ICS 499: 499 The End

Introduction
I am thankful for being able to participate in ICS 499. For a three credit course we need to spend at least 9 hours of study time or in the case of ICS 414 coding time. Much of my study time during the semester was spent developing code for Devcathlon. I estimate I average at least 20 hours on coding, blogging, and meeting with the Devcathlon team. So it was nice to have ICS 499 to apply the extra work hours.

What did 499 do for me
Each week I had to do a summary of what I learned and developed in ICS 414. There were weeks where I had no idea in what to write about. So ICS 499 forced me to think about what new skill did I add to my software engineering tool belt? Or what did I discover about software development that will make me a better programmer? Over the course of the semester I tackled and got tackled by various areas of software development in ICS 414/499 which included HTML, CSS, Wicket, Hashmaps, group work, and Devcathlon. I used HTML and CSS to implement the Scoreboard in Devcathlon. Using a hashmap I can keep track all types of data from Hackystat. With Wicket I can build dynamic webpages using Java. Group development taught a lot about myself and how I should interact with the less than perfect teammate. Devcathlon gave my practical experience with code development.

Conclusion
Did ICS 499 make me a better programmer? Absolutely, I feel I know a little more about software engineering than the previous semester. When employers ask me about my programming experience I can always say my ICS 414/499 blog is quite detailed as it talks what I have developed in the last year. If a student asks me which classes he or she should take in the Spring without hesitation I will tell them ICS 414 with 499. ICS 414 gives you the knowledge and 499 reinforces everything that is learned.

Devcathlon Critique

Introduction
The user testing phase of Devcathlon is under way and is going through an evaluation from all team members. Devcathlon is a working system that needs a database which will be implemented this Summer. There are several issues that will be addressed in the next build which includes more unit tests.

Issues
There is an understanding that all systems in its infancy are not perfect. Devcathlon has many issues which seem to be mainly cosmetic and not affecting the functionality. The list is an overview of the May 9 build.

• Teams: The only issue with Teams is when a user accepts an invitation he or she becomes a member of all created teams.
  There should be only 4 members in this team.
  
• Matches
  • Matches tab: Something should display in the Match Details panel.
  • Matches Manage tab: Something should display in the Match configuration panel.
• Scoreboard
  • The matches panel(left panel) needs to be paginated *already done*.
  • The Event panel needs to be paginated *already done*.
  • The Teams List should display names not emails, that function is part of the implementation not sure what is wrong.
  • Display the date of an invoked Event in Events panel *done, date needs formatting*.

The Review
To critique system I asked Peter Rodrigues an ICS graduate 2007 to examine Devcathlon. To checkout the system, Google's Chrome on a Dell was used. Naturally Devcathlon is not intuitive each section had to be explained. Peter liked the overall design thought it was clean. One major error we found while doing the review was in the match details panel when clicking on the headers a NullPointerException popped up. The panel with the NullPointerException.

Other minor issues we stumbled accross.

• Not all user IDs (email addys) are clickable, the page below is from the Browse Profile.
  
• Matches Manage page should display something
  
• Peter did not like the dynamic panels because the user name at the bottom of the page moves and is distracting.
  
• Its difficult to understand the layout in the Matches panel(the list of matches). It is not clear what one needs to do within the page. What does the user do with this page?

Top Five Lessons Learned from ICS 414

1. Patience in team development - Cannot expect perfection when developing code with a group of five or more. All users must be strongly encouraged to constantly communicate with each other. Get all developers to write daily emails about their progress and implementations.
2. HTML and CSS - First time using CSS for a real project took some adjusting but finally figured it out. I found CSS to be useful and easy to manage.
3. More Wicket - I wonder if Wicket will catch on? I hope so, it would be a shame to throw away everything I learned. I complained about Wicket in previous blogs which was more out of frustration because I am a novice with the framework.
4. More Java - Got more practice implementing code in Java. Got to use Hashmaps and Hashsets in production code. It was interesting to see how Java interacted with different languages and frameworks.
5. Presentation of a System - A lot of preparation needs to go into a presentation before showing it off to management. It can get uncomfortable when explaining a section of the project that is either incomplete or not working. Nothing like blank or angry stares from the boss to make you sweat.

Conclusion
Developing Devcathlon was frustrating yet fruitful I got to work on a system that will be used for ICS 413 in Fall 2009. I believe my software development skills are much sharper. I feel more confident and less fear when working with code. I hope the students in ICS 413 have fun with Devcathlon.

ICS 499: The ICS 414 Experience

Introduction
The semester is coming to a close and Devcathlon is in beta-testing mode. Devcathlon is not the subject of this week's blog but what was learned while developing the system. The experience of putting together a medium size system like Devcathlon was both fruitful and frustrating.

Web Design
Prior to ICS 414 my web design skills were limited to modifying html script for a page. With Devcathlon I had to tackle html, css, and Wicket to design the Scoreboard. The process of developing the Scoreboard page was a lot of trial and error. My main source of information for coding the board was the internet w3 schools provided a lot of help with css scripting. For the future I plan on taking a graphic design or art class to improve my design skills. I think the Scoreboard is rather plain and could use a little more flair.

Wicket
The more I work with Wicket the more I find it to be a frustrating framework. I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the concepts in Wicket. Much of my annoyance is with the structure of Wicket, the nesting methods and too much going on in the constructor. However, Wicket does its job in making dynamic webpages. Wicket is not a widely accepted framework, yet. I think over time more developers will find Wicket to be more powerful than Javascript to make webpages dynamic.

Teamwork
While developing Devcathlon I learned something interesting about teamwork in the software engineering world. The lack of team cohesion can kill a project. Not communicating can kill a project. Not working daily will definitely kill a project. The team should feel fortunate Professor Johnson understands the perils of developing a project with 8 individuals. A real client would be intolerant of teamwork issues. The real trick for a project lead or manager is unifying the team. I admit, I was playing the "lone ranger" with the Scoreboard. I was frustrated with how the team was devolving and consumed with the board design. In the future, instead of shutting myself off from everyone else because no one else wants to play together figure out a way to get people to play nicely together.

Conclusion
ICS 414 is a tremendous learning experience and I will encourage all Computer Science students to take the plunge. Despite my frustrations with teamwork I can say my coding skills have improved plus I learned a little web design using html and css. I hope I can parlay the skills I learned in ICS 413 and 414 into a career. Oh, yeah I plan on going for my SCJP over the summer.