S.T.A.P: Strategic Transition Apprentice Program for Smalltalk for Whole Companies

Introduction

Even for an experienced programmer, starting from scratch to learn Object-Oriented programming with Smalltalk can be a difficult task. There are many subjects to master in order to be successful. These include: Object-Oriented concepts, Smalltalk syntax, navigating the development environment, learning the class libraries, industry accepted best practices, developing good analysis and design skills, Model/View separation, object persistence, etc. What is the best way for programmer to learn all of these subjects quickly and easily?

As many of us have learned during our careers, the best way to pick up new skills is to work in a hands-on environment with a supervisor or mentor that has already obtained the expertise and can communicate these skills to others. That is the basis for the KSC STAP program.

Knowledge Systems Corporation has over 15-years of expertise in objects and Smalltalk. A service driven company, KSC employees and consultants possess over 100 years of combined experience in OO and Smalltalk. Additionally, they are passionate about the power of Smalltalk and enthusiastic about sharing their insight and knowledge with you! Strategic Transition  Apprentice Program (STAP) KSC 's STAP for Smalltalk is an intensive multi-week immersion program that gives newcomers to Smalltalk a full design and development experience while providing them access to KSC's vast Smalltalk expertise. STAP apprentices spend several weeks designing and implementing their own Smalltalk project. Apprentices receive hours of Just-In-Time Training  (JITT) each week on the topics that are relevant to the current stage and issues of the project.

This is your  project, not some 'canned' classroom application.  This is critical to your staff's development.  By forcing them to confront the design and implementation decisions in the context of your very real problem, they gain the knowledge, skills, confidence, and experience to complete the work on their own. Apprentices experience the full systems life cycle while learning the methodology needed to cope with the complexity of today's systems .  This includes not only the notation, but also the elements most commonly missing from books, language courses, and OOA&D courses, yet most critical to success: the heuristics and process. We start at the beginning by analyzing your business model with your users, scope out a component, then design a high-level solution involving your users.  Then we refine the design and build a prototype it in 5 weeks.  

At the end of the STAP, you will have not only a deep understanding of Smalltalk design and implementation, but real work completed on your project. The Smalltalk Apprentice Program  is ideally suited to organizations who are just starting out in Smalltalk and object technology, and is also an excellent way to kick-start a project. Target Audience

• Companies or organizations who wish to make the transition to Objects in the quickest, most effective manner
• Groups who are about to develop a medium to large scale application, and do not wish to risk the unknowns of OO
• Software developers (programmers, designers, and analysts) new to Smalltalk who will be building Smalltalk applications.
• Software developers (programmers, designers, and analysts) who want the ultimate educational experience in order to become mentors to their own organizations

• At the end of the STAP, apprentices will have a working prototype of their system, as well as the skills and knowledge to complete the project on their own.
• Apprentices get experience equivalent to working on their own for one year.  
• The payback time for a STAP is inside of one year.

• A background in information systems, computer science, or similar discipline, or two years programming experience
• Familiarity with Object-Oriented concepts (see our Introduction to Object Technology through Analysis and Design course )
• A week-long Smalltalk introductory course  from Knowledge Systems Corporatio
• It is strongly recommended that apprentices attend one of the advanced courses for Smalltalk , in order to allow the STAP itself to focus on project-specific issues.  

Duration 10 weeks total elapsed time, with 6 weeks of actual time together with KSC

To maximize the cost-benefit ratio, the STAP leader only spends 6 weeks of the total time together with the apprentices  (as shown in the schedule above).  In this way, you are not paying for KSC  to monitor some of the repetitive and clerical work that inevitably accompanies a development project.  Meanwhile, the STAP leader is actually doing additional work on your project while apart from your apprentices.

Note also that you get the benefits of KSC 's pre-built frameworks as part of the STAP:  you get the code and education on how to use them effectively.  Examples are

• The Interface-Control-Model (ICM) framework for separating User Interaction business logic from screen-management logic
• The FileReader, for translating input data streams into real objects instead of dead data records
• The KSC  Validation framework, for managing data and input validation and editing
• Column Maps, for database interaction
• And others