The following is a guest blog post by Brian Coffelt.

Train to Reign

I’m surprised often by the slow adoption rate of quality development workflows. Time probably plays a big part. One thing I have experienced though, is that in order to get the full value of tools, especially software, you really need to spend the time learning how to use them properly.  

Since I changed my career to become a Drupal developer, I haven’t had a day of regret, nor a day when I did not realize that the key to success is learning more: More about the software, more about techniques, and more about the tools that make Drupal development better. It all feeds into what I learned early on in DrupalEasy’s Career training program, and that I still feel are the best parts of this amazing Drupal-based vocation: to create quality work and become part of the Community.

So when I had the chance to take DrupalEasy’s Mastering Pantheon Workflows course, I jumped at it.  I have been relying on (and loving!) Pantheon’s website management platform since my early career training, and am a huge fan of the great workflow and development tools it offers.  The Workflows class, which is several afternoons a week for six weeks, was time truly well spent. It taught me to really leverage Pantheon’s advantages, and has made me a better developer.

Top 5 Takeaways

The quality of the curriculum and instruction of this course are second to none.  I mean it. DrupalEasy’s insight on what is important provides tremendous value to the time spent in the class and honing your skills. As any professional web developer knows, a great development workflow is worth its weight in gold. This class helped me learn a Docker-based local development workflow that has been directly applied to my everyday routine as well as that of my team.  In addition, learning how Composer manages dependencies was an eye opener for me. It allows my projects to be very lean, efficient, and modular. There are plenty more topics I can point to, but the top 5 area’s we covered that make my day-to-day better and easier are:

1. Composer integration and dependency management
2. Drupal 8 configuration management (exporting & importing)
3. Docksal/Lando local environment structure & setup
4. Higher level Terminus commands
5. Development workflows between Pantheon environments and local

The instruction, either direct or via additional screencasts, was always thorough, well planned, and thoughtful. The instructor, Mike Anello (@ultimike), always allows time for questions and troubleshooting. Integrating a class Slack channel was valuable for questions and troubleshooting between classes as well as resource sharing (links, documents, etc.). I still keep in contact with my classmates as often as I can via Slack, email or Drupal events.

Worth the time

It may seem like a few afternoons a week for six weeks will chew up your schedule, but in fact, the opposite is the case. The skills acquired from this class can immediately boost your production, proficiency, and overall value, all of which are well worth the financial and time commitment.

I am definitely a better Drupal developer after having taken the Workflows course. The knowledge, experience, and overall comfort level I achieved has given me valuable skills that I use and share with others every day. The class always stresses the pursuit of best practices to minimize development time and maximize results. I recommend this course to Drupal developers looking to streamline their Pantheon development workflow. It’s certainly well worth the investment.

DrupalEasy’s next Mastering Professional Drupal Development Workflows with Pantheon course starts in February.  Contact DrupalEasy for more information.