Development and Relationships
13 Dec 2022
Software Engineering II
As I continue to progress through my college education I’ve found that there are increasingly more courses that relate to careers of interest to me, and ICS 414 Software Engineering was no different. For this project, we worked with the Department of Education to create a Legislative Tracker, where they could organize their work by creating testimonies, viewing hearing notices, and much more There were quite a few things that I enjoyed about working on this project, such as gaining experience working with a client, and cooperation among team members.
Working with a Client
One of the biggest draws to this course for me was the chance to work with a client, and experience what it’s like to create software to meet their expectations and hopes. I enjoyed the first course of Software Engineering but being able to create something that helped people seemed like a good opportunity, and I was correct. We based almost all of our features around the needs of the client, trying to formulate a site that met all of their needs and desires concerning Legislative Tracking. The balancing act of meeting deadlines and client expectations made each milestone something to work toward, interacting with them and getting feedback was a huge resource and allowed us to end up with a result that I’m very proud of.
Group Cooperation
With this being the largest group I’ve been a part of, having a total of 8 members, we needed to have good communication. Looking back I can definitively say that this has been one of the best groups I’ve worked with. Typically would meet each class twice a week and whatever questions we had at home, we’d discuss them over discord. Because we worked with GitHub issues and projects we always knew what everyone was working on, and work was well dispersed amongst each other leaving no one in the dark about someone’s current task.
Last Impressions
Overall, this was a great experience and project which I’ll be able to build off of in the future. I’ve been able to gain a variety of new skills in things like collaboration, web development, client communication, time management, and much more. I would certainly recommend this course to other students looking for project-driven classes and hope this is just a small stepping stone to my future in Computer Science.