Hello there! My name is Zach and this is my blog. Enjoy your stay!

CS-348
CS@Worcester

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

Hello! This will be my blog page for CS-348 Software Process Management.

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

Hello, this is Benjamin. I want to explain what steps I took in order to try and learn over summer. I wrote down a list of 4 steps for me to do within the week. Step 1; read a couple of chapters a week about a subject from a textbook or notes like blogs. Step 2; then watch tutorials and practice coding fundamentals on multiple coding websites. Step 3; next I would solve getcracked.io problems and leetcode problems. Step 4 is to make projects for my portfolio. Over the summer I could not do any coding projects due to taking 3 classes so I just did more coding problems on getcracked. 

The reason I am trying to learn coding in this learning method is because it is better to understand why people choose a certain coding method instead of another option. I want to be helpful within a company and still be able to learn independently. So that I can have as many opportunities available. Moving on, I would watch podcasts that would have developers or professors about certain topics so that they can help explain certain concepts better.

I understand that in this field a lot of changes are happening. Which allows more opportunity for so many people and industries. Regardless of what some people say about the current state of computer science, I will still try to learn new concepts and how to implement them. I want to use this year to enjoy a few concepts and coding projects that I am passionate about so that I can enjoy this process.

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

There is a video on YouTube from a channel called The Digital Project Manager about Project Management called, “Agile project management methodology explained (with burgers?!)”. This video talks about Project Management, a topic from our course, but more specifically, agile project management. I found this video particularly educational and informative because instead of explaining agile project management in typical terms, the methodology is described using burgers. The video explains that agile project management is all about flexibility and adaptability. The agile project management style runs through multiple cycles of project production and release, taking feedback and input from the customer and users after each release cycle. This is a very effective and efficient method of project management because it allows a smooth flow of progress while making a more accurate product based on the customers’ desires. The way that the video compared this method of project management to burgers is by suggesting that there could be a goal of making the world’s best burger and in order to do that the chef would have to make a burger, get feedback from those who try it, then make changes to the burger in order to improve it. Agile project management implies that after every round of changes, the product should (hypothetically) get better and better. This made me wonder, in a professional setting, how each of these phases of the project would be tested and improved. Further, at what point could the project/program be determined as complete and who has the authority to make that decision? Agile project management is also inherently iterative. This means that multiple iterations or cycles can be completed throughout the process of completing the project. This method is particularly successful with dynamic projects and environments such as game development and software development because the requirements for these types of projects tend to be constantly changing and developing. Agile project management is also a more flexible form of project management. Because multiple cycles of development will occur, not all of the planning for the project has to be done prior to the developing stage of the project. This allows for more flexibility and a more robust and high quality product to come out of the process. During agile project management, each sprint can be broken down into five parts: Define, Craft, Develop, Deploy, Evaluate. The evaluate phase is what allows for this method to be iterable and flexible to multiple rounds of work.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Struggle of Being a Female Student in CS by Noam Horn and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I happened to stumble across a YouTube video by a channel called Licenseware by the title of, “A Brief History of Software Licensing – Why it exists, and why it is so important”. This video covered information about how software licensing came to be, how it is used, and why it is important in the world of software and coding. The video explains how our world has developed to become, ultimately, reliant on software for organizing and controlling everything from transportation to communication. Because of all of this, the software industry has gained many rules and regulations around when, where, why, and how software can be used. These rules and regulations are more commonly known as Software Licenses. Software Licensing is one of the topics we covered relatively early on in our course, going over the different types of licenses and their uses as well as when and in what scenarios they worked or didn’t work. The history of licensing stems from the history of copyright which came from The Copyright Act of 1710 (The Statute of Anne). This act, passed by the British Parliament, stated that authors had the right to publish and sell their work for a renewable period of time. This is relevant because Software Licensing falls under the category of Copyright Law. This is because software is ultimately seen as a type of literary work. The video goes on to talk about how the Free Software Foundation (FSF) introduced the concept of open source software which led to the development of the open source software movement and the creation of the General Public License. I found this video very interesting because, prior to watching it, I hadn’t realized to what extent and depth software licensing was similar to and fell under the umbrella of a legally documented copyright. This confusion came from the fact that open source software creates an atmosphere of open communication and sharing that doesn’t typically appear in other copyrighted pieces of work. I find it interesting that software seems to be the only field, at least to my knowledge, that has this type of sharing of information and work between other users and developers. The collaboration between maintainers, leaders, collaborators and users allows the field to expand and advance quicker and more efficiently than other fields. This video helped solidify my understanding of different licenses and the importance of not only having an active license in place but also the correct license in place. This also gave me a better concept of what to do in the future if I should choose to post any of my code online as open source material.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Struggle of Being a Female Student in CS by Noam Horn and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Struggle of Being a Female Student in CS by Noam Horn and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.