Dev Journey Introduction
Boot Camp Weeks 1 & 2
JavaScript Foundations
Backend Block
Frontend Block
Final Project Phase
Howdy, 👋 thanks for sticking with me. Ten weeks into bootcamp, begins project phase. Three weeks of working closely with another three people. As the announcement of our selected groups loomed, the tension in the air was palpable.
Last few weeks in a paragraph (or two)...
The summer holidays have traditionally been a time for the family. 👨👩👧👧 When I was a teacher/tutor, my working schedule was deliberately very light during the summer hols 🌻 which allowed me to spend loads of time playing with the kids for at least 6 weeks a year. 🤸 This summer was slightly different though, thanks to my hefty work schedule. The girls even went and stayed in a caravan in Wales without me, 🏕️ although I did manage to join them for the last two days. 😎 Throughout this course, people without kids have said they can't imagine what the workload is like for those of us who do have them. It is true, that boot camp 🥾 has been a challenge and it is also true that there are many other family related jobs to do as well, but my family certainly didn't make the experience more difficult, quite the opposite! It is thanks to the amazing girls in my life 🌟🌟🌟 and their support that I completed the course and graduated for the first time in my life and I will always be incredibly grateful to them. 💖💞💜
What 3 weeks of project phase taught me...
I really am lucky. I can't quite explain the tension that most of us were feeling as our project phase groups were being decided. Although I had a very positive experience working with people in boot camp, there was the odd story of someone who didn't. The pressure ramps up towards the end of the course and everyone was keen to have a harmonious team. In Tiffany, Steffen and Marius, I couldn't have asked for a better team! Firstly they were three people I already knew pretty well and got on with, but also we had a nice set of complimentary skills. Like I said, lucky.
Project management is my bag. Throughout project phase, I was very careful to make sure my time was very evenly spent. I really enjoyed understanding all of the elements that made the project work and felt I was most effective on a macro level, analysing potential problems and coming up with solutions. I seem to have a good understanding of the user journey and all the possible hurdles that can arise.
Svelte is really intuitive. We really enjoyed using Svelte; the docs are really good and it is pretty straightforward. It does have to be said that thanks to its relatively new status, the community support when you do hit a problem is a little lacking, but problems are few and far between. Svelte is streamlined and rapid thanks to the way it compiles, it is very readable and has a really simple way of dealing with state. We found that it did pretty much everything React does, but in a simpler way. Group Svelte tattoos were discussed, but only briefly. 😉
Small differences can mean big delays. We generally had a great experience using MongoDB. The support is ace, the dashboard simple to use and the models are much more straightforward as there are no lengthy SQL requests. Overall, our first experience of using a non-relational database was remarkably positive. Our biggest issue was when transferring our boilerplate for setting up a relational DB over to this new project. Most of the boilerplate worked, but there were a couple of subtle differences, which cost us about 4 hours in time!
TDD rules. Throughout the project, it is fair to say that the whole team was in a state of controlled panic. We got the project MVP completed, but most of our journey was pretty tense and challenging. The only point at which we felt relaxed as a group was during unit testing the backend endpoints. The security of thorough testing gave me probably the most enjoyable day of the project and of course the backend never let us down.
Paired programming really works. I had for some time by this point been convinced that paired programming was a good practice, largely due to the up-skilling and bug prevention that it provides. I was still dubious about how quick two developers pairing could be and wasn't sure if they would be more productive individually. I can definitely say, that in these circumstances, productivity was through the roof and in my opinion, we were way more productive than we would have been individually. Perhaps there are other circumstances where this wouldn't be true, but during spiking and early project phase, I can say for certain that it is.
Coming up in part seven...
The job hunt... I have a plan, but will it work? How many of us will make the graduation night out?
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