Weekly Journal : Improvement Analysis

I'm not a great programmer, I'm just a good programmer with great habits. — Kent Beck

Submission

Submit a Markdown formatted plain text file, named week04_analysis.md, to the individual portfolio_NETID repository provided for you in the course's Gitlab group.

Specification

Looking Back

Reflect on the four projects you have worked on so far this semester and on your progress as a coder and designer. Hopefully you have made significant progress in how you think about and approach the art of programming. If so, take some time to celebrate your success. If not, take some time to think about what improvements you want to make.

• Discuss how your perspective on the practice of coding has changed because of this course:
  • What are three things you think about differently when coding because of this course?
  • What is a coding habit you have changed for the better because of this course?
  • What is a feature from any of the exercise specifications you felt was made easier to implement by the code's design and why?
• Discuss a design issue you wrestled with beyond simply making the code work:
  • What trade-offs were you considering?
  • What alternatives did you consider?
  • Why did you make the final decision you did?
• Discuss things you are still actively working to improve:
  • What is a coding habit you are still working on changing?
  • What part(s) of the code did you spend the most time on (e.g., debugging, a feature, refactoring, new tools/frameworks, or even just thinking)?
  • What is something not yet addressed that you want to know more about or do better?
• Discuss your feelings during this transition period to help you better understand how much control you have over your learning and motivation:
  • How have you felt having your code reviewed? Is the feedback clear and is it making a positive impact? Give a specific example.
  • How has the act of refactoring your code felt? Are the goals clear and is it making a positive impact? Give a specific example.
  • How have you felt thinking about and designing a program without actually writing any code? What was hard and what was easy? Give a specific example.
• Overall, how do you feel you are doing in the course? How could you improve your learn choices? How could the course be improved to better help meet your needs?

Looking Ahead

The next phase of the course is team projects. Reflect on your past team experiences to prepare yourself for being as strong a teammate as possible:

• Describe a good team experience you have had. What is something about that experience you can apply to create positive teams in the future?
• Describe a bad team experience you have had. What is something about that experience you can apply to create positive teams in the future?
• What are ways people can show they respect each other’s ideas and work?
• What are ways people can show they are committed to the team's success?
• What are ways people can be proactive in a team?
• How can communication during meetings help or hurt your team experience?
• How can communication beyond meetings help or hurt your team experience?
• How can the size and timing of your GIT commits help or hurt your team experience?