Our students have 4-6 main projects that they create both individually and as a group during their time in WDI. One thing I preach to my students is process over product. Here are a few take-a-ways from a project week sprint that I feel are more valuable than having the most awesome project. Did the student…

• Learn and follow Git + GitHub best practices?
• Write well commented and readable code?
• Create User Stories?
• Use a tool like Trello for project management?

One of the biggest issues that students run into is with project management. Students will sometimes work on making their app look good before finishing the functionality. So in a 5 day sprint, frequently a student may spend 3 or 4 days on polishing an app that doesn’t even work.

Front-end is fun for most folks, especially newer devs. You get immediate visual feedback which is more satisfying for new developers. Databases and server-side programming can feel a little ‘black-boxy’ and more obtuse than rendering HTML/CSS/JS in the browser.

Plus, when the back-end gets a little confusing or intimidating, it’s sometimes good to switch gears and work on something more visual and