Project Reflection

1. What have you learned about the use of agile vs. waterfall in software projects?
I learned that waterfall is a more popular and perhaps easier implementation because it allows responsibilities to be separated and steps to remain discrete.
It does however let problems persist for longer and potentially cause problems down the line. Agile is the fix for this, as it allows a project to constantly self-assess and adjust to the needs of the group.

2. How did you and your group approach project management in this project (what tools did you use, how did you hold each other accountable, etc.)?
We used trello to assign responsibilities and constant pull requests to make sure that issues were not being compounded on by long sets of code that built upon itself. We held each other accountable by constant code review that made sure we were sticking to a plan and implementing it correctly. On top of this we reassessed our goals a few separate times throughout the project so that we were on the same page about our priorities.

3. What role did you take on in the project?
That of a team member. We tried to distribute responsibilities equally. Towards the beginning of the project I think I did a good job of trying to lay out steps very explicitly for the group to follow, determining the relationships between methods and the data sets that they relied upon. As the project progressed it became harder to do this because we got busier and busier, having not anticipated the amount of work that the second half of the project required.

4. What changes would you make to your approach in future team projects?
I would include time estimates for different parts of the project. That way, if we didn’t hit them we could reevaluate and perhaps take a different approach to projects that were taking longer than anticipated.
I think I would also make more of an effort to assign responsibilities based on the strengths of the different team members.

5. How does retro function in a team project?
It functions as a check up on how the relationships between team members are progressing. We tried to put this in terms of concrete examples and how they affected each of us.

6. In your team retro, how did you engage in the feedback process? What principles of feedback did you use in these conversations?
We would sit down and allow each person to express how they thought things were going and their relevant experiences and then allow team members to respond and recognize them. That member would then have an opportunity to frame their desires as needs and requests.
The principles we used were focusing on facts, and then feelings about those facts.

7. How would you describe your ability to communicate feedback? How has this experience affected your communication skills? How do you want to improve in your ability to communicate feedback?
I would describe our skills as varied and techniques as different. Looking at how the project went, I would describe our abilities as needing work. At the beginning we started out pretty well, but I think parts of it deteriorated as the stress built for sure. I think I would benefit from writing out my needs from partners instead of being frustrated and letting those issues stew and grow. I want to improve by being able to be more straightforward about what a need, not just in terms of communication but in terms of responsibilities, from each of the group members. I think we were all guilty of being side-tracked at times and we would all benefit from a bit more direction.