M01-08 · AI-Assisted Software Development

Professional Practice in Software Development

Teaches the professional practices that define an effective team-based software developer across all employment contexts. Covers agile ceremonies and sprint participation, code review culture (giving and receiving), technical writing for engineering audiences, participating in and leading architecture discussions, mentoring junior developers, navigating interpersonal dynamics on engineering teams, and career development. Builds on CORE-08's freelance operations with domain-specific professional identity and career strategy.

40 Hours

9 Learning objectives

Create Bloom's ceiling (?)

5 Competencies

What You'll Be Able To Do

Learning Objectives

Objectives

Depth

Participate effectively in agile ceremonies: sprint planning (estimation, capacity planning), backlog grooming (ticket refinement, acceptance criteria), standups (DONE/DOING/BLOCKED format), and retrospectives (constructive improvement proposals) Apply
Build and maintain a code review culture: set review expectations, provide actionable feedback (distinguish style from correctness), establish review turnaround norms Apply
Write technical documentation for engineering audiences: architecture decision records, technical design docs, API documentation, and runbooks Create
Participate in architecture discussions by presenting alternatives with explicit tradeoffs, asking clarifying questions, and building on others' proposals Apply
Mentor junior developers through pair programming, structured code review, and onboarding support Apply
Navigate common engineering team dynamics: disagreements with senior engineers (present alternatives privately), blocked by another team (communicate dependency, escalate appropriately), admitting "I don't know" (faster than silent struggle) Apply
Develop a professional identity in software engineering: evaluate career paths (IC vs. management, specialization vs. generalist), build visibility through internal contributions, and articulate career goals Analyze
Adapt professional practices across employment contexts: translate code review skills into freelance self-review, sprint discipline into solo project management, and architecture discussion skills into founder-developer communication Apply
Present technical work to mixed audiences: translate complexity for non-technical stakeholders without oversimplifying for technical ones Apply

Levels: Remember · Understand · Apply · Analyze · Evaluate · Create — highest demands most original thinking.

Core Competencies

What You'll Master

Agile Practice

Sprint ceremonies, estimation, backlog management, retrospectives, continuous improvement.

Code Review Culture

Giving actionable feedback, receiving feedback gracefully, establishing team norms, review as a learning mechanism.

Technical Communication

Architecture decision records, design docs, API docs, runbooks, technical presentations.

Engineering Team Dynamics

Navigating disagreements, cross-team dependencies, escalation judgment, knowing when to ask for help.

Career Development

Professional identity, career path evaluation, visibility building, skill gap identification, continuous learning strategies.

Portfolio Artifact

What You'll Build

Engineering Professional Practice Portfolio — Student produces: 2 architecture decision records for real tradeoffs, 1 technical design document, evidence of code review culture-building (a proposed review standards document, 2 reviews demonstrating calibrated feedback across different seniority levels, and a review turnaround norms proposal), a sprint retrospective facilitation plan, a mentoring session plan for a junior developer on a specific topic, and a career development roadmap with 6-month and 18-month milestones.

Tools You'll Use

Industry Tools, Not Toy Projects

GitHub

Pull requests, code review workflows, documentation hosting, and collaborative development.

Linear / Jira

Sprint management, backlog grooming, ticket tracking, and agile ceremony support.

Notion / Confluence

Technical writing platform for architecture decision records, design docs, and team documentation.

Miro

Collaborative whiteboarding for architecture discussions, retrospectives, and design sessions.

Slack

Team communication for engineering discussions, incident response, and cross-team coordination.

Loom

Async video for technical presentations, code walkthroughs, and knowledge sharing.

Claude

AI assistant for documentation drafting, code review preparation, and technical writing assistance.