Category Archives: Week 11

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Remote Work

     Ever since the pandemic, the modern workplace has gone through many shifts. The realization that workers can still be effective members of the company from their home has changed a lot of people’s perspective on the corporate work environment. Many workers have pushed for remote work to become a staple of the modern job market. It is easy to see the appeal of remote work: No commute, stuffy office, or even stuffier dress code sounds very appealing to me. I personally enjoy the ease of access to one’s job right in their own home. All of that said, the infrastructure for remote work has been in the works for longer than we realized that there was a need for it. In the modern era, cloud computing has become a necessity for almost any job regardless of whether it is remote or not. Services such as AWS, Azure, and Git hub/lab has supplemented developers with the tools to contribute to their workplace from anywhere on the globe. Now teams can be comprised of any developer within the company and can pull from about any talent pool. This comes with its own set of unique challenges though, as remote work moves developers from a singular office space to their respective homes. Balancing time zones, long-distance communication between team members, increased risk to cybersecurity and more come with the territory of all your developers working from their house. Fortunately, Cloud computing answers some of these problems by providing more security and reliability to development teams. Azure and AWS provide secure repositories for teams and reliable access to their work wherever they are. Then there are Applications such as Zoom, which provides communication between team members and can even facilitate daily scrum meetings if needed. Developers have been using git for a long time, and it has served to supplement collaboration in software development. While the pandemic is over and most companies have tried to push their employees to go back to the office, remote work has become a fixture in the modern work landscape. For some companies, it is an economic option since it is cheaper to subscribe to several cloud services than to rent an entire office space. For other companies, it is simply the efficient option. I believe companies should incorporate these innovative technologies to expand their reach, and to shift society further down the path of better work life balance. The past few years have shown us that the old ninetofive has become outdated, and possibly unsustainable.  

https://socpub.com/articles/how-can-cloud-computing-enable-remote-teams-work-more-productively-17895

https://aws.amazon.com/application-hosting/benefits/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-azure

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

Managing your Licenses

When it comes to sharing your work publicly, there are certain things you have to do in order to protect it, and you. Whether the work is a form of art, product, or even code, you have to put a license on it. The creator can put software licenses on their code to allow users to use it in certain ways, according to the license agreement. 

Software licenses are categorized into types, which are ranked from least restrictive to most restrictive. The least is the public domain license, which has no restrictions on your code, meaning anyone can do anything with it. Next is the permissive license, similar to the public domain one, except it has some restrictions on how users can use, modify and redistribute the code. The next one is the copyleft license, which also has restrictions on how to use, modify and redistribute the code, but it also states users must distribute the source code with it. The most restrictive is the proprietary license, which only allows users to use the code if they agree to an agreement, and does not allow them to modify or redistribute the code. Under each of these types, there are licenses that have their own extra requirements, so it is important to look at each one to determine which is a good fit for your code.

In this blog post, Ibrahim Ogunbiyi gives us 7 practices that can help with license management. Step one is documenting your procurement process, document where you purchased software, who did it, when, and other important details. Having documentation on software purchases is important for when you need to look back for information. Step 2, having a central list of all software licenses. If there are multiple departments in your organization, having a central list containing all software licenses is good to have. Step 3, understanding all software license agreements, reading through and understanding the agreements. Step 4, implementing a software license management tool. Having a tool to manage your licenses, tracking use, and optimizing use is really nice to have. This can also knock out step 5, regularly tracking license use, and step 6, keeping licenses accurate and up to date. The tool can do that for you, but sometimes, doing it yourself is nice. Step 7 is training employees about license management, which is important for an organization. Having everyone follow the same methods of management promotes uniformity, which makes things easier.

Although I may not belong to an organization that purchases software, I feel knowing these steps is good. Software licenses, or licenses in general, are scary and confusing. It’s not something you are taught in school, so having learned it in class was nice. I can’t quite relate to this just yet, but it is important to know management tips so that when the time comes, I will be ready. In the future, I know I will be coming back to refresh my mind on it.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Cao's Thoughts by antcao and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

choosing the right software development mythology: Agile, or Waterfall?

Whether you’re embarking on a new project or contemplating a shift in your development approach, deciding between Agile and Waterfall methodologies can be challenging. Selecting the right approach is crucial for the successful development of your project. In this blog, we will analyze the specifics of Agile and Waterfall methodologies to help you make an informed decision tailored to your project’s needs.

Understanding Agile

Ever wondered about the magic behind Agile Software Development? I have recently come across a blog on Agile development by Martin Fowler, a British software developer, author, and international public speaker on software development, who specializes in object-oriented analysis and design, UML, patterns, and agile software development methodologies, including extreme programming. The blog “Agile Software Guide” by Mr. Fowler takes you on a journey through its beginnings and the core ideas that makes Agile work. Written by someone who was there from the start, this blog unravels the secrets of Agile development. The author shares early memories of Extreme Programming and co-authoring the Manifesto for Agile Software Development that sets the stage for an insightful tour through the world of Agile, coming from a credible source who has seen it from its beginnings. The blog dives into the key concepts of Agile thinking, emphasizing how it differs from traditional software engineering. It breaks it down into two main points: being adaptable instead of sticking to plans, and focusing on people rather than processes. A simple breakdown that makes the essence of Agile clear. Mr. Fowler also talks about Agile plans being like a flexible baseline, changing as the project progresses. Unlike traditional plans that demand sticking to a set path, Agile plans are adjusted based on what’s happening. Success in Agile is all about the value the software brings, not just following a rigid plan. However, with all its advantages, the blog doesn’t pretend Agile is perfect. It talks about the challenges, like some practices being called “Agile” when they really aren’t. This honesty adds a dose of reality, reminding everyone to keep an eye on how Agile is actually being used. Agile methodology is often praised for its customer-centric, and flexible approach to software development. In Agile, projects are divided into small increments with minimal planning, and teams work in short cycles, known as iterations or sprints. The methodology emphasizes collaboration, customer feedback, and the flexibility to adapt to changing requirements in which results in continuous delivery of functional software, close collaboration between cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and the customers.

understanding Waterfall

Unlike Agile, the Waterfall methodology follows a linear and step-by-step approach. the project is divided into distinct stages where each stage build’s upon the previous one. The development process flows steadily downwards similar to an actual waterfall, through stages like requirements, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance. Each stage must be completed before the next one begins, and changes are discouraged once a phase is underway.

How to choose the right methodology? 

The choice depends on several factors, such as project requirements, team expertise, and customer involvement in your development process. If project requirements are clearly defined from the beginning, and changes won’t be necessary during the development process, then the Waterfall methodology could be the right choice for you. However, I personally believe that Agile methodology is usually the right choice for most projects.

In today’s world of constant change, adaptability is crucial in any developmental process. Additionally, based on my experience in various customer service jobs, I’ve realized that customers often don’t know exactly what they want. Therefore, having the ability to adapt if the customers’ needs changes’ slightly is incredibly important.

Agile Software Development: A Concise Overview. (2023). Retrieved from https://martinfowler.com/agile.html

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Bits & Bytes Universe by skarkonan and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

software testing

I’ve been coding since around 2017, when I took my first Computer Science course in high school. Since then, I’ve worked on plenty of school projects and a couple of personal projects as well. Software testing had never been a thing I really bothered with meaningfully in this timespan, which is kind of fair considering that most of these projects and assignments weren’t really too complex. I would just print out results for each bit of code as I went along to make sure that the code I just wrote actually works, but I didn’t really go and write actual automated tests.

This semester, I had some exposure to standardized software testing when I worked on a homework assignment in my Software Design and Construction course that required me to adjust some code along with the tests that make sure the code works as intended with intended output. At first, I was sort of confused considering I had never worked with test files, but I appreciated the streamlined nature of this testing. We also had to read up on some software testing methods for a Scrum developer homework assignment we did for this class, Software Process Management.

Today, I wanted to research some software testing basics, and came across a post on IBM’s blog. The post goes over some reasons to software test (the importance of quality control for businesses, what testing even is, etc.) along with types of software tests and practices.

The different types of software tests are fairly easy to understand, and I’ve come across all of them in some capacity before. Acceptance tests ensure the system as a whole functions as intended, integration tests ensure that software components work as intended, and unit tests ensure the smallest testable snippets work as intended. Performance tests evaluate how well software works on different hardware, and stress tests check how much load the software can take without breaking. Regression tests see if new features harm the software at large, and usability tests evaluate how effective the software is for end-users.

Some good testing practices listed in the article are continuous testing, bug tracking, and service virtualization. Continuous testing is the practice of testing each build as soon as it’s available, fairly simple. Bug tracking is, well, bug tracking. The post mentions automated monitoring tools for tracking defects, but I sort of think of this in the sense of keeping an issues list on a git repository, as that’s what I’m more familiar with. Service virtualization is a little more complicated, it simulates functionality that hasn’t been implemented yet to reduce dependencies and test sooner.

What I’m mostly interested in is the applications of these practices, and I’ll likely look into it further at a later time. I understand these concepts fairly well, but the idea of automating tests, at least at my current understanding of it, sounds a bit daunting. I’m sure it saves a lot of time on larger-scale projects, where testing each piece of your code manually for multiple cases will take a lot of time. I’m interested to see what this looks like in an example.

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