Course Roadmap

• Status: Planned
• Date: 2026-04-17
• Scope Type: Documentation and training system

Objective

Turn the repository into a high-quality newcomer training course without losing the existing docs-first engineering workflow.

The training system should feel like a serious engineering blog and internal onboarding course, not a disconnected set of notes.

Why This Matters

The project is now large enough to teach several things at once:

• industrial machine domain concepts
• WPF desktop architecture
• async and concurrency in production .NET
• stateful workflow orchestration
• diagnostics and operational thinking
• docs-first and AI-assisted delivery habits

The current repository already has strong reference material, but it is still optimized for implementation history rather than guided learning.

Target Audience

Primary audience:

• newcomer .NET developers
• engineers moving from web/backend into desktop or industrial systems
• automation-minded learners who need software architecture context

Secondary audience:

• experienced engineers onboarding quickly into this repo
• AI-assisted contributors who need grounded source material

Deliverable Layers

The course build-out should create or strengthen these layers:

1. Guided Course Modules

Narrative pages that explain the system from first run to extension work.

2. Scenario Packs

Hands-on exercises that require running the app and observing state, diagnostics, and recovery behavior.

3. Architecture Pages

Repo-specific design explanations with Draw.io-backed diagrams.

4. Reusable Theory Lessons

Existing lessons remain the theory library and should be linked from course pages rather than duplicated.

Course Modules To Build

The first coherent course release should contain these modules:

1. System Tour and Happy Path
2. Domain and State Model
3. Architecture Walkthrough
4. Workflow and Async Runtime
5. Design Patterns and .NET Techniques
6. Diagnostics, Faults, and Operational Thinking
7. Extending the System Safely

Scenario Packs To Build

The first scenario release should contain:

1. happy path inspection run
2. stop versus abort
3. fault injection and recovery
4. recipe refresh and load
5. run history and simulator profile comparison

Architecture Topics To Build

The first architecture release should contain:

1. system context diagram
2. project and layer map
3. domain model diagram
4. workflow state diagram
5. start-run sequence diagram
6. fault and recovery sequence diagram
7. recipe loading and run history flow diagrams

Delivery Strategy

Do not try to write the entire course in one AI session.

Instead:

1. scaffold the information architecture
2. write the scenario pack
3. write the architecture pack and diagram briefs
4. write the runtime deep dive
5. write the design techniques module
6. write the onboarding and extension playbook
7. finish with editorial polish and cross-linking

Definition of Ready

A course task is ready when:

• the target audience is named
• the topic is bounded
• the existing repo sources are known
• the intended diagrams are named
• the expected deliverables are concrete

Definition of Done

A course task is done when:

• the new docs are written in a consistent style
• code or doc references are grounded in the repo
• diagram briefs are explicit enough for Draw.io
• internal links are coherent
• the VitePress build passes

Preferred Task Size

Tasks should be medium sized:

• large enough to produce one coherent module or pack
• small enough to fit in one focused AI session
• typically one page family or one documentation subsystem

The sweet spot is roughly:

• 2-6 pages or one cohesive section
• 45-120 minutes of AI work
• one primary objective, not several unrelated objectives