Hi All
I've been working as a web developer using Coldfusion for 3 years now, and am currently working for a small company developing applications for SMEs - everything ranging from e-commerce to eCRM and web-based accounts systems. Overall I really enjoy my job, but because it's a new and very small company (only 3 full time staff), there's no structure in place for career or knowledge development.
Although I love coding, the aspect of the job I find most interesting and satisfying is the application analysis and design, and I have recently found myself seeking out more information about OOAD concepts in order (hopefully) to apply these concepts to the applications we are working on. My boss is a brilliant salesman and ideas guy, but when it comes to putting together a specification, I'm lucky if I get a few notes on the back of a cigarette packet if you know what I mean! This has been a constant frustration for me - and of course our customers. I want to develop skills that will enable us to work smarter, develop better, more elegant and reusable code, but not only that, I want to develop skills that will help me to advance my career in the future. I would like to learn an OO language and my first thought is that Java would be a good choice, as web applications are my area of interest. Eventually I'd like to take on Project Management responsibilities (I do already by default, but I'm working on my own (sometimes questionable!) common sense rather than any structured approach).
So my question is - has anyone got any pointers they could offer me or advice of any kind? What would be a good starting point for me? Would Java be a good choice, and if so what methods would you recommend for learning? Would UML be applicable to Coldfusion applications, and would it be beneficial/sensible/feasible for me to learn UML on its own, or would I need to learn this hand in hand with Java (or another OO language)? Do my questions even make sense?!
Any thoughts would be really welcome - at the moment I'm wondering where to start. Thank you for listening!
I've been working as a web developer using Coldfusion for 3 years now, and am currently working for a small company developing applications for SMEs - everything ranging from e-commerce to eCRM and web-based accounts systems. Overall I really enjoy my job, but because it's a new and very small company (only 3 full time staff), there's no structure in place for career or knowledge development.
Although I love coding, the aspect of the job I find most interesting and satisfying is the application analysis and design, and I have recently found myself seeking out more information about OOAD concepts in order (hopefully) to apply these concepts to the applications we are working on. My boss is a brilliant salesman and ideas guy, but when it comes to putting together a specification, I'm lucky if I get a few notes on the back of a cigarette packet if you know what I mean! This has been a constant frustration for me - and of course our customers. I want to develop skills that will enable us to work smarter, develop better, more elegant and reusable code, but not only that, I want to develop skills that will help me to advance my career in the future. I would like to learn an OO language and my first thought is that Java would be a good choice, as web applications are my area of interest. Eventually I'd like to take on Project Management responsibilities (I do already by default, but I'm working on my own (sometimes questionable!) common sense rather than any structured approach).
So my question is - has anyone got any pointers they could offer me or advice of any kind? What would be a good starting point for me? Would Java be a good choice, and if so what methods would you recommend for learning? Would UML be applicable to Coldfusion applications, and would it be beneficial/sensible/feasible for me to learn UML on its own, or would I need to learn this hand in hand with Java (or another OO language)? Do my questions even make sense?!
Any thoughts would be really welcome - at the moment I'm wondering where to start. Thank you for listening!