Category Archives: Sprint-1

CS 448-01 Team 3: Sprint 1 Retrospective (2/22)

This beginning of the sprint was a very weird sprint, but me and my team managed to make it through without much trouble.

Seeing how the directory for AddInventoryBackend works, it was easy enough to move the files from their VSCode locations to the directory paths that GitPod uses to be able to use the important files. For this sprint in general, we just needed to move the Linters to the correct directories and then try to run them as best as possible. For the Linters that did not work, we either replaced them with other Linters that were accessible through GitPod, or we just removed them. Since we only needed specific Linters to use for our project, our team were able to confirm that we had a sufficient amount of Linters needed thanks in part to consulting our product owner. Also since I used GitLab, creating issues and labeling them were not too difficult either as we were familiar with managing our issue boards, especially since we learned about workflows in a previous class about Software Process Management.

What did not work well was that I was having a very hard time with trying to use GitLab and GitPod, because I had never directly worked on issues before, making it more difficult for me to fully understand how to utilize my environment until near the end of the sprint. I had made myself a note for the next sprint to remember what I have done for this sprint and what else I had to do for next sprint, because I am very mistake-prone when working on a new IDE. GitPod’s changes are new and more convenient, but as someone who has used other IDEs such as Visual Studio Code and Eclipse to name a few, this was a completely new environment that was very unfamiliar to me. While I did make a few notable mistakes like not understanding how to create merge requests or which tags to use, my team guided me to learn how to be able to make those changes by myself after lots of practice.

As a team, we were really prioritizing meeting up together as necessary as possible. We considered using Discord as a means of having our virtual calls since that is where we were going to communicate and do our stand-ups anyways. However, we found that meeting up in-person was much better for us as working on a sprint by call is not consistent with us since joining a Discord call is too inconvenient and takes up too much time. Like I said before, managing GitLab was not too difficult since we all have experience with Scrum from our previous class. I think the best part about our team is that we are very open to helping each other whenever we were stuck on any issues relating to tasks like with the Linters.

For my individual work in the sprint I had done a couple issues to start out with the sprint. I moved the shell script commands from the /Commands bin to /Bin since that is how we were going to organize our shell-scripts like our lint.sh script (https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/addinventoryfrontend/-/issues/32). Another task I did was very similar to the first one, except I am instead moving the Docker files to specific directories in GitPod (https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/addinventoryfrontend/-/issues/33). The Linter task that I did was to add AlexJS to GitPod so then we can utilize a new Linter to help with checking our code for our project (https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/gitlab-profile/-/issues/83). I did all of those tasks before I would verify to make sure that our entire repository was in the correct state (https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/addinventoryfrontend/-/issues/35). Overall, I think that I am doing good so far individually with the sprints. The one thing I need to work on as a team member is speaking out whenever I need help or so I can find something in particular to do in the sprint since it is not just my team who has to contribute to our work. I am hoping for this next sprint, I can get a specific issue that I can work on to contribute using my skills that I have learned from my previous classes.

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

Sprint Retrospective March 3, 2024

During this sprint, I worked on four issues that were assigned to me. As a group, we all did well in our first sprint and felt we had much to improve on. There were areas where I could improve. During this sprint, I worked on four different issues; one of them was “Investigate GenerateWCFBReport frontend for better understanding of what tests need to be created”(1). This issue involved looking into the .vue files in the GenerateWCFBReport to determine the tests required. Keith and I had looked through the files separately to see what would be done. While I wrote down what needed to be done in a Word document, I remembered that I needed to add a comment to the issue page, which Keith already did.

Another issue I worked on was “Add AlexJS linter to pipelines for AddInventoryFrontend”(2). I had a lot of trouble with this issue, and it took around three hours to finally finish. Thankfully, I was able to work with my team to correct the issues I was having in getting this issue completed, even though, as I wrote in my notes while working on this issue, I was not and am not sure how I was able to get the pipeline to pass. However, Keith later noticed we may need to correctly complete this issue and other issues related to adding AlexJS. We plan on correcting these issues in sprint two.

A third issue I worked on during the sprint was “Move commands from ‘GuestInfoAPI/commands’ to ‘GuestInfoAPI/bin’”(3). This issue went smoothly for me, but I recall Tommy was having trouble completing a similar issue in a different section of the project, we tried to help him as best as we could, but for some reason specific files were being picked up by linters that should not have been. I am still unsure as to how the rest of the group did not have similar issues with their issues regarding moving their commands code.

The fourth issue I worked on this week was “Gitpod Dev Environments GuestInfoApi Team 2″(4). I had a lot of trouble with this issue as well, as mentioned in the issue page comments, I had to skip these issues “stoplight.spectral”, “hashhar.gitattributes”, “tlahmann.alex-linter” because of this error “[extension] extension is not found in Open VSXgitpod”. This was the first one I worked on during the sprint, so I had several issues merging the commits. “I also had difficulty merging commits, but Keith found a workaround to correct the issue. This took around 45 minutes to find and correct. In addition to this, I spent another 45 minutes trying to correct some linting errors being caused by “/t” markers.”

As a group we agreed that our communication was fantastic, we reached out to one another when we needed help, and were all able to communicate our ideas politely and efficiently and were all on the same page. However, we all agreed that we needed help with efficiently scheduling meetings between the four of us. We also needed help with weighing our issues appropriately. These issues can be easily corrected, with the scheduling we have determined to dedicate at least one class meeting to be in person and the other online. Regarding the weighing issues, that was primarily due to our inexperience.

I could improve by working on my assignments more on my own rather than just during our meetings. I also could improve by putting more comments on my issues in GitLab.

Issue 1: https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/reportingsystem/generatewcfbreportfrontend/-/issues/36

Issue 2: https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/addinventoryfrontend/-/issues/30

Issue 3: https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfoapi/-/issues/146

Issue 4: https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfoapi/-/issues/149

From the blog CS@Worcester – P. McManus Worcester State CS Blog by patrickmcmanus1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Retrospective – Sprint #1

During the course of our first sprint, I contributed to 3 issues:

  1. Gitpod Dev Environments – https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/inventorybackend/-/issues/69 (Created new files to support the use of settings and extensions in Gitpod instead of Docker).
  2. Move from commands to bin – https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/inventoryintegration/-/issues/6 (Changed commands file to bin and altered any mentions or uses of prior commands files).
  3. Add AlexJS linter to the pipeline – https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/inventoryintegration/-/issues/7 (Assisted in adding Alexjs to the Inventory Integration pipeline).

I also reviewed a majority of our issues at the end of our sprint and collaborated with teammates to fix any errors with issues, mainly regarding merging.

What worked well during our sprint was that we were all able to help each other and work towards achieving our goal of at least 75% completion of our planned issues. We were all able to reach out and have any questions clarified in a timely manner if anyone was stuck on a particular step or concept. We efficiently used our time for standups and were able to seamlessly transition between our virtual and in-person meetings without any issues. Regardless of our meeting location, we were able to meaningfully collaborate on issues, and when working individually, we were still able to bounce off each other if needed.

What didn’t work well is that we could have planned more properly in splitting the workload evenly per person. As a team, we could have done a better job in communicating what needs to be worked on and/or reviewed to allow for everyone to participate in our sprints. We didn’t communicate much over what we each planned to complete and just went with the flow as we went along. This did not hinder our progress, but it did, however, hinder our overall planning efficacy and the spread of participation.

As a team, we could work towards communicating better when discussing what needs to be done and what is yet to be done. By improving our communication, we would be able to reach our goals as we had in the past while also allowing for all members to have a substantial impact on our overall sprint. By better separating our work, it would also help even the spread of workload and stress to each member instead of having some members dealing with more to do than others when other members are available and willing to contribute/collaborate.

As an individual, I felt as if I could have also communicated better to facilitate more work being spread instead of taking it upon myself to make sure all work was reviewed and ready for merging. While it helped to ensure we were prepared for our review session, it still left others in our team unable to participate as much since, while I did take the initiative to get our things done, it left little room for others to contribute to our tickets if they had not already participated.

Overall, I’m happy with how our first sprint turned out, it went pretty smoothly, and I’m looking forward to our next sprint.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Eli's Corner of the Internet by Eli and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sprint 1 Retrospective

With this being our first sprint of the semester it went well but we had our fair share of issues that we had to work through as a team which will help us make better decisions on our workflow and our team dynamic in the future. I personally worked on five issues throughout the sprint, one of these issues being a team issue and three of the issues being assigned to myself while we still worked as a team while going through our individual issues. These issues included adding the alex js linter to a pipeline and resolving alex js issues, adding a git pod dev environment setup to a repo in the project and moving from commands to bin for a specific repo within the project. Our group issue that we completed included researching frontend development and using our research to create issues for our second sprint regarding the wireframe for the add inventory frontend.

Overall I did not have much trouble with my individual issues within this sprint. My first issue I worked on with the alex js linter was straightforward and I was able to complete it without much delay as there were not a lot of terms flagged by the linter after its implementation to the pipeline. My second issue regarding git pod dev environments took a bit more time which was simply just due to the time it took to fully test the pipeline after a commit but I did not have trouble with implementing the git pod dev environment within the repository. My last individual issue involved moving from commands to bin, this was my most simple individual issue as it mainly consisted of renaming a folder and checking for commands which used the commands folder and changing it to use the bin folder. Our team wide issue of researching frontend and making issues also went well as we all attended the meeting and went over frontend basics together. Links to my individual issues are listed below.

Although we did not have a large amount of problems within this sprint I still feel as though there are things we could work on to improve as a team. One thing we can improve on is our timeline when it comes to reviewing, during the sprint we didn’t review our code until near the end of the sprint which just ended up being inefficient and experiencing this has led to us deciding to review code as soon as possible during this sprint instead of waiting until the end of the sprint in order to notify each other of any issues with our work with ample time to fix mistakes. Another thing I feel as though we all need to work on during sprint two is our use of gitlab as there were points where we got lost in gitlab when making merge requests, branches etc so being more careful when using gitlab will help us all remain more organized in order to ensure we get our code properly reviewed and merged within a timely manner. In my opinion we worked well together given it was our first time working in a team like this and hopefully we can continue to develop our abilities to work as a team throughout the next two sprints.

Alex JS Linter issue: 

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/checkinventoryfrontend/-/issues/33

Gitpod Dev Environments Issue: 

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/checkinventoryfrontend/-/issues/32

Move from commands to bin issue: 

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/checkinventoryfrontend/-/issues/31

From the blog CS@Worcester – Dylan Brown Computer Science by dylanbrowncs and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sprint 1 Retrospective

Going into our first sprint, not only as a team together but as each of our first sprints individually, we were all on the same page with similar expectations. Those being that we would equally know just as little as each other. This mentality was good to have when we ran into issues that we knew ahead of time would take working as a team to solve. We had no idea what those issues would be, just that there were going to be plenty as this was a learning opportunity for each one of us.

Our team was tasked with setting up AlexJS linter and Gitpod extensions in select repositories in Thea’s Pantry. We tackled these tasks by dividing the work between us so that we would work primarily in one repository, with mine being the GuestInfoSytems/GuestInfoFrontend. This only worked for 3 of our members with the 4th having to work in a different repository for each issue. Looking back on this, only working in one repository makes working individually more organized but, as we found out later, would lead to less cross referencing and things being missed.

Other issues our team tackled during the sprint involved frontend testing. First we worked together to do research on open source frontend testing software that could be used in our project. This led us to understand how frontend testing works and what tests should be expected. With this knowledge, we investigated the frontends that were available to design the test that would need to be built in a later sprint.

What Worked Well:

Our team collaboration was by far our strongest feature. With all of us willing to work together and communicate, we were able to make sure that we all stayed on the same page throughout the sprint. Our team stayed in constant communication throughout, even in between meetings. This meant we could communicate times for meetings well ahead of when we wanted to have them, while still being flexible if something came up. When we were working together in a meeting it was either in person or over a discord call. These calls sometimes went on for hours. However, no one let that bother them when it came to getting the work done and sticking around to make sure we all understood what was going on.

What Didn’t Work Well:

The most notable issue we ran into was the weights of our issues. While on paper the issues seemed trivial, what we didn’t account for was the complexities of learning Gitpod and Gitlab. Navigating gitlab and handling pipeline commit message issues lead to the majority of the long nights and ultimately meant that none of our weights should have been a 0.

Team Improvements:

We were all working on the same or similar issues in different repositories meant we could do them together simultaneously. This led to all of our work this sprint being done during the calls with only minor issues being handled individually. While this made the work way more digestible at the start, it is important that we are able to handle issues individually in the future when we have to work on issues that don’t all align with each other’s. 

Person Improvements:

I noticed that a lot of, if not all, of my questions were answered in the documentation provided in the repository I was working in. Moving forward I am going to do better at fully looking through the documentation and files to get a better understanding of the project and how to approach issues.

Gitpod Issues:

Setup Gitpod environment and settings for GuestInfoFrontend:
https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/issues/85

Issue to change commands to bin in GuestInfoFrontend was fixed prior to the sprint:
https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/issues/82 

Worked on adding the AlexJS linter to the pipeline for GuestInfoFrontend:
https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/issues/81 

Researched open source frontend testing software:
https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/issues/86

Designed tests for GuestInfoSytems/GuestInfoFrontend:
https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/issues/87

Designed tests for InventorySystem/CheckOutGuestFrontend:
https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/checkoutguestfrontend/-/issues/36 

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS Learning by kbourassa18 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sprint 1 Retrospective Blog

As the first sprint EVER, it went very well, and it provided significant learning opportunities.

Our team exhibited strong collaboration throughout this initial phase. Effective communication was a cornerstone of our approach, enabling us to schedule both online and face-to-face meetings efficiently. A testament to our collaborative spirit was achieving our target of completing more than 75% of the tasks by the sprint’s end. This success largely stemmed from our commitment to weekly in-person meetings, fostering a united team environment crucial for addressing new challenges and workflows.

Despite these positive aspects, our journey was not devoid of hurdles. We encountered several setbacks, primarily due to our collective inexperience with GitLab and its workflow processes. Initially, we struggled with navigation, issue postings, and branch creations, leading to confusion and delays. Our approach to merge requests and the subsequent review process also proved problematic, culminating in merge conflicts and pipeline failures due to our wait-until-the-end strategy.

In light of these challenges, we aim to refine our approach in the upcoming sprint. We plan to create a “Workflow tips” document, compiling our experiences and solutions from this sprint to circumvent similar obstacles in the future. We intend to adopt a more proactive review process for issues and streamline our approach to merge requests, ensuring they align with workflow requirements.

Reflecting on the obstacles I encountered this sprint, there are several areas for personal improvement:

Enhancing GitLab Skills: I recognize the importance of becoming more proficient with GitLab. I intend to invest effort into understanding its intricacies, especially concerning branch management, handling merge requests, and connecting issues. I plan to utilize online resources, seek guidance from tutorials, and lean on my peers for support to enhance my competency.

Strengthening Communication: Acknowledging the need for improvement, I aim to enhance my approach to communication. I will take initiative to seek out feedback more actively and clarify doubts promptly with team members and mentors, aiming to resolve issues before they escalate.

Boosting Organizational Capabilities: I understand that better organization is key to avoiding past mistakes. Therefore, I am committed to honing my organizational skills, particularly in keeping track of my tasks, associated merge requests, and issues. Employing project management tools or maintaining a personal task tracker will be instrumental in keeping me in sync with the team’s goals and deadlines.

Links to the issues covered in this sprint:

Create Integration and Pipeline

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/integration/-/issues/1

Settings and extensions previously located in the dev container should now be transferred to .vscode/settings.json and .vscode/extensions.json within the Gitpod environment, as outlined in the .gitpod.yml documentation. Furthermore, developer commands should be moved from the commands directory to bin to align with standard Linux conventions, necessitating updates in script paths and .gitlab-ci.yaml environment variables. Additionally, integrate the AlexJS linter into each project’s pipeline and the bin/lint.sh script, ensuring all documentation is checked and updated accordingly.

Familiarize ourselves with guestInfoFrontend to understand what goes into CheckoutGuestFrontend

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/inventorysystem/checkoutguestfrontend/-/issues/37

This activity served as an introduction to the primary objectives of sprint 2. During this phase, we collectively reviewed the current wireframe for the checkout guest front end to familiarize ourselves with the anticipated design layout.

Refactor commands folder to bin

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/gitlab-profile/-/issues/69

This process entailed establishing a bin directory within the project and transferring three scripts from the template project into this new folder. Following this, I conducted tests on each of the three scripts to verify their functionality.

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

Sprint Retrospective

Sprint 1 Retrospective

Introduction

  • In the first sprint we were mostly focused on learning the ropes of gitlab and getting familiarized with the sprint structure.
  • This sprint lasted for 5 stand ups which is equivalent to 2 and ½ weeks. This ended up feeling a bit cramped considering the amount of learning that was necessary for this process.

Links to Activity on GitLab

Reflections on the Sprint

What Worked Well?
  • In this sprint I found that communication as a group was key to our success. Any problems that we faced were made much easier when we tackled them as a group instead of alone. I think that our review process was good and we just need to make sure we keep logs of these reviews in the appropriate discord channel.
What Didn’t Work Well?
  • I think that the main thing that we struggled with was learning how to use this new environment and process. I think that this caused lots of issued especially with multiple people working in the same projects and all being confused about what to do, This lead to issues with people creating branches in the wrong issues as well as people accidentally doing issues for other teams. I personally struggled with making sure the right merge request was linked to the issue and will try to improve this for the next sprint.

Given the detailed account of your Sprint 1 Retrospective, let’s complete the remaining sections with reflective insights and forward-looking statements based on your experiences and observations.

Improvements for Team Performance

The team’s ability to communicate and tackle problems collectively was a strong point during this sprint. However, the transition to using new tools and processes highlighted several areas for improvement. To enhance our team performance in future sprints, we propose the following changes:

  1. Enhanced Onboarding for New Tools: Given the difficulties encountered with GitLab and related tools, a focused session or resource compilation on these tools at the sprint’s start could mitigate confusion. This could include tutorial links, common troubleshooting tips, and a Q&A session.
  2. Clarification of Roles and Tasks: To prevent overlap and confusion, especially in a multi-person project environment, clearly defining roles and tasks at the sprint planning meeting could ensure smoother operation. This might involve assigning specific issues to individuals or small groups and establishing clear ownership of tasks.
  3. Streamlined Communication Channels: While communication was strong, ensuring that all discussions, especially those related to problem-solving and decision-making, are logged in an accessible and organized manner (e.g., categorized Discord channels or a dedicated project management tool) would help maintain clarity and continuity.

Personal Improvements

Reflecting on my personal challenges during this sprint, specifically around managing merge requests correctly, I see valuable opportunities for growth:

  1. GitLab Proficiency: I will dedicate time to deepen my understanding of GitLab’s workflow, focusing on branch management, merge requests, and issue linking. Online resources, tutorials, and peer assistance will be valuable in this learning process.
  2. Proactive Communication: To prevent and swiftly address any uncertainties or errors in my work, I commit to being more proactive in seeking feedback and clarifications from team members and mentors.

Organizational Skills: I will improve my organizational skills, particularly in tracking my tasks and their related merge requests and issues. Using project management tools or personal task trackers could help ensure that I am always aligned with the team’s objectives and timelines.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Abe's Programming Blog by Abraham Passmore and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sprint-1 Retrospective

 I didn’t manage to achieve a whole lot in my 1st sprint, I mostly looked at the guest frontend and poked around Thea’s pantry. I’m going to make sure next sprint I actively work on the issues my team has in the backlog. 

The only change I made to the pantry was a branch in guestinfofrontend named add-linters that I was planning on adding the Alexjs linter to. Unfortunately I never got around to actually adding it, and it seems that the other teams have already handled the adding of linters to the project.

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/tree/add-linters?ref_type=heads

Next sprint I plan on focusing on the inventory frontend and actually making and commiting changes. I do not want to let my team members do all the work.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sprint-1 Retrospective

 I didn’t manage to achieve a whole lot in my 1st sprint, I mostly looked at the guest frontend and poked around Thea’s pantry. I’m going to make sure next sprint I actively work on the issues my team has in the backlog. 

The only change I made to the pantry was a branch in guestinfofrontend named add-linters that I was planning on adding the Alexjs linter to. Unfortunately I never got around to actually adding it, and it seems that the other teams have already handled the adding of linters to the project.

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/tree/add-linters?ref_type=heads

Next sprint I plan on focusing on the inventory frontend and actually making and commiting changes. I do not want to let my team members do all the work.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sprint-1 Retrospective

 I didn’t manage to achieve a whole lot in my 1st sprint, I mostly looked at the guest frontend and poked around Thea’s pantry. I’m going to make sure next sprint I actively work on the issues my team has in the backlog. 

The only change I made to the pantry was a branch in guestinfofrontend named add-linters that I was planning on adding the Alexjs linter to. Unfortunately I never got around to actually adding it, and it seems that the other teams have already handled the adding of linters to the project.

https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry/client-solutions/theas-pantry/guestinfosystem/guestinfofrontend/-/tree/add-linters?ref_type=heads

Next sprint I plan on focusing on the inventory frontend and actually making and commiting changes. I do not want to let my team members do all the work.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.