Category Archives: Set-up Task #3

LibreFoodPantry

The idea of working with an open source project has always scared me a lot. The way we have been doing projects since freshman year – trusting the professor as our main if not only guide and him being confidential with our bugs, errors and insecurities has been a great comfort and way for me to grow. However, an open source project is completely different and I didn’t know how to get started with it. When reading about the 16 FOSSisms as values of the LibreFoodPantry, I learned so much about the benefits they bring to us as student learners, understood how valuable it is to serve the community with our knowledge and embrace the process of learning instead of being scared of not doing enough or doing things wrong. These values will allow us to do and be our best in this amazing project.

16 maxims from free and open source culture for education | Opensource.com

LibreFoodPantry | LibreFoodPantry

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Intellect by rkitenge91 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

The section that I choose to focus on is the Code of Conduct. While reading through each section from the LibreFoodPantry website, what stook out to me which sometimes is not clear on most apps, is the Guidelines section. The apps policies, if violated one of the community standards, will be temporarily ban the user allowing them to correct their actions. If the user continues to violate the community standards they will then be permanently banned. What I found interesting or rather curious about was whether the app notifies the user of the violation they made? And if so, how many violations are there before permanently banned? I think adding that additional information leaves little wiggle room for the user to claim they were not notified.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Dive by gonzalezwsu22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Familiarizing Myself With LibreFoodPantry

After visiting the website, LibreFoodPantry.org, I was really impressed by how clean the webpage looked. It really gives a brief idea on what this project is all about. On the main page it shows items such as the mission, values, status, and a few other things about the project. One thing that stood out to me was the User Story Map. I did not expect to see a layout of things that may be incorporated into the project. Seeing this as a student who will be working on this project allows me to better understand what I may be working on. The User Story Map shows features that may be added to the project based on interviews with clients. However, the story map doesn’t guarantee that everything on it will be incorporated, its more to help select what features to have and implement.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Michael's Developer Blog by michaelchaau and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry Reading

LibreFoodPantry is built to serve a wide range of communities and academic institutions. Examining each area helps me comprehend how this project was designed to function and all of the values linked with it. The Mission Statement, Values, which includes a Code of Conduct, Agile values and principles, and FOSSisms, for example. Licensing, Acknowledgements, the Coordinating Committee, and other topics are covered. For me, the Code of Conduct is one of the most significant topics in the reading because it discusses all of the relevant facts that might easily occur during online contact, such as harassment and discrimination. Because it governs how humans interact on the internet, computer ethics is vital.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Site Title by proctech21 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

After reading the items linked from the website, I think the FOSSisms is one of the parts that I find interesting. FOSSisms were created to ensure that developers who have never used open source before can be prepared for a culture shock. There are 16 maxims which are about the benefits that open source can bring to users, what circumstances will occur in the process of using open source, and actions or behaviors that a developer should do or behave in accordance with an open source community.

Moreover, I find FOSSisms useful because there are some maxims that I can apply to become more efficient and productive when working on an open source project, such as “It’s not what you know, it what you want to learn”, “give back”, and “show me the code”, etc. Those maxims remind me to always have the right mindset and appropriate behaviors when working in an open source community.

From the blog CS@Worcester – T's CSblog by tyahhhh and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

CS448 Set-Up Task 3

After reading through the different sections for LibreFoodPantry, I wanted to focus on my post on the section about the organization of LFP because it gave a good outline of how it is divided among the people working on it. The LFP has a coordinating committee that is divided into a few shops, and each shop has at least one team dedicated to it. Professors and instructors that have their class involved are shop managers. The layout of LFP and how the committee and managers work reminded me of how kanban works because of the division of the work and visualization of LFP, with some elements of scrum such as a product owners and usage of user stories, and the shop managers could seem similar to scrum masters, since some of the managers here have classes that they may help and coach.

From the blog Jeffery Neal's Blog by jneal44 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

Before taking a look at the LibreFoodPantry user story map, I read through the linked article. I was able to understand the importance of a user story map when it comes to developing a project. I found the section,“Your software has a backbone and a skeleton – and your map shows it,” interesting because it actually makes sense when you look at the user story map. My initial impression on the food pantry project was that it was simple, but after looking at the story map, I realized that there are a lot of moving pieces that are all part of a bigger picture. I think that creating the story map is a good way of laying out all of the ideas of the clients and allows us to visualize/prioritize the features we need to work on.

Links: https://librefoodpantry.org/docs/user-story-map
https://www.jpattonassociates.com/the-new-backlog/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Null Pointer by vrotimmy and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The LFP

LibreFoodPantry is an open source software for food pantries with a growing community of developers, clients, and users. Upon perusing the website, I found their values to be particularly interesting, especially their value of FOSSisms. In my opinion, the belief system of FOSS (Free Open Source Software) contradicts the traditional teaching system that one receives throughout their academic career. For instance, a course at a university is typically led by a single professor, of whom the students receive all their direction from. In an Open Source community, the community tends to agree upon the direction in which the project goes. This can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers like myself to become accustomed to.

From the blog CS@Worcester – You have reached the upper bound by cloudtech360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry

I was reading the items linked in the LibreFoodPantry website and I was mostly interested in the Code of Conduct. It is important to know that the community is protected and valued. That anything inappropriate is not tolerated and that everyone from everywhere is accepted just the way they are. That sense of safety and protection is important because when the community feels safe, even their work is done perfectly. I can tell that the community of LibreFoodPantry offers and guarantees security which is very essential. Safety is the most important factor in any company, community because when it’s not the case, no one would want to be in such an environment.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Gracia's Blog (Computer Science Major) by gkitenge and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

CS-448 Set-Up Task 3 (LibreFoodPantry Introduction)

In order to prepare for my Software Development Capstone project, I must be aware of my client (that is, who my group will be creating software for). This client is known as “LibreFoodPantry” – a system of various University-based food pantries, combined through their goal of using computer software to make this mission more efficient.

One aspect of LibreFoodPantry that I found particularly interesting was the status of the program. Apparently, “no software has been deployed to a client as of yet”. I had decided to focus on this aspect of the pantry (and subsequently write about it) as it performs a dual effect on me. Not only does it relieve me of the guilt that I may not bring the best software to the project, but it also excites me with the opportunity to be a “pioneer”; I will lead the way with my own codes and ideas.

From the blog CS@Worcester – mpekim.code by Mike Morley (mpekim) and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.