Developer Mentoring

As your career as a software developer evolves, you will hopefully advance your technical skills and knowledge.

This article is a follow-up to my previous article, "The Factory Pattern in Perspective". These articles are aimed at the programmer who is more comfortable with a simple procedural approach to coding and is trying to understand the benefit of object oriented programming and applying design patterns. I try to clarify the mechanics behind design patterns and explain why you would want to use them in your work.

Developers may encounter some initial difficulty understanding the benefit and significance of object oriented software design patterns. When I was interviewing architects and senior developers, I would always ask "are you familiar with design patterns, and if so, how would you describe the value in applying them to your work?". For the most part, I got no answer, or a textbook answer without much behind it. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising.