A brand new partnership was just created between GitLab and Amazon Q. It has revolutionized the traditional flow of software development with its new AI capabilities. Now with the help of Amazon Q’s ai driven assistant developers now can get help in complex tasks including feature development, code reviews, and even codebase upgrades. Developers can use Amazon Q with simple commands in GitLab, which can streamline their workflow and boost productivity. The partnership offers capabilities like automated code generation, assisted code reviews, and legacy code upgrades, all inside of GitLab. This helps developers be able to focus their time on other tasks required for development rather than coding in order to enhance their productivity. 

The reason I chose this specific resource was because throughout the entire semester we mainly used GitLab and I believed that it had a lot to do with the majority of what we learned in class. Not only this, but because ai is one of the biggest topics and technologies in the world right now and I believed that this new partnership with GitLab was going to make every aspect of it much easier and make it much more efficient and efficiency in coding is another topic we went over in class a lot as well, with Scrum and Agile principles. I also believed that this would be not only important for me to learn, but others as well since this new program helps with many of the slowest parts of coding. I believed that it was a tool that would serve not only me, but everyone else who is majoring in computer science very well. This new information has also changed the way I think about software development as it shows that ai is not just some popular, interesting and controversial media topic, but now it is a useful tool that is being included into the daily process of developers. It is clear that anyone who wants to one day be a software developer must be able to not only code well, but also know how to use ai in the most efficient way possible. 

I plan on using this in the future by using AI more to be able to assist me in generating code, but also to stay mindful on a good balance between ai and my own ideas in order to make sure my coding is the most efficient it can possibly be and to keep the quality of my code as high as I can.

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-gitlab-duo-with-amazon-q/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Thanas' CS Blog by tlara1f9a6bfb54 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

In this class we have talked about the process of building software many times, but we never really looked into how much this software might cost to create and some different factors that would make a difference in it. I personally found this part of coding the one I kept wondering about so I found a blog post by Kacper Rafalski to learn more about it since if we are spending so much time on the creation of software it would be useful to know all the different aspects of its pricing including project size, complexity, team composition, and technology choices. 

First he explains the cost depending on the software type. The cost of software development depends a lot on the type of software being built. If the project is based on web development it can range from affordable prices to more expensive ones, while if you are creating a mobile app it becomes way more complicated and costs a lot more due to problems that arise where you need to support multiple operating systems for multiple types of phones. Meanwhile custom software development, which involves creating different solutions depending on the case, also varies in price based on the features required to create it and specialized fields like cloud computing and embedded systems are often very flexible and seen as better, but often makes the program cost much more expensive since it is a lot more complex than the other systems. He then explains that a project’s size including its features makes a big impact on its size, but also it has a lot to do with the diversity of its functions. A small company that wants a basic software might have to pay $100,000 meanwhile a bigger company that wants a more complex software will get a starting range of around $600,000. Pricing also depends on the developers. Developers that have much more experience will require much higher rates due to them being much quicker at working as well as being able to handle much more complex projects. There are also some hidden costs like maintenance that will be charged and system integration. The post talks about common pricing models in software development, like the Fixed Price, Time-and-Materials, and Dedicated Team models. Each model has its advantages and is suited for different project types and client needs. Overall the post recommends carefully planning your projects to budget well using different strategies to remain cost effective. 

Overall I believe that I learned a lot from this post and from now on I plan on approaching different projects with a more realistic and cost effective approach. I also learned that creating projects isn’t just about how well you can code, but also about planning strategically and managing my resources and budget as well as I can in order to be a better team player.

Link: https://www.netguru.com/blog/software-development-cost

From the blog CS@Worcester – Thanas' CS Blog by tlara1f9a6bfb54 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.