The last assignment for the Senior Software Engineering Project (CS 462) is only a few days away. As many teams wrap up their development process, I want to spend some time reflecting on my experience in the class and share some things that I learned from working on my project and working in teams.
If I Could Go Back In Time
One of the major factors (in my opinion) that negatively affected the project development process for the lack of preparation for it. If I could go back in time, I would have definitely encouraged my team to break down the development process into more detailed tasks and spend time planning the front-end structure – files, folders, and components. Our team consisted of two people during the planning process, and it made a huge difference since we could not dedicate more time to breaking the project into smaller and more detailed tasks. It makes me believe that if I would have a chance to do something differently, I would have spent more time describing user stories, providing better details for tasks, and creating schemas and UI mockups. I believe that investing time into the planning phase would have significantly simplified all other stages of the development.
My Personal Experience
I absolutely enjoyed working in a group that had a common goal. The idea of software developers working together on developing a product is the main reason I chose this field in the first place. I only wish that one thing was different – the group size. Prior courses in OSU already provide exposure to the software development process in pairs and teams of three. I think that having bigger groups for the capstone project would have allowed for a better quality product and allowed teams to develop better soft skills, improve communication, and work on a project with a much wider and diverse scope and larger requirements.
What I learned
I am going to admit that before starting the project, web development was my least favorite part. I feel very comfortable with processing and manipulating data in a few programming languages, but I was scared that front end part of the project will be the toughest. Despite everything, I learned a great deal about web development, and React in particular. I even enjoy it now and have plans to work on personal projects that will use React. I appreciate the experience that the project gave me, and look forward to further developing my skills.
Conclusion
Despite all the ups and downs I experienced working on the project, I gained a lot of helpful skills. I appreciate my team for their hard work towards the project, as well as their passion for it. I truly hope that each group had a good time writing code for their project, and had fun in the class. Lastly, I cannot wait to see what the 3rd and final part of the capstone will bring us, and I hope it will be just as fun and educational!
