ICS 499: This is just the Beginning

This semester has been a very enlightening one; I was able to work on one of the biggest on going projects in my college career and also obtain life long experiences that will come in handy in the near future. Through out the semester, I have been working on a project called the “Devcathlon Game”; which is an online game for program developers.

On the journey towards completion of the project; I have obtained many valuable new skills and experiences that, I am very sure, will benefit me in the future. Some of the new skills I acquired are; further understandings on Java, new knowledge of how Wicket works and its compatibility with other web designing languages, and learning on how to use and utilize the Yahoo User Interface (YUI). Another skill I came by on is using a new program called Dream Weaver, how it makes web designing easier to do and understand.

An experience I gained from working on the Devcathlon development team is how to be a good programmer. With what the Devcathlon’s events are based, I saw it as a must to practice the principles of those events. The experience, in my opinion that stood out, was learning to be a good leader. During the beginning of the project’s implementation, I served as Team MS’s leader; which consist of Daniel Arakaki, John Ancheta, and John Zhou. Having these three team members, made managing the team easy; because each member did what they were told to do and were dedicated to finishing a task on or before its dead line. I also worked with another person that is apart of the overall development team; Anthony Du, who was the leader of Team UT.

Towards the end, the project leader, John Ancheta, had to step down from his position; due to personal issues. Seeing this as an opportunity to step up, I took the vacated position. Managing three members to managing the whole project, which consist of 7 members, was very difficult. I had to over see both team’s issues, resolve any conflicts between members, and also to implement my part of the program. The experience I gained from being a team leader, a project leader, and picking up leadership in the middle of a project is having good management and self control.

Every project in production has problems; from these problems is where I gained those new skills and experiences. At times some members wouldn’t do their job on time which would slow process of development, so I would either set a concrete deadline or talk to that member. Another situation was when a member of the project was not communicating with the others and made major changes to many files without notifying anyone. A majority of the members in the project had tension towards that member that made changes. I as the leader had to stay neutral, resolve the conflict between the members, and come up with a solution so that the same problem would not occur again.

Being a project member, a team leader, and a project leader has been very educational. I learned on what it takes to be a good leader, to always be open minded to new ideas from others, and to be a dedicated/hard worker. With the new skills and experiences in my pocket and starting a new journey in life, this is just the beginning of things to come.