- Software Methodologies
- Slides
- Laptops
- Internet access
- Post-its
- Pens
- Whiteboard
Two-three mentors required in addition to leads. These should be able to cover support for the required languages.
Several exercises (katas and code starters) will need to be ported to required languages.
None
For the 2018/19 cohort, the schedule of bootcamps has been designed so that each bootcamp builds on the last - teaching skills and concepts relating to the next stage in the development lifecycle.
We would like each apprentice to complete an individual project in their workplace, with each stage of the project being tackled after the relevant bootcamp has taught them the skills they need to carry out the activites of that stage (e.g. UX Design & Analysis, System & Database Design, Database/API Creation, etc.)
This approach is designed to allow all the apprentices the chance to complete an end-to-end project that moves through each stage of the SDLC/covers all the Technical Competencies. The benefit of these projects are two-fold:
- to practice and cement skills learnt at bootcamps
- to include this in portfolio as evidence
The project has been introduced to the apprentices in this latest bootcamp - and they have been given the task of coming up with a set of requirements for their own project and performing a splitting and slicing exercise to define a list of priorities (splitting and slicing techniques were covered on Day 2 of the Methodologies Bootcamp).
There are a few requirements they must work to in defining their projects:
- Must include front-end and server-side aspects
- Must have a database
- Must have some form of UI
- Should be a reasonable scope (it should be able to be completed primarily as a learning exercise alongside other studies in 20% off-the-job time, so should not be anything overly complex/ambitious.)
The project can either be a business project or a completely personal project. The benefits of it being a business project are that it allows for stakeholders and possible team interaction - which helps cover the underpinning behaviours and the more business-y competencies, for their portfolio.
However, if a business project is selected - it should be something non-critical that can be spread over the term of 6-7 months- allowing the apprentice to cover each stage of the project in the weeks following each bootcamp. Examples of suitable projects are, updating the company intranet site, or developing an meeting-room booking system (examples are real projects apprentices have worked on for their companies).
If there is no suitable project available - then a personal project may be used instead. Ideally this would be something that might realistically be used in the workplace or as part of the appretniceship programme (e.g. a learning dashboard/resource sharing system).
As a manager and/or mentor, please could you aid your apprentice in selecting a suitable project.
The slides can be found in the docs folder of the repository.
- The stages of the Software Development Life-Cycle
- Kahoot quiz on SDLC
- Software Development Methodologies
- PaperLandia Agile/Waterfall exercise
- Iterative Incremental Development
- User Story Mapping (Wake-up exercise)
- The Agile Scrum Framework
- Tuckman's model of Team Dynamics
- Team Communication exercise
- Personalities and Perceptions
- Insights Discovery personality exercise
This bootcamp has been designed around the syllabus of the Software Methodologies Exam and has introduced apprentices to many of the core concepts they will need to pass this exam. Further study will be required to ensure that the apprentices are able to achieve a pass grade, but this bootcamp will have laid solid foundations on which to build.
The exam syllabus focuses on the stages of the SDLC, Roles & Responsibilities within SD teams and how these operate at the various stages of SDLC, and effective team-working practices.
With the learning from this bootcamp, appretnices should be able to better identify opportunities to demonstrate their ability to operate effectively as part of a team. They should be able to recognise how the work they are doing relies on and impacts other roles.
A slicing and splitting activity has also been undertaken as part of this bootcamp, to demonstrate how to identify and prioritise tasks. This learning should be applied in defining the scope fo the individual projects detailed in the 'Follow-on Task' section above.
The slides are stored as Markdown files in docs/_posts and are presented using a combination of Jekyll and reveal.js. A remote Jekyll theme is used to help make changes to the Jekyll code centrally.
The easiest way to preview your changes locally is to use docker to run Jekyll. To do this, install docker if you haven’t already and run docker-compose up from the root of this project in a terminal. Your changes will be visible on http://localhost:4000/. Any changes you make to the slides will be reflected in your browser—there’s no need to restart docker. You can hit ctrl-c to stop the process.
Once you push your changes the slides will be published using GitHub Pages automatically (see the link at the top of the repository).