6 Lessons Learned from a Software Developer Mentor

When I asked the question, “what are the most valuable lessons you learned from the Proven Development Program?”, these were the top six that the developers, who have been through the program, agreed upon.

Organization of code

Organization of code is paramount in any project. It is important to be able to find what you are looking for with minimal effort.

Separation of concern

Separation of concern is important to keep your code from having too many dependencies. It makes code readability, maintenance and especially new feature development much easier, eliminating bugs and unintended behavior.

Encapsulation

Encapsulation makes sure a class contains what it needs to perform its task. Think of it as a class acting as a black box, with known inputs and outputs.

MVC – and software design patterns

Software design patterns are proven implementations and agreed upon standards for dealing with common coding practices.

Readable, maintainable code

Eighty percent of development is maintaining and feature additions. It is very important to write small pieces of code so that other developers can quickly assess what is going on and focus on feature enhancement or bug fixes.

Characteristics of good developers

Applying the practices above goes a long way in making one a good developer. But there is much more to it, such as flexibility, working with QA, working on a project team, being able to express yourself effectively, and respecting others.

As a mentor for the Proven Development Program, I value the feedback I receive from my team. These lessons have been emphasized throughout their training and it’s truly rewarding to see them take away the concepts, value them, and exercise them on a daily basis.