Clean Coders Apprenticeship - Lessons Learned.

November 28, 2021

Throughout my apprenticeship, I’ve been tasked with planning a software project and practicing code katas to design and implement systems with new programming languages and paradigms.

A lot of lessons learned went into a Tic Tac Toe Project as it went into multiple iterations for various features like:

• Multiple UI’s. (CLI, client app, server-rendered app).
• “AIs” (Easy and Hard) MiniMax.
• Local play mode.
• Player vs. Player (networked and peer-to-peer)
• HTTP Authoritative Server
• Persistence with different databases.
• Leaderboards

The biggest takeaway from the project was how vital clean architecture is for the project’s velocity and flexibility to change as requirements do. When coding the CLI UI, I learned the hard way and did repetitive work to add the web UI. However, the difference was night and day once I cleaned up my architecture, and changing or adding input/outputs like the database was effortless. Thank you, polymorphism. <3

We learned about estimating, giving a range of numbers to communicate risk, and how to manage that risk by planing around worst-case scenarios.

As a clean coder apprentice I’ve learned.

• A new programing paradigm: functional programing. Clojure Koems Coin Changer
• A new programing language: clojure and java. Jar and Clojure
• New Disciplines like Test Driven Development TDDBehaviour Driven Development BDD, Katas, Pair Programing, and more.
• The importance of good code architecture. Clean Architecture Polymorphism
• How to design system that enable productivity in development.
• How to leverage design patterns to enable clean and flexible code. Visitor PatternFactory Pattern Strategy Pattern
• How to plan and communicate estimates clearly with stakeholders/project managers and handling expectations. Preemptive Postmortems
• What it means to be a professional developer and why disciplines matter.

Written by Edgardo Carreras.