Finishing unit 3 — Full-Stack
We just rounded the corner on unit 3 of the software engineering immersive program. We have developed the skills to really create beautiful, functional, and dynamic apps.
In this unit, we spent time going through deploying a server and connecting it to the front-end of our apps. We learned user authentication, user association and really focused on teamwork and managing the dynamic of working in a team.
It was interesting because on one hand, some things took much longer, and on the other, we were able to implement more functionality because we were a team. Project planning and management is my background so I teetered on if I should take the reigns or allow someone else to sharpen those skills. Alas, I ended up closer to the “project manager” role and set up the project board, initiated a few stand-ups in the mornings, and helped manage the board throughout the project. Everyone on the team really took ownership of the process and carried -at least- their weight of the project management. I think it worked well to show how I have seen project management work well in the past and apply that methodology as the developer on a project (rather than managing developers). Even though project management and planning is something easily rushed through, we took our time and it paid off. We had minimal errors, merge conflicts, and we had a clear goal that we all agreed on and were excited to execute.
I was also happy with this project because my team was fantastic! Each one of us brought a unique set of skills and we blended so well together. Since we are all learning and teaching at this point, each person had a chance to impart wisdom to the team as well as learn something new and it was magical. The team really makes or breaks the success of the project and in my opinion, we exceeded expectations.
Something I am learning is how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. These past few weeks I have noticed that I am a lot more at ease with learning and enjoying more the process of learning instead of being frustrated that something doesn’t click right away. I love this industry already because it hits on my desire to always be learning (and never get bored) and there are those moments of intense gratification when everything comes together. To be honest, the more I struggle the more joy I get when things do click.
The growth I have seen in myself in this unit is truly something to be proud of. I can’t wait for unit 4 to learn Ruby on Rails and Object-Oriented Programming. To me, this feels like the motherload and I am so ready!