A journey into the land of “real projects”, clients and MVPs
Here at Craft Academy we’re building a social media platform for outdoor enthusiasts. It’s a Ruby on Rails backend and an AngularJS/Ionic front-end. We’re building it from scratch with specifications from our clients and using Agile and Test-Driven Development approaches (as much as possible on the mobile side).
The venture is our first foray into a concept we call Craft Academy Labs: an extension of our twelve-week intensive bootcamp whereby alumni can get their hands dirty working on “real projects” with “real clients” — with reputation and money on the line. In this first iteration, the only people working on the project are Craft Academy staff. But I’m the real test subject here — the only person on staff who is also a Craft Academy alumnus.
My role in this project is obviously informed by the fact that I also work for the bootcamp, but I am thoroughly enjoying the chance to flex my skills as a developer and see my work headed towards the ultimate goal: a Minimum Viable Product that will be released to customers.
The Craft Academy Labs Concept
Bootcamps the world over push their students to the limit: cramming their brains full of code, frameworks and here at Craft Academy, Agile and TDD practices. Our students work in teams, have code reviews daily, pair program, and practice responding to clients and product owners (their incredibly demanding coaches).
When the bootcamp ends, many students keep pushing hard to build up their skills as they look for work. Others find it difficult to lose the structure of the camp. And others are just exhausted! The theory behind Craft Academy Labs is to round up these students and give them a structure to keep learning, while building up their CVs and exposing them to the demands of non-technical stakeholders (“real” clients).
At Craft Academy Labs, we allow alumni to take their new skills and apply them to projects that will actually appear on the market — not just as portfolio pieces on their Github accounts. It’s a great way for alumni to go from student projects to crafting applications with real-world affects — all under the careful guidance of the coaches they’ve come to love (ok, fear).
Our Current Project
We’re halfway through the third design sprint of our first CA Labs project. We use two-week sprints to focus our work, create a feeling of momentum, and allow regular check-ins with the client to make sure we are meeting requirements.
The first sprint was all about setting up the Rails back-end. We set up our administrative interface, fashioned our database Models and exposed a number of API endpoints. In the second sprint, we shifted most of our focus and put together a number of features on the mobile client, which we are building with a framework called Ionic (built on AngularJS). In this third sprint, we are expanding features in both the back and front ends, adding additional API endpoints as necessary and tweaking our current APIs to meet client specifications.
As an alumna
Personally, I’ve been coding a lot and leveling up since the bootcamp ended, but this is my first project working on a team again and certainly the first with stakeholders whose emails do not end in craftacademy.se. It’s interesting and a little bit scary to have my work judged by non-technical parties.
One curious outcome is that all of us here at Craft Academy are so busy we can’t possibly be down each others’ throats to get features done. When there is time, we work on a feature and ask our colleagues to help out when necessary. Everyone is assumed to be doing what they can, when they can. During the bootcamp, we were constantly pressured to work, work, work and get things done. Literally every day Thomas, the head coach, would ask us to “make a push” — that is, work harder. Not so on this “real” project. If we start falling behind, it is the whole team’s fault. If we over-deliver, we can celebrate together.
I have a bit of a special situation with Craft Academy, but on the whole, I think the CA Labs concept is a great one. It’s a relatively low-pressure way to start working on projects that matter (that is, aren’t student or portfolio projects). When I hit a wall, the more experienced coaches can come in to help me. And I’m not pressured to work so fast that I can’t do things right and learn as I go. If I’m the one who is proving the concept, then I think things are going well.
We’re not allowed to talk specifics about the app yet, but hopefully soon it will be in the mobile stores!
