Training a Development Team on Ruby on Rails

I'm looking for suggestions or people's experiences with
training
their development teams on RoR.  I have a great team of 5
primarily
Java/C++ programmers at my startup that have messed around a
little
with RoR, but need solid training before we start our next
enterprise
project using Rails.  I'm considering the following
options:

1.	We bring in a person/company to do onsite training for a
week.
2.	We find a local training class.
3.	Self Study (books and online documentation).
4.	Small Applications.  We come up with some small non
mission
critical apps to build that we could use at our office.  For
example,
our .com home page or a time tracking application.
5.	One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on Rails and maybe
even goes
to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest of us.  The
'ol train
the trainer.

Any advice is way appreciated.  Thanks!

Keith


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keith <keithriderway.com> wrote:
> 1.	We bring in a person/company to do onsite training
for a week.
> 2.	We find a local training class.
> 3.	Self Study (books and online documentation).
> 4.	Small Applications.  We come up with some small non
mission
> critical apps to build that we could use at our office.
 For example,
> our .com home page or a time tracking application.
> 5.	One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on Rails and
maybe even goes
> to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest of us.
 The 'ol train
> the trainer.
> 
> Any advice is way appreciated.  Thanks!

	I like #4 or #5... but I learn by doing. Maybe get one of
your more
competent senior developers to do #3 and #4 in conjunction
for awhile and
then start bringing individuals in on #5 as the small
applications get
bigger?

	- Tyler

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On Mar 30, 2007, at 4:59 PM, Tyler MacDonald wrote:
> keith <keithriderway.com> wrote:
>> I'm looking for suggestions or people's experiences
with training
>> their development teams on RoR.  I have a great
team of 5 primarily
>> Java/C++ programmers at my startup that have messed
around a little
>> with RoR, but need solid training before we start
our next enterprise
>> project using Rails.  I'm considering the following
options:
>>
>> 1.	We bring in a person/company to do onsite
training for a week.
>> 2.	We find a local training class.
>> 3.	Self Study (books and online documentation).
>> 4.	Small Applications.  We come up with some small
non mission
>> critical apps to build that we could use at our
office.  For example,
>> our .com home page or a time tracking application.
>> 5.	One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on Rails
and maybe even  
>> goes
>> to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest of
us.  The 'ol  
>> train
>> the trainer.
>>
>> Any advice is way appreciated.  Thanks!
>
> 	I like #4 or #5... but I learn by doing. Maybe get one
of your more
> competent senior developers to do #3 and #4 in
conjunction for  
> awhile and
> then start bringing individuals in on #5 as the small
applications get
> bigger?
>
> 	- Tyler

I'd suggest you do 3, 4, and 5 all at the same time. 
There's  
probably someone on the team that is
*  a "read the docs and try it once" person (#3,
maybe #5)
*  a "just point me in the right direction" person
(#4)
*  a person who fits the blank in: "well, just ask ___,
s/he will  
know" (#5)

#1 and #2 won't be too effective to start -- you need to
know how  
much you don't know!

And make sure you focus on the Ruby part of RoR.  You'll
save a lot  
of time if you avoid the pitfalls of thinking in some
non-Ruby  
language while you're doing Rails.

(Presumably the team already has a handle on (X)HTML, CSS, 

JavaScript, etc. 

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingl
lc.com
RobAgileConsultingLLC.com



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I am a (hands-on-coder) manager of a dev team of 6 & we
just converted
to rails from struts/spring/hibernate (Java).  I had my team
take a
week off of active development and complete the agile
development with
rails book (2nd ed).  Then we started working on a project
together
where every day, twice a day, someone would take 15 minutes
to give a
demo or explain something new they learned about ruby or
rails to the
group.  It worked.  3 months later we are 100% ruby/rails
and fairly
efficient at things.

keith wrote:
> I'm looking for suggestions or people's experiences
with training
> their development teams on RoR.  I have a great team of
5 primarily
> Java/C++ programmers at my startup that have messed
around a little
> with RoR, but need solid training before we start our
next enterprise
> project using Rails.  I'm considering the following
options:
>
> 1.	We bring in a person/company to do onsite training
for a week.
> 2.	We find a local training class.
> 3.	Self Study (books and online documentation).
> 4.	Small Applications.  We come up with some small non
mission
> critical apps to build that we could use at our office.
 For example,
> our .com home page or a time tracking application.
> 5.	One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on Rails and
maybe even goes
> to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest of us.
 The 'ol train
> the trainer.
>
> Any advice is way appreciated.  Thanks!
>
> Keith


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I'd say number 4.

Coming from java and c++ backgrounds it's important to learn
what NOT
to do. The easiest way to do that is to make your screw ups
in an
unimportant project and get rid of your bad habits.


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On Mar 30, 3:54 pm, "keith" <k...riderway.com> wrote:
> I'm looking for suggestions or people's experiences
with training
> their development teams on RoR.  I have a great team of
5 primarily
> Java/C++ programmers at my startup that have messed
around a little
> with RoR, but need solid training before we start our
next enterprise
> project using Rails.  I'm considering the following
options:
>
> 1.      We bring in a person/company to do onsite
training for a week.
> 2.      We find a local training class.
> 3.      Self Study (books and online documentation).
> 4.      Small Applications.  We come up with some small
non mission
> critical apps to build that we could use at our office.
 For example,
> our .com home page or a time tracking application.
> 5.      One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on Rails
and maybe even goes
> to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest of us.
 The 'ol train
> the trainer.
>
> Any advice is way appreciated.  Thanks!
>
> Keith

Working through the Agile 2nd Ed. book is probably as good a
place to
start as any.  The hard part is getting out of the Java
mindset and
into the Ruby mindset.  Otherwise some of the Rails stuff
seems really
strange, and can potentially become a real obstacle for
people.

That's why we've found that one of the most important
elements of
getting up to speed with Rails is getting a solid
introduction to Ruby
as well.  We've done training for C#/C++ developers, a kind
of Ruby
101/Rails 101, and most of the concepts translate easily for
Java
people as well.  If you're in the Chicago area, send me an
email if
you're interested.  (We don't rely on training income, so
we're
cheap 

Jeff
softiesonrails.com
cohen.jeffgmail.com


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I really like the Pragmatic Agile Rails book, and it seems
like
everyone here does too.  I went through building the sample
app and I
thought it was very easy to follow.  I think this is the
book I would
have my team study.

Everyone who has posted to this has consistently selected
option 3,
self study.  Very interesting.  I think most people agree
that 1 week
is an acceptable amount of time to let people study the
book.

I was talking it over some more with my Architect Derrek
Long.  Derrek
and I are thinking about going with option 3 and 4.  Then
maybe
attending a more advanced Rails class later on.  I kinda
figure that
any intro Rails class will focus on the stuff covered in the
Prag
Agile Rails book, so the intro class won't be terribly
useful.

On Mar 30, 8:23 pm, "Jeff" <cohen.j...gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 30, 3:54 pm, "keith" <k...riderway.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I'm looking for suggestions or people's
experiences with training
> > their development teams on RoR.  I have a great
team of 5 primarily
> > Java/C++ programmers at my startup that have
messed around a little
> > with RoR, but need solid training before we start
our next enterprise
> > project using Rails.  I'm considering the
following options:
>
> > 1.      We bring in a person/company to do onsite
training for a week.
> > 2.      We find a local training class.
> > 3.      Self Study (books and online
documentation).
> > 4.      Small Applications.  We come up with some
small non mission
> > critical apps to build that we could use at our
office.  For example,
> > our .com home page or a time tracking
application.
> > 5.      One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on
Rails and maybe even goes
> > to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest
of us.  The 'ol train
> > the trainer.
>
> > Any advice is way appreciated.  Thanks!
>
> > Keith
>
> Working through the Agile 2nd Ed. book is probably as
good a place to
> start as any.  The hard part is getting out of the Java
mindset and
> into the Ruby mindset.  Otherwise some of the Rails
stuff seems really
> strange, and can potentially become a real obstacle for
people.
>
> That's why we've found that one of the most important
elements of
> getting up to speed with Rails is getting a solid
introduction to Ruby
> as well.  We've done training for C#/C++ developers, a
kind of Ruby
> 101/Rails 101, and most of the concepts translate
easily for Java
> people as well.  If you're in the Chicago area, send me
an email if
> you're interested.  (We don't rely on training income,
so we're
> cheap 
>
> Jeff
> softiesonrails.com
> cohen.j...gmail.com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -


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> 1.      We bring in a person/company to do onsite
training for a week.
> 2.      We find a local training class.
> 3.      Self Study (books and online documentation).
> 4.      Small Applications.  We come up with some small
non mission
> critical apps to build that we could use at our office.
 For example,
> our .com home page or a time tracking application.
> 5.      One of us studies the heck out of Ruby on Rails
and maybe even 
> goes
> to a class, then comes back and teaches the rest of us.
 The 'ol train
> the trainer.

Promiscuous pair programming. There is just no substitute.

At work we set up 3 monitors, 3 keyboards, and 2 computers
across one 
super-cheap folding table. Not an elaborate desk and _not_
one of those 
brainless cubicle corner desks where only one person can
sit.

Then we have "owned" chairs which we have each
customized.

We pair program by alternating on the keyboards, without
swapping them back 
and forth. And we use the third computer to run the test
trigger system, and 
so each pair can Google independently.

-- 
  Phlip
  http://f
lea.sourceforge.net/PiglegToo_1.html


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On Mar 30, 9:59 pm, "Phlip" <phlip2...gmail.com> wrote:
> Promiscuous pair programming. There is just no
substitute.

This is how our team got up to speed on Rails and I have to
agree that
it's the best way. Pair up a more experienced RoR developer
with
someone new to it and have them solve problems. It combines
the learn-
by-doing, train-the-trainer, self-study, small application
development
methods, and it is fast.

We did run into some problems when good developers, new to
Rails but
quite proficient in it, were paired up with brand new Rails
developers, as it is hard to explain some of the agile/rails
concepts
when they are pretty new to you. Yeah, I was one of those
people who
found it difficult to explain

However - learning to explain the reasons behind the big
concepts of
agile development and rails results in one having a firmer
grasp of
them for oneself, so I suppose it all works out well in the
end.

I also recommend the Agile Web Dev book from PragProg.
However, the
Depot example is pretty basic, and once your developers have
done it I
think it would be worth it to check out some of the
screencasts from
PeepCode (http://www.peepcode.com),
especially the ones on Test Driven
Development and RESTful Rails.

All the best,
Jacqui


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jacqui wrote:

>> Promiscuous pair programming. There is just no
substitute.
>
> This is how our team got up to speed on Rails and I
have to agree that
> it's the best way. Pair up a more experienced RoR
developer with
> someone new to it and have them solve problems. It
combines the learn-
> by-doing, train-the-trainer, self-study, small
application development
> methods, and it is fast.

Our boss has run out of Rails resumes in our area, so this
is why I advised 
them to get PhP and Tomcat resumes...



-- 
  Phlip
  http://f
lea.sourceforge.net/PiglegToo_1.html


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