Final Project Reflection

We did it!

After months of hard work, our final project for Databases and Web Systems is finally complete! While we weren’t able to complete the entire thing, we made a significant amount of progress towards the client’s goal web app and have greatly improved on the website since our last client meeting! The style, as shown above, is completely different and looks so much better than the bland Razor Pages website look. I’m really proud of how far we came and how much we were able to accomplish in the semester!

The most valuable skills and talents for carrying out the social change work would be communication and leadership. The communication required for us to make this progress was essential. We met regularly with our client, and because of that, we were able to receive feedback on our design and implementation of the web app. I believe I have good communication skills, so establishing that contact consistently and effectively was not a challenge for me. The leadership aspect of creating the web app was new; taking the initiatvie on parts of the website that were supposed to be done by a different group member was crucial to the app’s successful deployment, and I learned that I am able to act accordingly when leadership is needed and nobody steps up.

I do believe the approaches to change that our client employed are incredibly effective. Our partner realized that there is a better way to record attendance logs for students and review them, and requested that we create the app that can do that. This app is effective in its goal of simplifying and cleaning up the messy process of attendace log recording and reviewing for both the administrators/professors and the students. So, our client’s approach of asking for this app to be creative was the most effective way to initiate change within this system.

My fundamental values have stayed the same, but my personal beliefs of what I am able to do has been greatly altered. I did not believe I could be a leader of a group project like this; I wanted to be a specialist in a specific field and do that job really, really well. Because of the team dynamic and shortcomings of one of my group project partners, I needed to step up and take initiative on getting the project finished. This was a challenege, but the coursework and our professor, Dr. Goadrich, made it significantly easier by helping me when I needed it and giving me the tools I needed to succeed. There is nothing that I would directly challenge now that I have had this experience; if I do have a similar experience in the future, though, I will not be afraid to lead the project.

This experience has reshaped my perspective on how difficult it is to create something within a small group. Regardless of if it is computer science, a social justice event, etc., there are going to be countless challenges along the way and not all of them will have timely solutions. I realized through this project that learning where to allocate time and energy is paramount to a good final product, and that principle is one I will be employing in all future projects.

Overall, this course and project was a great experience. I learned so many amazing, difficult things–not just about computer science, but about teamwork, work ethic, leadership, and working and communicating effectively with a client. This was a fantastic journey, and I will always remember the struggles and accomplishments within this project as I continue my work.

-Ryan Fuller