“The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers” is the first book I am reading by the author Robert C. Martin. Going through the pre-requisite introduction portion of the book Martin noticeably states that this particular book is full of catalog of his errors from his 42 years of experience in software engineering field and a set of guidelines to avoid them. I am expecting a lot of takeaways form this book for my Capstone course and professional career as well.

Chapter 1: “Professionalism” discussions about the taking responsibilities and the various ways to be able to accomplish the responsibilities in regard of the true essence of professionalism. First part of chapter surrounds with the things every software professional should be familiar with such as Test Driven Development approach, QA process, code flexibility and so on. Of course these principles are important during the software development process. When the writer starts to talks about gaining credibility and trust through continuous learning, practice, collaboration, and customer service; things get excited. I agree with the writer how learning process is necessary for self-empowerment. Being up-to-date with the new disciplines and techniques is a must in Computer Science field. Similarly, practice help individual to refine and enhance our skills. Personal drive and team-building skills are valuable and necessary for developers striving for the top of the profession, but more is required. Though most developers bring a project to the table, pushing it through requires a strong ethic of customer service. Customer is critical because it establishes a path that helps make sure that the features you are developing are really going the address your customer’s need.

Chapter 2: “Saying No” focuses upon team work. Martin gives a clear vision of how to be a successful team player. He states a team player is not someone who says yes all the time. Sometimes the only way to get to the right yes is to be unafraid and say no. I completely agree with the thought that, “What we all have to realize is that saying yes to dropping our professional disciplines is not the way to solve problems.” It rapidly becomes impossible to control all aspects of all the projects within a large area of responsibility. It is critical to develop teams that can bring the necessary talents to bear without requiring your direct intervention.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Dev Capstone by osworup007 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

During this week we were put into groups and asked to join the courses Slack team and to make a channel for out group. We also learned about Scrum and how we should be working on our upcoming project in the Scrum fashion. Using the Scrum way of working together I think will help us to stay motivated and organized. I then researched OpenMRS and AMPATH, we will be working on projects within AMPATH. While working on this project we will be using Angular 2, so I did some research about Angular and looked up some helpful tutorials that I can use later to help start the learning process for this language. The Scrum way of working together I think will be a valuable skill that I can take away from this course and apply to my professional career.

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

In these chapters the difference between a professional and nonprofessional are looked at. Professionals take responsibility for their work and pay the price if a mistake is made. We all want to be professionals, but not all of us want to pay the price. Standing behind your code is another topic, be prepared to apologize, if you sent out your code and there was a bug, don’t hesitate to apologize and take responsibility. Also always be learning new things, outside of what your employer has you working on, this will help your career in the long run.

Another topic discussed was about when you should say not and not be afraid to say no. Many people feel the need to say yes to their superiors or colleagues to avoid an awkward conversation. To be the most professional you should be honest and upfront about your work and how long it might take for it to be completed. It is better to end up in an argument with your boss about a late finish date than to lie to them and say it will be done earlier knowing you cannot reach that date.

These chapters were very helpful to me in terms of how to react and how to work well in a professional work environment. One of the biggest that stood out to me is the right time to say “no” to your boss or co-workers. If you believe something is not achievable then you should have no hesitation to say no that wont be able to be accomplished.

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