1999 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.