SWEXP Module 02 — Professional Git & GitHub

Theme: Working like a professional software engineering team.

You are a Junior Software Engineer on Project Forge, a SaaS product built by a distributed team. This module takes you from "I can save a file" to operating Git and GitHub the way a professional engineer does: branching, reviewed pull requests, protected branches, CI gates, incident response, history hygiene, and disciplined releases. Every lesson is framed as an engineering ticket you close, with a hands-on lab, an investigation, and an AI-verification exercise.

How You Work Here

Step	What it means
Pick up a ticket	Each lesson is a ticket (GIT-1048, SEC-5001, …) with acceptance criteria
Read before you change	Investigate history and context first
Work on a branch	main is always releasable; all work happens on branches
Open a PR	Code reaches main only through reviewed, CI-passing pull requests
Verify, don't trust	Use AI as a tool, but draft → verify → log everything
Document	Keep an engineering notebook as your professional record

The golden rule, throughout: never run a Git command you can't explain — especially history-changing ones (reset, rebase, filter-repo, force-push).

Learning Outcomes

By the end you will be able to:

• Use Git's core model fluently — staging, commits, branches, merges — and explain why, not just how.
• Collaborate on GitHub: remotes, synchronization, pull requests, code review, and issue-based planning.
• Govern a repository with branch protection, CODEOWNERS, and required CI checks.
• Diagnose and fix a failing CI pipeline by fixing the cause, not bypassing the check.
• Rewrite history safely, recover "lost" work, and respond to a security incident in the correct order.
• Choose and justify a branching/collaboration model, and ship disciplined, versioned releases.

Lesson Index

#	Lesson	Competency	Ticket
0	Welcome to the Engineering Organization	Environment & Git Fundamentals	GIT-1000
1	Investigate an Existing Repository	Repository Investigation	GIT-1010
2	Save Your First Feature	Committing & Staging	GIT-1021
3	Develop Your First Feature	Branching	GIT-1035
4	Merge the Team's Work	Merging & Conflict Resolution	GIT-1048
5	Recover from a Bad Change	Undoing & Recovering	GIT-1060
6	Connect to the Engineering Platform	Remotes & Platform Auth	COLLAB-2001
7	Synchronize with the Engineering Team	Synchronization	COLLAB-2014
8	Open Your First Pull Request	PRs & Code Review	COLLAB-2028
9	Plan the Sprint	Planning & Issue Tracking	COLLAB-2040
10	Protect the Production Branch	Repository Governance	GOV-3001
11	Investigate a Failed CI Pipeline	CI/CD	CI-4001
12	Rewrite History Professionally	History Rewriting	GIT-1099
13	Recover the Lost Work	Data Recovery	GIT-1112
14	Respond to a Repository Security Incident	Security Incident Response	SEC-5001
15	Scale the Engineering Organization	Scaling & Collaboration Models	COLLAB-2099
16	Release Day	Release Engineering	REL-6001
17	Project Forge Sprint 1 Capstone	Integrated Delivery	FORGE-9000

The module flows through six phases: Foundations / Local Git (0–5) → Platform & Collaboration (6–9) → Governance & Automation (10–11) → Advanced Git (12–14) → Scale & Delivery (15–16) → Capstone (17).

Repository Layout

.
├── README.md                      # this file
├── MODULE_SYLLABUS.md             # pacing, structure, deliverables
├── LEARNER_GUIDE.md               # how to operate as an engineer here
├── INSTRUCTOR_GUIDE.md            # facilitation and assessment
├── COMPETENCY_MATRIX.md           # lesson → competency → skills
├── ASSESSMENT_RUBRIC.md           # grading weights and performance levels
├── Lesson_00.md … Lesson_17.md    # the 18 lessons
├── labs/                          # hands-on labs + reproducible generators
├── solutions/                     # worked solutions / answer keys
├── resources/                     # cheatsheet, guides, glossary, templates
├── assignments/                   # submission templates + capstone brief
└── instructor-notes/              # per-lesson facilitation notes

Getting Started

1. Read resources/environment-setup.md and get Git ≥ 2.30 working with your identity configured.
2. Start your engineering notebook from resources/engineering-notebook-template.md.
3. Open Lesson_00.md and pick up your first ticket.
4. Keep resources/git-command-cheatsheet.md and resources/troubleshooting-playbook.md open as you work.

Labs are local-first: scenarios are built by copy-paste generators in throwaway directories, and platform features (PRs, branch protection, CI) include offline fallbacks so you're never blocked. The GitHub-based paths are the real thing layered on top.