Category Archives: CS-348

Understanding Team Management

Proper team management is the crux of a well-oiled workflow and a productive team. This blog post by Alicia Schneider highlights not only what good team management is but also how to achieve that and improve your own management skills. Team management covers not only the coordination of oneself and fellow members of the group, but also facilitating and supporting the members through communication and ensuring a healthy and positive work environment that uplifts and motivates all. Clear roles and tasks through delegation are vital in ensuring that everyone knows their job at the overarching goal, as well as giving credit and praise to those who deserve it for a job well done. There are multiple types of management styles, which include:

Autocratic: Managers make decisions without input from team members

Democratic: Team members share ideas and thoughts in decisions that will affect the team before coming to a consensus

Laissez-faire: The Manager allows the team to self-manage with only minor input

Transformational: Managers’ main goal is to inspire and motivate the team to innovate

Transactional: Reward and penalize team members based on their completion of tasks and following outlined instructions

Collaborative: Managers help the team to work together, while the team focuses on working together and making decisions as a group

Coach: Give guidance, support, and advice to team members to improve and develop skills

Servant: Predominantly focused on fostering the growth of the team members

I chose this topic because it aligns with the current lecture material, such as Scrum and Agile workflows. Team management is key for these. No matter one’s role, there is always self-management and teams working in such close collaboration that everyone is managing each other. While the role of leadership may be delegated to a predefined position in these structures, management still relies on communication between people, such as between developers in the Scrum workflow. After reading the blog post, my overall notion of team management has expanded in terms of how to develop my management ideas. I had originally just seen it as delegating tasks and facilitating discussion, but it is actually much deeper after reading. While I myself may not agree with all of the management styles, I find that there are things that can be pulled from them to become a more effective leader and supportive team member, such as fostering the growth of team members from the “Servant” style, which is a great idea to also implement with the “Coach” style of giving guidance and support. By blending the management styles like this, I believe that it will help to produce not only a more productive team but also a more positive environment with great morale. I look forward to implementing these ideas in my future teams I work in and may lead.

Work Cited:

Schneider, A. (2024, August 21). How to manage a team: 6 powerful tips for team management. Monday. October 22, 2025, https://monday.com/blog/teamwork/team-management/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Dan's Blog by Daniel Fung-A-Fat and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

More Information on Agile and Scrum

I decided to write this self-directed blog entry on an article I found regarding information and differences between Agile and Scrum, two topics we have recently been covering in class. I sought to learn more about these two topics, as I was not entirely confident in my understanding of them. I unfortunately was absent due to an illness on the day we covered the Agile methodology in class, so in order to get a better understanding on the topic, I went through the activity and learned more about it on my own time. This article summarizes what Agile and Scrum are, their differences, the core Agile values and principles, the basics of Scrum, and when and how they should be utilized. This was quite a thorough read and was very informative to reinforce what I had learned from the class. One thing that I did not immediately connect from class was that Scrum was based on the Agile philosophies. As best said in the article, Agile is the guiding principles to shape how you work, Scrum gives a structured playbook to follow.

Though I do not plan to go into software development as a career path, I think this is still a beneficial way to learn quality teamwork and collaboration. Regardless of concentration or field of study, computer science and information systems related disciplines require efficient teamwork and collaboration. Working professionally in the field for four years now, there has never been a project or major task that involved no one besides myself. I always had to work with different teams to accomplish the final goal that was needed. Learning this framework could be very beneficial for me moving forward so I can apply it to my future professional projects. Having better tools almost always leads to a better job done, and I always strive to improve and better myself as a technology professional.

One discovery made from this article is that there are other common implementations of Agile outside of Scrum. One of these, I recognized from my professional experience, as my current organization requires all full-time staff to participate in Lean training. I was not aware that Lean training, which according to the article, “aims to eliminate waste and maximize customer value by focusing on efficiency and continuous improvement,” was an extension of the Agile methodology. This is critical, especially in the healthcare environment that I work in. It is an everchanging field and an environment that can change drastically within a matter of seconds. Though I am not a full-time employee and have yet to participate in that training, I will participate in it once I resume full-time work permanently at the end of December 2025.

ZG

The link to the blog post: https://monday.com/blog/rnd/agile-vs-scrum/

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From the blog CS@Worcester – zach goddard by Zach Goddard and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Working in Agile and Scrum Teams

Source: Hapticmedia and The Scrum Guide

Agile is a methodology that allows for iterative development that is constantly being improved upon for the best product and efficiency. Those who use Agile follow the manifesto, consisting of 4 values and 12 principles of best practices. 

The values are: 

  1. Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
  2. Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
  3. Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
  4. Responding to Change Over Following a Plan

The first value relates to prioritizing how the team is working as a whole rather than following a strict set of protocols that may hinder productivity. The second value focuses on getting a working product to show the customer over spending too much time on documentation that does not progress the project. The third value involves the customer in the development process, allowing for constant feedback and a product the customer will love. The fourth value is similar to the first, reacting to changes the team needs to make to be more efficient and create a working product is more important than sticking to a plan created in the beginning. 

A type of the Agile methodology is called Scrum. Scrum breaks down a project into small “sprints” where the team works on a small increment of the whole project. In each team there are the Developers, a Product Owner, and a Scrum Master. The Product Owner acts as the communicator between the developers and the customer and maintains a priority list of what needs to be done. The Scrum Master oversees the developers and ensures they are being as effective as they can be. During each sprint, there are 4 main components, the planning meeting, the daily scrum, the sprint review, and the sprint retrospective. The planning meeting happens at the beginning of the sprint and is where the team decides what they will accomplish this sprint. The daily scrum is a daily meeting where everyone decides what they will do that day and what they will do better from the day before. The sprint review is a meeting with the customers/stakeholders where everything that was accomplished is presented. The sprint retrospective is a meeting between the scrum team where they discuss what went well overall and what needs to change for the next sprint. 

Agile is a very effective methodology for software development. Over 85% of developers use it and it improves delivery time and team morale. It also allows for all team members to be on the same level where everyone is important and always making valuable progress. I hope to be in a team that uses Agile because it is the most effective compared to other methods of software development, like Waterfall. I am looking forward to experiencing the Scrum process first-hand in the Software Development Capstone next semester and I have high hopes of what it will do for my long term career.

From the blog ALIDA NORDQUIST by alidanordquist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Blog Post for Quarter 2

October 21st, 2025

Recently, my class has been going over stuff regarding teamwork and ways to approach building a software or product. For example, the waterfall method, agile methodology, and scrum have come up in discussion. This has reminded me of POGIL since POGIL was a group used in the classroom semi-frequently.

Because of this correlation, I decide to look at blogs about POGIL. However, I noticed something interesting about the blog I chose. So I chose two just because I found some things interesting. The first was made with WordPress.com, much like the one I’m making here. It was about POGIL. The blog appeared to just be called “The POGIL Project.” Or, that’s what I have surmised after looking at the web address. Additionally, there was some interesting notes regarding how it appears to be designed for faculty teaching or implementing POGIL based team activities. However, the last post appears to be in 2015, which is not as recent as I’d like. (However, there appears to be someone who has the same name as the author of this blog who is cited to be impactful to the development of POGIL. Which is pretty cool, though I couldn’t concretely find evidence that they were the same person.)

So, I looked for an alternative. The author was not listed which isn’t great but it is recent. It appears to also be about POGIL. But the most interesting part was how it was applied to science as opposed to actual computer science. Actually, both blogs do that as well.

This new blog I picked was basically an overview of how POGIL works and why it is good to use. It overviewed the reasons why POGIL is used and what it is intended to do. It basically overlaps with what I know about POGIL already.

In a way, this is interesting in how this mean POGIL is both universal and useful. It isn’t just a weird Computer Science class thing we do, it’s an actual science thing. Which is definitely more interesting to know about considering I rarely encountered POGIL before college. It probably won’t really affect my opinion on POGIL but it is mildly interesting how it is something that I’ll see around. I guess I can keep that in mind.

FIRST INITIAL BLOG: https://thepogilproject.wordpress.com/

SECOND, REVIEWED BLOG POST: https://www.transtutor.blog/pogil-guide-high-school-biology

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ryan's Blog Maybe. by Ryan N and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Understanding the Twelve Principles of Agile Software

The 12 Principles of Agile Software explained

For this professional development entry, I chose to read the article titled The Twelve Principles of Agile Software Explained from the Agile Alliance website. The article provides an overview of the core ideas that shape the Agile Manifesto and explains how they guide the way modern software is built. What immediately caught my attention was how the principles focus on people, teamwork, and adaptability rather than strict processes or heavy documentation. The article highlights that Agile is not simply a development framework but a philosophy centered on collaboration and continuous improvement. It emphasizes that successful teams listen to their customers, respond to change quickly, and work together to deliver valuable software frequently rather than saving everything for one big release.

I found this resource helpful because it connects directly with what we have been studying in CS-343 about software processes and team communication. In many group projects, I have experienced situations where rigid planning or lack of communication slowed progress. Reading this article helped me see that Agile’s emphasis on flexibility and open dialogue could have prevented some of those problems. The principle that stood out to me most was “responding to change over following a plan.” This idea made me realize that while planning is important, being adaptable is even more valuable. Real-world projects rarely go exactly as expected, and being able to adjust quickly is a skill that separates good teams from great ones.

Another key takeaway for me was the focus on sustainable development. The article explained that teams should maintain a consistent pace and avoid burnout, which is something I think every computer science student can relate to. It is easy to fall into a cycle of late nights and last-minute fixes, but this principle reminded me that long-term quality depends on balance and discipline. The principle about motivated individuals also resonated with me. It stated that the best results come from trusting team members and giving them the environment and support they need to succeed. I have noticed this in my own coursework; when everyone feels respected and valued, collaboration becomes smoother and creativity increases.

The article also touched on the importance of reflection, encouraging teams to pause regularly to discuss what went well and what could be improved. This aligns perfectly with the concept of continuous improvement that we discuss in class. I learned that retrospectives are not just about fixing mistakes but about strengthening the team’s process as a whole. Moving forward, I plan to apply these ideas in future projects by promoting open communication, being willing to adjust plans when needed, and supporting my teammates in maintaining a healthy work rhythm.

Overall, this resource gave me a deeper understanding of what it truly means to work in an Agile environment. It showed me that Agile is not about speed but about building smarter, more collaborative, and more human-centered teams. The twelve principles serve as a strong foundation for both professional development and teamwork, and I believe they will continue to guide me as I grow in my career as a software developer.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Life of Chris by Christian Oboh and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

BPM On the Up & Up

With the technological advances and innovations in business continue to exponentially grow within their practices. The biggest challenge is all the pressure they face to stay afloat. From high climbing costs to having the fiercest competition with other companies. Long term, this causes danger to viability and businesses cannot afford to screw up continuously. To address these issues, a software has been implemented that eventually became the foundation of “digital transformation”, according to Digital Journal.

This is called Business Process Management (BPM), a software providing tools to quote “streamline processes, manage compliance, and adapt to shifting market conditions”. BPM is used to touch various different areas like different departments, locations, and IT systems. A revolutionary tactic has been made here, due to this process helping managers efficiently track and pinpoint errors & inefficiencies. Also for the team members, they can have a clear understanding of their goals and mission(s). 

Speaking of efficiency, this is essentially the first and most important benefit (arguably) that users hopefully will recognize. A lot more tasks can be completed in a higher-level manner. Let’s use a couple of examples: finance and healthcare. To treat and prevent illnesses, increased automation creates higher capacity. For financing, provider automation keeps secureness over companies against fraud and error. This translates to transparency, where these companies get to view their status and performance, in turn increasing accountability.

Despite the pros, all ideas come with its cons. BPM is not a straightforward process that is easily implemented whatsoever. Some businesses and organizations are limited in terms of skill gaps, fear of change and redesign complexities. In order to resolve this, companies need to broaden their vision by being open to the idea of BPM. Seeing the benefit will lead to greater outcomes in the performance as a whole.

Why is this important to discuss? The business industry is constantly changing, from the amount of businesses being formed, their structure outlines, idea creations, improving outcomes, etc. Depending on the size of the business (whether it’s yours or you work for one), there needs to be some sort of structure and process to have smooth outputs and less friction. For me personally, I knew that all businesses had their own processes in terms of how they’re run, but BPM is a new term I had never really learned or tapped into.

Moving forward, with the knowledge of programming and software development that I’m currently learning through a curriculum, I can hopefully bring a new/different perspective into a business when I am ready to delve deeper into the work field. Maintaining business process management will improve productivity, so it is not something to ignore at all. 

Source: BPM software and the move toward smarter business practices – Digital Journal

From the blog CS@Worcester – theJCBlog by Jancarlos Ferreira and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Development Environment

Development Environments in Software Process ManagementDownload

From the blog CS@Worcester – dipeshbhattaprofile by Dipesh Bhatta and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Blog Entry: Duck Simulator

Summary of the Resource

The resource I explored is the Duck Simulator project from the article “Design Patterns: The Strategy Pattern in Duck Simulations” by Head First Design Patterns (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-design/0596007124/ch06.html). The simulator features different types of ducks like Mallard, Redhead, and Rubber ducks with behaviours such as flying and quacking. What’s particularly interesting is that these behaviours aren’t hard-coded into the duck classes; instead, they can be assigned or changed dynamically at runtime. This design highlights important object-oriented programming concepts, including polymorphism, encapsulation, and code reusability. It also demonstrates how the strategy design pattern allows developers to build flexible, scalable, and maintainable programs. The simulation is not only educational but also fun, giving a visual and interactive way to understand abstract programming concepts.

Why I Chose This Resource

I chose the Duck Simulator because it is a hands-on, practical example that clearly demonstrates OOP principles we are currently learning in class. I was looking for a resource that is engaging, easy to follow, and yet illustrates advanced programming concepts like abstraction, interfaces, and composition. The simulator is particularly appealing because it shows how separating behaviours from the main duck classes makes it easy to add new features or modify existing ones without rewriting the core code. This approach mirrors how professional software projects are structured, and I wanted to see an example that connects what we learn in theory to practical programming.

What I Learned and Reflected On

Working through the Duck Simulator helped me understand how to design flexible and maintainable code. Previously, I often relied on inheritance to share behaviours, but this project demonstrated how composition provides more adaptability and control. For example, I could give a Mallard duck a “fly with rocket” behaviour without touching the original class—something that would have been difficult or messy using only inheritance.

The project also helped me see the value of modular thinking, treating behaviours as separate, reusable components that can be mixed and matched across objects. This makes it much simpler to extend the program, add new duck types, or implement additional actions. Experimenting with the simulation gave me a tangible way to understand polymorphism and modular design, which made abstract class concepts from lectures much easier to grasp. It also reinforced the idea that writing clean, reusable code is as important as writing code that just works.

How I’ll Use This in the Future

In my future projects, I plan to apply the lessons from the Duck Simulator by designing programs in which behaviours can be swapped, updated, or extended independently of the main code. This will be especially useful in games, simulations, or any software where features may change over time. The project reinforced the importance of thinking ahead about software structure and planning for flexibility, rather than just focusing on making the code functional. Overall, the Duck Simulator showed me that good software design is a skill that complements programming ability, and it’s something I will carry forward in both my academic and professional projects.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Site Title by Yousef Hassan and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Team management in software development

As a software developer there is a significant chance that you will develop software in a team environment. I know as an entry level developer gaining this experience beforehand would be a massive boost for my career but what exactly does team management entail?

The importance of team management

In a perfect world a team of developers all work perfectly together synchronously & complete a task in the best way possible. In reality, each team will have people of different skillsets, creativity, and ideas for development. Therefore, teams need to be managed in order to optimize development as much as possible.

Diagram illustrating the roles within a software project development team.

Creating a team

Before assembling a team for a project its important to highlight the scope & needs in order to figure out how many, and the type of, developers. According to itrex, some examples of developers you may need would be:

– Software Developer: Engineers and stabilizes the product & solves any technical problems emerging during the development lifecycle
– Software Architect: Designs a high-level software architecture, selects appropriate tools and platforms to implement the product vision, & sets up code quality standards and performs code reviews
– UI/UX Developer: Transforms a product vision into user-friendly designs & creates user journeys for the best user experience and highest conversion rates
– QA(quality assurance) Engineer: Makes sure an application performs according to requirements & spots functional and non-functional defects
-Test Automation Engineer: Designs a test automation ecosystem & writes and maintains test scripts for automated testing
– DevOps Engineer: Facilitates cooperation between development and operations teams & builds continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines for faster delivery
– Business Analyst: Understands customers business processes and translates business needs to requirements.
– Project Manager: Makes sure a product or its part is delivered on time and within budget & manages and motivates the software development team
– Project Owner: Holds responsibility for a product vision and evolution & makes sure the final product meets customer requirements

Infographic illustrating the challenges of managing software development teams, including communication, role clarity, and meeting deadlines.

Post-team assembly

Depending on your project you now have an idea on what team you have, the next step is actually managing them. This entails setting clear objectives/goals, creating a timeline, allocating resources, setting communication strategies, delegating, implementing, tracking progress, monitoring project, managing risks/challenges & maintaining flexibility.

Overview of a project manager’s essential roles and responsibilities in software development.

Final thoughts

I now have a better understanding the importance of team management in software development. In order to maximize efficiency towards a project/goal you definitely need to manage a significant amount of aspects related to development. The ability for a team to work together is also valuable & must be taken into account. Overall, I really enjoyed researching this topic, the main sources I used in my research was this section in Atlassians website as well as this section in the itrexgroup website.

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From the blog Petraq Mele blog posts by Petraq Mele and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Git bisect

In our class, in our latest POGIL we’ve started to explore debugging, an essential skill that uses different tests, tools, and commands.. The blog post “Supercharge Your Debugging with Git Bisect” by Phil Haack is a blog that talks about debugging with a tool that we’ve just started to familiarize ourselves with. That being git bisect, a command that helps developers locate the specific commit where a bug first appears. I chose this post because I was curious about how this tool can change debugging for me as a developer, as well as the idea of pinpointing where a bug starts in version control.

The post opens with a relatable story about the author facing a bug that had crept into his project over time. Instead of resorting to endlessly going through each commit and running tests, he turned to git bisect to efficiently find the problem. Haack explains how the command works like a binary search. It starts by marking a known commit where the bug exists and a known commit where the program worked correctly. Git then checks out a commit halfway between those two points. After testing that commit, the developer marks it as good or bad, and Git automatically cuts the range of possible culprits down until it pinpoints the exact commit where the issue began. Haack further elaborates on advanced features such as skipping commits that can’t be tested and automating the process with scripts through git bisect run. He also notes potential complications, like when the first bad commit is a merge rather than a single code change, which can make debugging a bit more complicated.

I chose this article because debugging is one my worst and most frustrating aspects of coding, and git bisect offers an easier approach that turns guessing into a faster, more efficient search. While I’ve used Git regularly for version control, I only recently realized it could actively help in finding bugs. The examples given in the blog made it easy to understand how bisecting commits can save on time, especially in large projects with long histories.

Reading this blog gave me new ideas about debugging. I’ve always viewed Git as a way to manage versions, especially when working with others, but now I see it as a debugging tool as well. The concept of using binary search to isolate problems makes me think about what other commands can be used to enhance my time when coding. It’s also a heads up that effective debugging depends on maintaining small, manageable commits because without manageable commits, even Git Bisect can struggle to pinpoint a specific change. Hopefully I can incorporate this tool into my workflow whenever I encounter bugs that I can’t find.

https://haacked.com/archive/2024/11/11/git-bisect/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Coding with Tai by Tai Nguyen and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.