Should I learn DevOps/Software Testing to add to my Rails knowledge?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I am 8 years experienced Rails backend developer, I am looking to enhancing my skills, I have 3 options - DevOps, Software Testing and Frontend. I really never got HTML/CSS so I don’t think Frontend is good option for me.

Can somebody please suggest me what should I go with - DevOps or Software Testing which will help me in adding over my 8 years of experience ?

Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

2

Hard to answer that, I’d say. You already have 8 years of experience, I would say to just pick what you find more interesting, since both topics I think are very important.

Me, personally, if faced with the choice, would probably pick testing and then move to devops

3

Yup thanks for the advice.

There is no specific role in Rails for that. I think Backend Rails developer fits the most with that profile. What do you think ?

4

Both Skills are important to have, If you keep in mind that writing production code without tests, it’s not a very good long-term practice, testing is a must have skill.

Testing on its own a full fledge area with many Concept, techniques And tools. I would suggest that you check out TDD or BDD alongside the other basic knowledge on the area. Being somewhat proficient in testing will help you in transitioning or adding other programming languages to your toolbox.

And then get me wrong, Devops Very useful and very entertaining, and I think you should eventually dive into that too.

5

While new to Rails, I have been doing software development for a living for quite a while and been into CI/CD (aka DevOps) since around 2008. You cannot do CI/CD without test automation. In that light, I would recommend to do test automation before CI/CD.

And, as @pabloscolpino mentioned, TDD and BDD are topics of their own, i.e. on top of test automation. They can also have a profoundly positive impact on how you architect your code. For more on this (and a lot of other great content), I can recommend the YouTube channel of Dave Farley, who is one of the inventors of Continuous Delivery. Please have a look at https://www.youtube.com/@ContinuousDelivery

Coming from the backend side myself, I often regret to not know more about the UI side :pensive:

It would be great, if you let us know what you decide for. Unless someone else basically does that for you :wink:

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