Capstone Blog

Wrapping Up

The term is rapidly closing down on us all and there is so much to do! Luckily the majority of the work for our wine check application is done already. With just a paper and the final survey remaining, the end is in sight! It has been a huge learning experience to work on this project and with these group members over the course of the whole year.

I Learned About Leading

Over the past few…years at Oregon State I have learned some things about myself that I never knew. I find myself in leadership roles on projects more often that I would have liked but there seems to be a reason for it. As much as I would rather give that role to someone else, I am good at it. When things start to feel like they are falling apart, I know I can step in an keep it together. Failure is one of my biggest motivators – in that I never want it to happen.

Graduation

Now that there is less than a month left, it seems all that is left is getting there. This was probably one of the hardest terms for me to stay motivated even though it is my last one! Seeing the end so close has made me wish that I could jump right to it but now it is almost here. I look forward to turning in my last assignments and getting that fancy piece of paper with my name on it. Finally.

Rolling Through Spring Break

Spring break passed in a flash as the team worked to finish up some code before the new term started. The break felt like it was over before it even began. It felt a little disorganized as we started the term, I had a pretty steady stream of blockers waiting for code to be finished before I could start working on the login aspect of the application. I have now a week to get the login integrated before the code freeze and am feeling the pressure to get it finished.

Things to Do

There are a number of things the team has left to do and most of them are now out of my skillset. While the front end is almost done, the backend is still waiting for the blockchain to be integrated. As the blockchain is the major backend aspect, I worry that it will not be finished to an acceptable level – or even to the point of integration.

Wrapping Up

I am looking forward to wrapping up this project and want to see it come to a point of completion. The team, and graduation, is getting ever closer. I hope that as the team rolls into the code freeze, that the application wraps up cleanly.

A Week Of Ice

The weather this week has been completely out of this world. I know a lot of people have lost power, or lost cars due to downed trees. It has made for quite the crazy ride for a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest. I was fortunate in not being directly effected; however I know a lot of people were effected and I send them my dearest sympathy.

Communication

There are times and people that communicate well. Sometimes a person is a great communicator most the time, others are only good at it in certain settings. I like to think I am a pretty good communicator. It becomes a struggle when people become hard to communicate with after having been good communicators in the past. I have found that it is more difficult to adjust to the change in communication than to having poor communication in the beginning. It gets frustrating but is an obstacle that I have been learning to overcome. I feel that change and growth is a positive experience in itself.

Term – and Year

The mid-way point in my final year of my bachelors degree is a nice point to be at. It has been great to see the project coming along as well as seeing the end in reach. I have never been a big school person- maybe I should have gone into the trades? So getting closer and closer to graduation feels really rewarding. I took what feels like the long route to get through school with a two year break after finishing my associates degree. Joining the military was a great break but extended my schooling and increased the load of things I have to balance as I finish up.

Looking Forward

I am excited to move to the next stage of my life. At the end of term – since everything is staying remote – I’m moving! Moving up to the Portland area gets me to the same area I want to be working. Joining industry and having a full time job will be a relief. So many people tell me that I will miss school and all the free time but I am hesitant to believe them. This will not be my first time working full time rather than school. I truly miss having a job rather than school, something that I know many people do not relate to.

But…

However, I am a little worried about finding a job. I have started looking and applying, though I know it is a little far out for getting worried. The goal is to be all set up and ready to go for graduation. It will be a big relief to have things set up and in order. Maybe it is a little OCD to want it all settled now… or maybe yesterday. One day at a time and it will all be good to go soon.

Class Changes

This past week I spent some time evaluating my class load and where I was compared to graduation. As I plan to graduate in June after Spring term, I have a solid foundation planned out with my planner. I had a Networking class planned for this term that was with an instructor that I have had trouble learning from before. There is a lot of value in being able to identify learning styles and teaching styles. There is more value in realizing when the two do not overlap and it is time to find a different path. This particular instructor taught in such a way that I was not gaining anything from the class, therefore I spent the time to look at my program and change some classes. I switched out my networking class for a systems administration class that I feel will be more beneficial when I move to industry. I also received an opportunity to pick up a free language class through the Guard, so now I’m going to try my hand at Vietnamese on the side.

Keeping Organized

This week I have also spent some time as Scrum Master for my team. This is the role that I would have been uncomfortable in this time last year but feel very comfortable in now. I enjoyed the opportunity to run our first retrospective, I used some activities I learned this summer in my internship for it. The chance to expose my teammates to some real world retrospective activities was a fun experience. Maintaining the Trello board and becoming more familiar with the tools it has, has also been a great opportunity. I am glad I have the chance to work with this technology and see how much easier it is to work with as compared to VersionOne – that I used over the summer. 

The First Sprint Closes

As we roll into the end of our first sprint, it was good to be able to work with the team to make some coding goals complete. I enjoy being able to watch the tasks move from the To-Do list to the Done list on our task board. It is a great feeling to finish a project and move forward to the next task. So far I have been working on tasks that do not have much involvement with the other team mates – but some other tasks rely on. Items such as updating user stories and updating the UX mockups are an important part of bookkeeping. Though sometimes they feel like I am not doing so much – I know I will soon be joining in on the coding aspect of the project as well.

Mockup Progress

I have taken up the task of working on the mockups and the UX for the application and as a result have spent some extra time working with Balsamiq to move our designs forward. I think working with the UX design is an important skill to have and helps make a product that users will want to use. I never pictured myself in this role but am excited to see it coming together.

Class Interactions

This term especially, I find it interesting to see how my classes interact with one another. I am currently taking a mobile application development class that works with the same language as we are using for the application. As I am joining the application coding next sprint, this fits in at the perfect time to give me some background. I am also taking an Advanced Networking course – though it is more of a Statistical Analysis of Networking – the networking aspect fits well with the network set up the team will be doing this term. I look forward to next sprint!

Winter Break – A Blessing

I spent the break getting some much needed downtime after Fall term. Fall term felt as though it was never going to end from the time I deployed through finals. Balancing work and school was definitely an adventure last term – luckily I will have less work this term to balance. I had plans to do a little work with the UX over the break but it was over before I even got started so I put it into the first sprint instead.

UX Updates

The original wire diagrams I mocked up last term were a good step in the right direction for the UX. Unfortunately, the lifespan of a wire diagram is short and we are more than ready to start building on the mockups. I slipped myself into that role and want to have the next level of mockups done for review by our next sponsor meeting on Wednesday. Adding detail to the design and adjusting based on feedback will help the team create an application that looks and functions how the sponsor wants earlier in the process rather than having to recode the user interface.

Sprinting Through Scrum

Sprints are an intuitive way of managing workflow that I look forward to working with. I played the role of scrum master with a development team this past summer as an internship with Tripwire. It will be nice to work with a setup I am familiar with. There are aspects that will be fun to learn, such as using Trello for the task board, having the sprint planning set up as it is with rotating roles, and only having standups once a week. I am planning to set up our standups to be synchronous after this week. I think that will be nicer that asynchronous standup meetings.

Some Fall Feedback

This term started out a little rough with the delay of project assignments. I am glad that applying to a project was mentioned early as I know some graduates that did not know the importance of applying to a project. I found that the week to week release dates and turn in dates were consistent and appreciated that. I think it would be beneficial to make an announcement when an assignment that has a further out due date is released. I sometimes miss release dates for multiweek assignments because I organize myself primarily by the due dates and announcements that are made.

Project Progress

Going into winter break, I find myself at a good point to sum up the project progress so far. I have spent a lot of time writing and formatting all of the documents that were put together to plan the project. I would say that writing is just as if not more important for this term of class than knowing about technology and coding is. This term laid the majority of the groundwork for the project. We spent time researching the problem of wine fraud. I found there are some starts at solutions but they are all very segregated by region and there is no similar technology in the Northwest. The team produced well rounded documents on the project requirements and design. We also spent a decent chunk of time researching blockchain technology and getting a handle on what to expect as we roll into next term.

Finally Finals!

As the term comes to a close, I feel good about everything that has happened. I have had a few wrenches thrown in my direction, such as my support for the fire fighting efforts and the extension to my trip out of state due to a broken aircraft. This term I am fortunate enough not to have any finals, but with that has come a lot of projects. I know this term has left me with a lesson in time management if nothing else.

And Waiting for Peer Reviews

This week we got some basic wireframes prototyped and presented to our sponsor. It was nice to get a visual of some of our front end designs figured out and feedback received from our sponsor. Two of us presented him with a total of three design options, mine were focused on the visual design using wireframes of a few different potential screens. He responded with preferences for one over the other that included a home screen. Having that visual aspect gives a good frame of reference for how the team will proceed with the front end of the product.

Feedback? Feedback.

We have been working on a design document for our project for a few weeks now. I know that the first draft for my team was rough around the edges and needed a lot of work. I ended up spending quite a bit of time rewriting and reformatting the design document that our team turned in. The team then turned around and came up with some in depth questions for the team review. There was a little bit of confusion getting connected with the other team but I gave some feedback to the other team that I felt was well thought out. I have noticed some feedback starting to appear on our document now. Getting feedback on the design document helped the team come to a couple conclusions for our design.

What’s Next?

Working to implement a functional prototype of a section of our project in next on the agenda. My team and I still need to discuss what we are going to prototype and get it working. It will be a nice change of pace to work on some code and a little less writing for a week. I look forward to making more progress and staying on top of everything coming up!

Looks Like We’re Back

Back to quarantine that is. With the rise in Covid-19 cases our state has shut back down for at least a couple more weeks. It’s been a wild ride figuring out the work cycle while working and going to school from home. It presents new challenges to the average person. When initially going into quarantine back in March I did not feel that it would make much impact on my daily life. In fact I enjoyed that I could work on things from home without worry.

At this point in the quarantine – and with it coming back in force – I have learned a lot. As in introvert it is convenient to have more time alone; however there is a lot that makes it difficult. A big factor is work life balance. I have struggled with this before quarantine with school as sometimes projects and assignments can take 60-70 hours a week or more by themselves. Add an extreme workload to always being home can make a person feel guilty for trying to take some time to themselves.

I also find myself sitting at my computer most of my waking hours during the week. Watching lectures takes up about 10 hours a week, but working on writing and coding assignments rapidly increases that time. When all of my socializing is not mandated to occur online – there goes the rest of my day. I feel fortunate that I have platforms that work well for me to interact with my friends and play video games – as I started playing them earlier this year.

This resurgence of quarantine has required me to set some personal goals to accomplish outside of sitting at my desk and school. I have been working to stay on top of my activity – getting outside and moving most days. I also have started to pack my apartment in anticipation of moving this spring. That will be yet another thing to keep me busy while I am trying to stay on top of school work! This school year may turn into one of my busiest even without all the trips I had planned to take!