Jun 1, 2020career

The Mentoring Framework

Last October I created a Mentoring Framework at work. The goal was creating a project from scratch using Ruby on Rails and in this journey, learning more about Ruby, Frontend, Project Management and Git, Databases and DevOps.

This Mentoring Framework is similar to what bootcamps do but the difference here is I am sharing a list of suggested features / things to learn and the person can focus in what is important for them.

In a nutshell: Goals → Project → Execution → Knowledge (and profit)

The document is divided into 4 main sections: Before start, Project ideas, Execution, Examples and Resources.

Before start

What are your main goals? For the following list, pick: "basic understanding", "intermediate understanding", "advanced understanding". This will help to identify where you are going to invest more time and energy.

Learn Ruby / Ruby on Rails
Learn Frontend
Learn Project Management and Git
Learn Databases
Learn DevOps

Project ideas

Once you know your main goals, you need a project. Check the following two ideas:

Book store

Imagine you want to sell books online. What kind of features does a bookstore have?

List books per title
List books per authors
List books per categories
Search books
Buy books
List your orders

Pet adoption website

Imagine you want to create a website for an organisation that takes care of animals (in British Columbia we have SPCA). What kind of features does a pet adoption website have?

List pets per type (dog, cat and others)
List pets per size (or breed, or age)
List pets per location
Search pet per name
Request an adoption
List your adoption requests

Execution

Once you know your main goals and you have an idea, it is time to work. Check the list of tasks you will be doing:

Learn Ruby on Rails

Use scaffolds to create your entities (basic understanding) or create your own controllers, models and views (intermediate)
Add authentication with Devise (basic understanding) or create your own (intermediate). Or use Devise with Oauth authentication (Facebook, Google, etc - intermediate)
Add friendly URLs with a gem (basic) or create your own solution (intermediate)
Add search (intermediate)
Add tests for all your code
Create seeds for your data so you don't need to create manually data
Send email to users (intermediate)
Create different user roles (intermediate)
Add pagination (basic)
Add localization (intermediate)
Add a tag system (intermediate)
Add images (intermediate)

Learn Frontend

Use Tailwind CSS (basic) or your own CSS/SASS (intermediate) to create a beautiful layout
Use Turbolinks (advanced / optional)
Add basic animations - ex.: when adding a book in the cart show some animation (advanced/optional)
Add Google Maps in your app (intermediate)
Add Google Places in your users
Add a carousel with photos
Add Pagination with Ajax or endless pagination (advanced)

Learn Project Management and Git

Use Github Project to organize your features
Use feature branches in Git, create PR for all your features

Learn Databases

Write plain SQL to find relevant information. A few examples:
- Find best-sellers authors in the book store
- Find the number of orders or pet requests per city
- Find which day has more sales
Add charts in your app to expose the data