Month: January 2021

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.