The following is the introduction to my plan for TLT Studio to hop on board of the ship of Ruby on Rails. I feel this can be useful for other development teams so I’m sharing it here.

Studio,

By now you’ve all heard Brad talking about Ruby on Rails on the studio’s roadmap. I’m putting together a plan to realize that vision.

Here in the studio, everyone has a different skill set, and that’s a wonderful thing that allows us to take on a big variety of projects. This initiative is an attempt to add one valuable skill to everyone’s tool belt so we can have a common tool to participate in a project, deeply, together.

Besides the benefit for the studio, I want to share why Ruby on Rails (RoR) is a good thing to learn for any PHP/Perl/Python developers, graphic designers, project managers, or technologists in general.

• (everyone) It’s hot in the job market. This skill is very much sought after in the field. I’ve actually heard this more than once: “Getting tired of others getting hired? Learn Ruby on Rails.”

• (everyone) The community behind RoR is very strong. That means the answers to most questions are just a search away.

• (developer) RoR is a tried-and-true framework that works well in today’s field. Learning this framework encourages one to write neatly and efficiently.

• (developer) All popular web languages have some frameworks but RoR is so strong that this one framework dominate Ruby world. That means, all resources and energy are consolidated into this one big repository, as opposed to one of many frameworks that one has to choose from.

• (designer) Designers who can work with developers in an RoR environment is highly sought after, too. This is because RoR framework is designed in a way that the look is separated from the logic so a designer who can directly put the design into the framework makes the team much more agile.

• (designer) Nowadays the frontend is more and more dynamic. A simple static mockup can no longer showcase a good dynamic design. Using an RoR, a designer can easily simulate how a frontend changes when the backend data changes.

• (project manager) The RoR framework neatly maps out how a team of different skills should work together: who needs to do what before who does what. Having a understanding of how the puzzle is put together is almost essential to successful project management.

• (technologist) Did I say it’s hot? Besides that, the emergence of new modules (“gems”) allows one to stay informed about the latest and hottest technologies. Also, guess what? It’s not hard to actually use them in your own project.

If you are still not convinced that learning RoR is a good investment for your professional growth, I suggest you give it a try anyway, since it is quite accessible, and see for yourself in a week or two.

We will start our study group to first get everyone install an RoR sandbox in which your can play around.