"I want you to reflect back on that JOURNEY in this final Journal Entry. Feel free to point back to previous journal entries....but try to provide a few paragraphs that summarize your overall experience in the CS 3750 and CS 4750 courses. What will you take away from this experience, regardless of the ultimate result of the where the project ended up? If you could go back and do 3 things differently, what would they be? Finally, are you proud of your "baby", or do you want to give it up for "adoption"? Be honest!"
This is what we're supposed to reflect on in this journal post. My overall experience... hm... I feel that I have grown as a programmer; I have learned some new problem solving techniques and have refined some old ones. I have learned a fair amount about myself also over the course of this project. I've learned that I tend to be a visual learner, and that I tend to think in a procedural manner. This isn't necessarily an asset for a Software Engineer. I think Software Engineers need to be more abstract than procedural thinkers, and it's better if they can learn by reading something than seeing it done; however, I know I'm not the only one in this position. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I don't think I'm a hammer either.
I will take away a lesson from this experience about working as a team, or group on a project. I tend to not have a lot of input when it comes to the framework of a project, and that's because I realize that I probably don't know best, and I'd like to learn what's best from someone who I consider to be more knowledgeable than myself. That can be a problem if I think I'm getting somewhere or learning something, but really am not. I need to be able to take a step back and look objectively at what I'm doing. I consider myself to generally be pretty objective about things, and I think that when I get into a project, that objectivity tends to go away with regards to the project. In other words, I believe I get tunnel vision when working on something and can't really see the whole picture. That's a problem, as we saw in this project, because I was so focused on my end of it, that I wasn't able to see how Dan and Bryan's parts interacted with mine.
If I were to go back and do 3 things differently, I would first of all go with a .net framework. I think that using asp.net could have made this project go more quickly, it would have contributed more to real world experience, and it could have made a more maintainable project, I feel. I don't really think I would change anything else. I think changing the framework would take care of a lot of the problems we've run into. Bryan has had a lot of trouble with the MySql database, I've had trouble with the jQuery. I don't know if Dan has had any problems with the PHP, but I know that he likes .net, and would probably have been happier working in it.
Am I proud of my baby? Yes, I think that this is a very worthwhile project, and I am glad to be a part of it. I believe it will be useful to PARC when it gets done. I have a personal goal of getting a product that they can beta test before the end of the semester so that they can play with it over the break. I will be prioritizing my other classes, and will work on this project as time permits.
In summation, I have learned quite a bit over the course of this project. A lot about myself, and a good amount of coding. Especially jQuery, which I had no knowledge of prior to this class. I am grateful for the group I was able to work with, and wish them all well as they continue in their education or as they move on in their lives.
