Isaac Pandyan
Team Members: Aaron Berdecia, Caysen Mayo, Devon Leerssen, Jacob Jershin, June Young-hwang, Logan Rohlfs, Muqadam Sabir, Reynard Gunawan, Ryan Hallock, Tahmid Rahman, Avanish Jeendru, Brayden Edington, Devin Wingfield, Dylan Pettijohn, Isaac Pandyan, Jonathan Gateley, Kevin L, Layne Yarbrough, Md Raeed, and Sahil Patil.
Week 18: 30-April-2023
Preemptive Plan: This week, I intend to finish the navigation bar issue from before. Link to submitted issue
Scheduling Challenges: This week I had 2 AP exams one for AP United States history and one for AP Statistics which I was extremely stressed about. In addition, I lost valuable class time on thursday for the Statistics exam. Due to this, I did not spend much time working on computer science and failed completely to fufill my Preemptive Plan. At this stage, I'm just going to have to help the group members working on the jumpscare and the music player to bring those features to each page because as of right now, because of the varying number of buttons for each page it makes it harder to really decide on anything relating to the navigation bar. In addition, with the changes having been made to the background of each webpage, I question the use of changing the navigation bar now (I hadn't seen the changes at the start of the issue so I thought it was still valid, I may remove the issue altogether now).
Significant Achievements: My reason for faling to have any real significant achievement for this week is explained in my scheduling challenges. I did do a minor bug fix, but that is all
Week 17: 23-April-2023
Preemptive Plans: This week, with the new prioritization of ADHD accomadations,I intend to finish my attempted work of redoing the navigation bar, taking into account feedback from group members as well as an aesthetic overhaul of the classes.html page Link to Submitted issue (same as last week, but slightly more specific in order to suggest ways I may choose to do the redesign)
Significant Achievements: This week I chose not to go through 100% with my preemptive plan yet, I still want to do it, but since we are actively changing the background and other major aspects of each webpage, it doesn't makes sense to implement it completely at this stage. I only realized after tuesday when I began changing the border of the navigation bar and realized how different it looked on each page that I should hold off until the ADHD Accomadations have been deemed fully finished before working ahead. Instead, to make up for this failure, I once more looked for bugs on the webpage until I quickly noticed a flaw with the scheduler.html page where the times for each period box were written without spaces and without full capitalization. I fixed this and did not intend to use it as my SA until I realized upon closer inspection why it was written down originally so strangely, the original team member who wrote it noticed that there were wierd margin errors with two of the boxes (not all of them for some reason) and did not want to go through the trouble of fixing it. After screwing around for an unreasonable amount of time, I also couldn't figure out how to fix those two broken boxes (as they used the same css as the other boxes that worked perfectly). I eventually discovered that by lowering the font by 15% (In addition to rewording the times to be more readable) I could fix the entire issue making the scheduler more user-friendly and a better product as a whole. . In addition, I made the group's GANTT Chart.
Week 16: 16-April-2023
Preemptive Plans: As of right now, I plan on doing a general overhaul to the color scheme for the scheduler, as when we all consulted, we agreed that it was very ugly. Specifically, the navigation bar in general lacks aesthetic congruency with the rest of the application. I believe that the navigation bar change specifically will be more than simply shuffling the colors around, as I will likely have to resize it and rearrange the buttons on it. Link to submitted issue.
Technical Challenges: Due to the current reshuffling of the app.css code for this portion of the development process, I had to wait a little before the page was repaired by those who were working on that part in order to be able to properly see and adjust the navigation bar. After that was done, I had previously in my Preemptive Plans sections stated that I believed that the navigation bar change "will be more than simply shuffling colors around". Turns out it was literally just shuffling colors around so I will not count that as one of my significant achievements (I had tried toying with more colors on the lightmode color scheme, but decided that the navigation bar looked good contrasting with the light blue parts of the application, rather than the preexisting blue uniformity). Because of this, I tried to contribute to this week by helping change the default color mode, but this proved way too complicated because all the functions were similairly titled, so I ended up screwing up loads of code and having to fix it. After that, I went on a deep dive for visible bugs and found that there was weired "glitchy" code mistakes specifically on the FAQ page that were screwing with the FAQ page functionality (the boxes wouldn't load) I located and deleted them as my significant achievements.
Significant Achievements: My failure to completely hold myself to my preemptive plan is elaborated on in the technical challenges section alongside record and proof of my attempts, as is what I did instead this week. Essentially, there were these weird code mistakes deep within the files (that don't look like anyone typed them) that messed with the HTML boxes on the FAQ page, causing them to not work properly. In addition, I also noticed a navigational redundancy in the login/create account pages, which I also removed.
Week 14: 4-April-2023
Technical Challenges: Still some Backend stuff and Darkmode readability issues, but the Dark Mode stuff is almost finished, we are just having trouble choosing what colors are visible but still match the theme
Scheduling Challenges: All of us are just chilling because we are more or less finished
Interpersonal Challenges: None
Achievements/Contributions Started a conversation here, Contributed to conversation 2x here (literally just June and I)
Week 13: 26-March-2023
Technical Challenges: There was still some Backend stuff and Dark Mode readability issues
Scheduling Challenges: All of us thought we were done (lol)
Interpersonal Challenges All of us got along because none of us were really doing much.
Achievements/Contributions: Tried to contribute to the conversation here (no one responded to me lol)
Week 12: 20-March-2023
Technical Challenges: This was the final week of development, I was tasked with finding more bugs and reporting them to Dylan (so he can edit the board on Discord). Most of the major issues were at the backend now, whereas previously it had been frontend that was behind.
Scheduling Challenges: I know a few kids who haven't been contributing much to anything relating to the project (whether it be the conversation about what we should do or actual commits). Their main issue is they feel like they don't know where to start (despite the fact we have an job board for them to look at). This advances my theory that role delagation would be a far superior way to do this. That way no one is confused and everyone has a specific duty
Interpersonal Challenges: Not much I haven't mentioned previously.
Achievenments/Contributions: I contributed to the conversation here,
Week 11: 13-March-2023
Technical Challenges: I stopped asking permission to do stuff this week, I feel like it’s been slowing me down (each time I have to wait for the next b-day). Now, I felt like there wasn’t much to do on the front-end of the project, I told everyone that the topbar looks ugly and we should change it, but everyone shot me down on that, so instead I just changed what the navigation on the login/forgot password area looks like.
Scheduling challenges: We’re running up on the deadline and I feel like everyone wants to contribute more. However, we also have new Merlin missions, so everyone’s attention (especially on our project) is split.
Interpersonal Challenges: As mentioned earlier, I’ve stopped asking permission before doing things now, it has slowed me down too much over the past few weeks. I saw that some kids contributed over Spring Break and that made me pretty sad. Again, if I could instantly communicate with other students I would definitely be able to help out more. Something that really irritates me is that we don’t have an actual role delegation system, it’s all really loose. For example, I asked for a job and the Project Manager told me to fix the sizing on the boxes and I accepted. Literally that afternoon, maybe 5 hours since the Project Manager told me to do that SOMEONE ELSE DID IT . However, I couldn’t be sure if that was just the chromebook sizing being weird, so I shot an email to the Project Manager asking if it was fixed or if my chromebook was just screwing with the sizes. To this day, he has yet to respond to that email. Just a reminder, I DO NOT HAVE THE LIST OF THINGS TO DO , so when someone does something I was assigned (for want of a better term), I have to wait for the next b-day (or the next time I get lucky and run into someone on the project) before I can get another thing to do.
Achievements/Contributions: Fixed Navigation issues on Login Page, Commented and closed Issue regarding title format for the pages, Contributed to the conversation here
Week 10: 6-March-2023
Spring Break!
Week 9: 27-Feb-2023
Technical Challenges: The Project Manager sent me the new secrets file (which I had to wair for because I don't have access to Discord). This week, I was ordered to spot bugs and ‘quality assure’, yet again. At least I am able to actually fill up my list of bugs and needed features since I can see the project now. I keep on asking to open Github issues on each thing we mention(since that’s what we’re being graded on), but everyone tells me not to because “x software developer will get mad".
Scheduling challenges: No scheduling challenges on my side.
Interpersonal Challenges: Everyone keeps on telling me not to open up loads of Github issues when I ask because “x software developer will get mad”. However, that’s what I’m being graded on. Instead, I’m supposed to show issues to Dylan so he can add that to the list on Discord, but everyone does that, and I CAN’T EVEN SEE THE LIST ON DISCORD
Week 8: 20-Feb-2023
Technical Challenges: I finally fixed the issue with vapor. Apparently there was a secret function/file that was shared on the Discord, but since I don’t have Discord, I didn’t see it. I was hopeful that I would be able to more actively contribute this week, last week having only been able to do one Github issue, HERE, and close another. However, I only really had one day in class, the 23rd, I asked for a job to do and Dylan told me to just compile a list of all the problems and bugs we have right now. The next day, excited that my vapor was working again, I git pulled to find that it was no longer working AGAIN
Scheduling challenges: No challenges that I know of. Although it is possible that other members of the group may not know what they are supposed to be doing
Interpersonal Challenges: I hate not being in discord so much, not that it’s anyone’s fault, but it's so annoying that I can’t instant message people (and no one checks their gmail). Because of this, I’m basically stuck waiting for the next b-day every time something doesn’t work.
Week 7: 13-Feb-2023
Technical Challenges: This was definitely my heaviest week. I did the flyer, most of the google slides, wrote a major Github issue, and did a merge (which I feel like has become rare for me). After I git pulled again, my vapor stopped working, citing some swift code as the cause of the failure. I have not figured out how to fix this, but when we get back to class on thursday, it will definitely be my priority (I have tried googling and searching throught the swift command manual; no success).
Scheduling Challenges:We have finally had a week in which there were no scheduling challenges present. Our projet manager successfully assigned the entire team with harsh deadlines, and in doing so, forced those who wheren't doing their fair share into contributing. Because of this, in this week, we have essentially caught up with where we initially wanted to be, ignoring a few deficiencies.
Interpersonal Challenges: One group member has been very passive-aggressive over the course of the week, but it has not impacted the group in any real way, other than being slightly annoying. In addition, everyone (and when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE) forgot that we had to submit a flyer so I created, and then emailed the flyer to Dylan who subseqently sent it to everyone in our group.
Week 6: 6-Feb-2023
Technical Challenges:This week I had some trouble initiating Vapor in order to build the website. I also had a few errors when trying to pull the repository. Individually, I was able to fix these problems, however some technical challenges are mostly based on assigning team tasks. However, this will be further discussed in scheduling challenges.
Scheduling Challenges: Some of us struggle to meet up at specific times, but we have been able to combat this issue as a good portion of people are able to agree and show up at designated times. Right now there are two main people who are currently working on the ISP and it has become very hard to find tasks to do with a good portion of the mock scheduler built. Hopefully, we are able to solve these issues in the discord server, so other team members have a clear understanding of what they can do.
Interpersonal Challenges: We've had a few interpersonal challenges regarding website design but overall we were able to come to an agreement on how we should design it. Our group tends to get together pretty well when it comes to being open about issues and how we should problem solve, iwth everyone contributing their fair share.
Week 5: 30-Jan-2023
Snow Days! School canceled!
Week 4: 23-Jan-2023
Technical Challenges: I got vapor working and spent time trouble-shooting some front-end issues with the login, but I had no real challenges.
Scheduling Challenges: Once again, our groups vastness has impacted our ability to reach our full potential in efficiency, but the Project Manager says that he will remedy this in the coming week, so it is likely going to be fixed.
Interpersonal Challenges: Some mean-spirited humour about a particular member of our group was propagated by other members of our group. However, the victim in question has not heard of the incident, so I think we are in the clear.
Week 3: 16-Jan-2023
Technical Challenges: The team once again had to change the branch layout of the Github repository as the Project and Product managers came to the decision that the preexisting layout was hindering overall progress. In addition, I had some sudden difficulty executing a pull from the github repository as an error message kept on popping up, despite the fact I had already successfully executed a pull several times. However, fortunately after some searching on the web I figured out how to override the issue. In addition, I had, alongside the Software Developer I was assighned with, some difficulty understandiung the general CSS layout our product manager had in mind, currently this is still an ongoing issue, but I think we're close to coming to an overall understanding.
Scheduling Challenges: There were no major scheduling issues this week other than extending a few deadlines in regards to front-end development until we could figure out a good CSS design. Now that this is on the way, we should be more or less on track, hopefully finishing up the base front-end MVP by Wednesday of next week.
Interpersonal Challenges:This week apparently members of our team were expelled from the team chat app, Discord, as a result of internal arguments. While I agree that the individual that was banned was certainly not interested in positive communication, I don’t think there’s really any reason to ban them if they were not disrupting the workflow, everyone should be allowed to have their voice heard.
Week 2: 9-Jan-2023
Technical Challenges: A massive technical challenge this week was setting up the Github repository, issues, issue categories, labels, and making sure that everyone was properly linked and added. I personally had a little bit of trouble in using my personal authentication token, but after I solved that, I managed to contribute and commit several changes to the repository. In addition, I had to aid many of my colleagues, who could not properly link the Github repository to their command line or did not know how to switch between branches of a repository from the command line. This, alongside general confusion regarding what the front-end team’s minimum viable product should look like, slowed us down significantly. However, I’m hopeful that the coming weeks will iron out all confusion and produce a solid minimum viable product.
Scheduling Challenges: Scheduling has been a complete mess this week due to failure to properly communicate from across the team. Even when the project and product managers managed to come up with a plan with roles associated with certain jobs within the plan, many of the software developers and the QA developers would simply not choose any roles until forced to. This impeded the efficiency of the scheduling process greatly. In addition, some group members are still not assigned to roles (particularly in regards to front-end, I understand the back-end has their own plans), so unless this gets sorted over the long weekend, I’m afraid we will have to still deal with this next week.
Interpersonal Challenges: There has been a lot of aggression and poor communication from different parts of the team. Personally, I have not been involved with these negative interactions, neither as an aggressor nor a victim. However, I feel like I understand where both sides are coming from, because of our poor style of communication and the feeling of project stagnation alongside general confusion of how to start from scratch and what our minimum viable product will look like, we are lashing out in our frustration against one another. Hopefully, everyone will be able to look objectively at the issues at hand and understand that everyone wants what is best for the project.
Week 1: 2-Jan-2023
Technical Challenges: Project has not yet reached the technical portions of development.
Scheduling challenges: Project has not yet reached the scheduling portions of development.
Interpersonal challenges: I know many of the team members on a personal basis, and I know many of them exhibit introverted qualities. I am worried that despite their brilliance, they will be unable to let their voices be heard. The easy way to mitigate this is to ecourage an environment in which they feel safe to contribute and communicate. It's also important to use positive reinforcement rather than punishing mistakes.
(Software) Development Engineer: A software engineer is responsible for the overall base building of the software. This is going to be the most common role within the team. They need to work well together and be able to write easy to follow code in order to make the Quality Assurance engineer's, Release Engineer's, and one another's job easier. Difficulty comes for the development engineer in that they have to put together their own vision of what to do, and tinker with that based on the demands of the other team members. The Development engineer has to start from scratch, they don't change pre-existing code.
QA Engineer: The QA Engineer, or Quality Assurance Engineer, is responsible for checking the code written by the development engineer that may in some way affect the program or readability of the code. The Quality Assurance Engineer must run many tests on the program and also be in constant communication with the other team members in order to have a clear picture of what each part of the program does as well as what each part is supposed to do.
Project Manager: The Project manager is responsible for delegating tasks to the Development Engineer and the QA Engineer and is in charge of keeping the project in line with previously established deadlines. The Project Manager has to work with everyone the Development Engineer, the Quality Assurance Engineer, the Product Manager, and the Release Engineer in order to make sure that the entire project is completely on track as envisioned. The project manager alongside the product manager may have to make tough decisions in regard to what parts of the originally envisioned project may have to be cut in order to reach completion by the deadline
Product Manager: The product manager is responsibly for building, implementing and managing the software, or in layman terms, responsible for planning and preparing for what the finished product will be like. They have to be in communication with every aspect of the team in order to do their task optimally. The Product Manager must work closely with the Quality Assurance Engineer and Development Engineer in order to garuntee readability of the code. In addition, the Product Manager should work closely with the release engineer in order to assist as best as possible in the transition from local code to a fully functioning website.
Release Engineer: The Release Engineer is concerned with the compilation, assembly, and delivery of source code into finished products or other software components. In this case, they will be responsible for the transition from locally created temporary practice builds to the finished product. The most important part of the release engineer's job is to make sure that the program does not lose any of its functionality during the transition.