I took the 314 software project and I didn’t think it was too difficult and learned a lot from it, however, after a year I had forgotten almost everything related to JavaScript, Meteor, and Semantic UI, which led me to review my 314 final project code. After reviewing all my 314 project code, I felt that I could do well in the ICS 414 project, but this software engineering had more challenges due to working with real-world customers. My English was not good, so after the first meeting with the client, I was confused about what they wanted and how to design our website. Luckily, my teammate spoke good English and explained the objectives to me by drawing diagrams, which helped me a lot to start working and gave up the idea that I had to drop the class.
314 is a smaller group with only 3 students. Also, my teammates were my friends, which helped us have good communication and be ready to communicate when we had a little problem. However, ICS 414 was a much larger group and I did not know anyone in my group at first, so I found it more difficult to communicate with them, which led to our website crashing due to code conflicts and us modifying the same files without talking to each other. After our website crashes, I have to find who made our website crashing and chat with Discord to notify him to fix the problem. Fortunately, my teammate always can fix problems immediately to make our websites work. After one month working with teammates, I have courage to ask them problems and they are glad to help me and teach me. In general, communication is very important for ICS 414 and you have to communicate with each other instead of working by yourself.
Our team is called Aloha Time and makes a website for volunteers and organizations. On our website, organizations can be vetted by administrators and offer opportunities for volunteers. Everyone can register as a volunteer on our website, but not everyone can register as an organization, which ensures the authority of the organization. Volunteers can perform a quick search by multiple selection fields or by entering the name of the opportunity to filter the results. After you find satisfied opportunities, you can click the card to show detailed information such as a map to find location and send email to contact the organization. In general, the website has more functions than the ICS 314 final project. In addition, changing username and changing password, and uploaded images function are my favorite parts because I feel a little challenge and fun about those parts because I did not learn anything related to those in ICS 314, so I have to ask my teammates and search on Google. In every Milestone, I achieved my goals of at least 2 issues to improve my website skills, but I still think I need improvement to make a nice UI and make a better website. In general, I really enjoy this class and get a lot from this class such as getting a free Starbuck Gift Card from nice Clients !!!