Building PHP Competencies in an organization [closed]

Question

This is not really a technical programming question, but has more to do with best practices and programming / project management processes. Here's some background information:

I'm a consultant with an agile (scrum) software development company that specializes in the Java, J2EE, Flex technology stack.

Here it is generally perceived by many that the quality of PHP related people, projects etc. isn't up to the mark as compared to Java. While I often contest that claim, I do accept that there is an overall low barrier to entry into PHP which does occasionally attract lower quality people who then produce lower quality work.

For us, quality comes first. Over the course of the next few quarters we also are looking to develop a very high level of competency in PHP. And we want to achieve the highest level of quality and our processes should be such that we are constantly improving all the time while starting off as a high level.

Our new recruits are going through a rigorous selection process where there is a very hands on technical assignment. We evaluate how they code, we evaluate how they test their code, we evaluate their skills with industry standard frameworks (Zend, CakePHP, CodeIgniter/Kohana, Symphony).

We have a bi-monthly (twice a month) knowledge exchange event where individuals are encourages to present. We have hands on events as well.

I would request you to share your experience on how we as individuals and an a flat, agile, relatively small organization can instill good PHP development practices and constantly improve ourselves.

Thanks, Sri

Answer 1

I personally believe good development practices go beyond language. Your requirements for PHP projects should be the same as those for Java. For example, the code should be clear and commented, formatted well and tested, just like for any other language.