Teaching Programming to Non-Developers

Eric asks: "I'm teaching a web application development class at a local public university. The students are seniors in the business program; the course is intended to expose them to development practice (we're using PHP and MySQL) but is not intended to turn them into developers. So what would the Slashdot community recommend within the curriculum? How would you teach web development to the managers of the future, and why?"

Comments

be sure speak in their language

[sfjoe]

You have to use words like "incentivize" and every sentence must contain the phrase, "at the end of the day".

Re:be sure speak in their language

[mikael]

You're not thinking outside of the box and taking a holistic approach. You also have to consider the end-user experience in a thin-client multi-tiered environment and make sure it is 24/7. Otherwise you are not utilizing the Web applications infrastructure to its full potential.

I'd also teach the staff to optimize, the quality, performance and availability of pre-deployed applications across the entire project lifestyle, with important milestones including testing, tuning deployment and management of baseline targets . Functional, load, performance and scalability testing for business-critical deployment stages are critical in order to assess end-user experience with online transactions and service-level agreements.

With Enterprise-class cross-product applications the only way to keep going forward and get the maximum leverage while adding value and still maintaing competency in is to consult with all involved departments. Then you can run each idea up the flagpole, creating synergies and pushing the envelope of systemisation and business continuity at the same time. Finally you can take a heads-up view of the direction that the project is going and increase productivity (n)-Fold.

Re:Don't teach them programming.

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot:

• Hiring Developers
  
  • Beard vs No Beard
    
  • Prattles on about patents vs Talks about girlfriend
    
  • That smell: What it is and what it means
    

Make them suffer

[Anonymous Coward]

Now is your chance. Make those 'managers-of-the-future' suffer for all the pain they will cause us. Force them to stay awake for 72 hours finding obscure bugs in code older than themselves. Get a megaphone and yell at them non-stop about upcoming deadlines. Have them chew raw coffee beans before giving them a stack of yesterdays pizza's for dinner.

No, I don't work at EA. Why do you ask?

*twitches*

Re:Don't teach them *programming* at ALL.

[crazyphilman]

I smell a commercial game, there... That's something people would pay good money to play.

But to do it right, you'd have to set it up like the Sims:

* Different development groups would drop by for a visit, and the two groups of programmers might get along well, or suddenly attack each other (complete with spherical cloud of smoke).

* Different managers would come by to try and poach your best people (like the Sims thief). Instead of a burgular alarm, maybe you'd get a vicious, paranoid office manager complete with a bun in her hair and two inch blood-red nails on her fingers.

* You'd have to monitor your programmer's mood and general well being. If you didn't keep them happy, they would either drop dead at their desk (Karoshi) or they would sneak off and join competing firms.

* Like Sims trying to cook, periodically consultants will set the mainframe on fire, then jump from foot to foot with their hands in the air instead of doing anything about it. If you purchased a Source Control System, it would act like the Sims fire alarm -- and a sysadmin would activate the halon system (putting out the fire and killing the consultant, thus solving the problem and preventing future ones).

* Finally, hackers would periodically sneak in and try to charm one of your workers (or the sadistic office manager). Your IDS would go berserk and a security guard would come running in and nab the hacker. Or, if you didn't buy one, the hacker would steal your development server, knock up all your workers, and reduce your revenues by 50%.

Sounds fun!

Re:Don't teach them *programming* at ALL.

[Associate]

We could also add team member selections like in fighting games where you select the strike team. A resume and general description could be used as specs. You possibly could use more, but that would violate some EEOC rules. Plus, it adds a bit of chaos to a otherwise predictable system. Bob has 5 years experience in Win2k3 Server and a meth habit. Jenny knows all the latest languages and must pick up her kids from day care by 4PM every afternoon. She also cannot work weekends. Eugene will work for $5k less than everyone else and 55+ hours a week, but he smells bad.