Side-projects

How side-projects help me practice the software development craft

Before writing this content, I was reading about software composition, and I had this insight.

I was reading the Elements of JavaScript Style chapter of Eric Elliott’s Composing Software book, and then I thought, how lucky I am to keep open-source projects, such as the protractor-helper, or my website, to name a few.

Such projects allow me to put into practice new knowledge acquired day-after-day, during study hours, to be ready when similar problems arise in work projects.

When the protractor-helper started, all the code was in a single file. Nowadays, the project is better modularized, tested, as well as much better documented. 😀

My website is an example of my experiments with Next.js. There’s a lot to improve, but that’s where the fun lives, after all, it’s my project, which I have total freedom for refactoring.

Besides, in several other side-projects, I have the chance to apply modern DevOps practices, such as continuous integration, automated tests, and even the so-called continuous delivery.

I believe that “practice makes perfect,” and nothing better than practicing on your projects to obtain such proficiency smoothly.

Also, it is grateful that several other professionals and even organizations use some of these projects; this is priceless!

And you, how do you practice your craft? Leave a comment.

Curiosity: this blog was originally written in Portuguese, and you can find it here.

👋😉✌️