Course Wrapup

Key ideas and red flags: see slides

This class is just a beginning

• Goal for this class: start the process
• To keep learning, need experience and feedback:
  • Try something hard enough to push you outside your comfort zone
  • Make mistakes
  • Get feedback (ideally, from an expert)
  • Rework to improve
• How to get feedback?
  • Code reviews (ideally, with experts)
• Reviewing other people's code also helps
  • Learn to recognize red flags
• Learn to provide feedback for yourself
• Be curious

What to do you when you get into a company?

• Many companies don't care about software design
• As a fresh-college grad, it may not be possible for you to change the organization.
• When interviewing for jobs, look for a company that cares about software design:
  • Ask to see code.
  • Ask tough and specific questions:
    • Is any time budgeted for code cleanup and refactoring?
    • Does management care about code quality? Give an example
    • Does management set reasonable project schedules?
• Do as much as you can in your own code:
  • Write documentation, even if people say it's silly ("it helps me organize my thoughts")
  • Take a little extra time to design carefully
  • Take time to clean up as you make changes
• Keep developing your own design skills
• Look for opportunities to influence the organization
  • Start code reviews with other engineers, if there aren't any already
  • Offer to help train new hires
• As you get more senior, use your influence to change the organization:
  • Code reviews: discuss design, not just style standards
  • Unit tests
  • Documentation
  • Coding standards