As I am nearing the end of the semester along with my academic journey at University of Hawaii at Manoa, there are many things to look back on and look forward to in the near future. ICS 414 has taught me many valuable lessons and has given me a sneak peak at what life will be like after college, having a job in this field, working with a team, and communicating with the client.
The first thing I would like to point out is time management, as this has been something I have been trying to always improve on. Working 30, nearly 40 hours a week can be a tall task, especially with being full time student all while trying to manage your health and social life is a lot to put your plate. There were many days and nights where I felt anxious or even nervous because of the upcoming milestone, having only two days out of the week off work, I needed to schedule my days and figure out when I would get each homework assignment done on which day. Having a schedule and plan each week helped me to get work done for the milestones to not only improve the website but help the team out.
Working with a team was an eye-opening experience, as this has been the first ever big project where I have worked on code with more people than just myself. Of course, I have had instances where I work in a group throughout my college classes, but it was mostly smaller scale applications or projects. This class experience helped me to understand the importance of communication between group mates for guidance and assistance.
Lastly, this class gave me my first look into the experience of working with a client. Seeing the communication between the group and the client was one of, if not the most important thing for this class and I can see its significance in a real work environment. For a real job, the person or group supplying the website or application will need full clarity from the client and his/hers desires for the outcome of said project. This was on full display throughout this class, having the customer milestones helped to present and share current progress of the project with the client along brainstorming ideas for features that could be added or removed to improve the website.
Taking ICS 414 gave me great insight into what life may be like in the future. It helped me to understand key components for working with a group and a client along with showing the importance of communication and time management which were essential for this class and my experience.