Okay, I know that no matter how much words I write It won't be sufficient and powerful enough to express How I really felt during that period. One of the best periods of my life, when I was working with SmartSoft. It really changed my whole idea about group work. Never thought I'd fit in a team that way EVER !!.. like seriously, NEVER EVER !!
I used to be against group work. I'm always better off alone especially when it comes to working in field I like or near a topic I love. I give better work throughput and I love doing things my own way. And I have some crazy ideas of my own. Besides, it all depends on my current mood & the environment I'm working in. So, It was always better to save people from me and do my own thang alone =D. In that way everybody remains happy and no one gets hurt. But this all changed after the SmartSoft experience last Semester.
I used to be against group work. I'm always better off alone especially when it comes to working in field I like or near a topic I love. I give better work throughput and I love doing things my own way. And I have some crazy ideas of my own. Besides, it all depends on my current mood & the environment I'm working in. So, It was always better to save people from me and do my own thang alone =D. In that way everybody remains happy and no one gets hurt. But this all changed after the SmartSoft experience last Semester.
How it Started
During last Semester in my Software Engineering course. Our lecturer decided that the whole course will be in the form of a competition. And we were basically divided into groups according to our tutorial group numbers. where each group consisted of 25 members and was treated exactly as a company with it's own name. Our company name was SmartSoft. All companies are competing to deliver a better piece of software. The whole environment was setup exactly as if we were in real-life professional environment. Companies were all to follow the scrum process of Software development. Each company had it's own scrum master who was basically a higher semester student (Scrum elite) whose only job is guidance throughout the scrum process as this were our 1st time in Scrum and we were still learning/practicing scrum through the course. The One and only SEO was - no doubt - our lecturer. All professional communication protocols and channels were set the same way as if it's a real life big company.
What was required
All companies including us were required to deliver a nice handy agile scrum management system or tool. We must of course follow the scrum developing process properly while doing that. This means documentation, UML diagrams, Sequence Diagrams , Architecture documents *coughcough*... etc). The choice of the nature of the system and the framework was all left to us. We were on our very own since the beginning. The only help we can get from our Scrum masters and CEO were just about the Scrum process. else, "Sorry I'm not a developer and I don't know about programing languages"
The Beginning, The fuss, fear and rumors ..
I won't lie to you, The beginning was a Very important step. It either makes you or breaks you. And yes, It was something to be afraid of and worried about. It feels exactly (not really) like being in the middle of the desert with a group of friends not knowing what to do. I was pretty tense myself (yet very enthusiastic and excited however worried that the group work might turn to the worst). Taking into consideration that we know nothing about java frameworks or even agile software development. How do you think are we going to implement a scrum management tool lol? These weren't just my thoughts. Anyways, we did set up our own mailing list, communication protocol (couple of changes but we finally agreed and settled down on sth), Issue tracker and Backlog. (SmartSoft google group?)
Then comes a very important decision, The choice of the framework. And it was a really tough decision as most of us didn't know anything abt java frameworks. After lots of research, opinions and discussions we made a vote and we chose THE BEST FRAMEWORK EVAAA !! the play framework and this was really one of the keys behind our success. After that, The fear rate went down just a lil bit. And the fuss started to fade away *sigh*. We finally had a clue abt what we are going to do. It felt like this But then, starts the rumors all around.
Many of my colleagues and friends started making predictions abt which company should win. Most of the talks were either abt us or our main competitor company coolsoft =D. But what I really didn't like about some rumors is that some people were like "Are you kiddin me , ofc CoolSoft are gonna win they got many members who have the highest GPA and ranked among all MET students". My reply was and still is: It is never about the grades or the GPA. I consider these just paper work. Nerds who learn things without even understanding can get high GPAs. Easy lol. The real measurement of understanding is practical work & doing things you very own special way. Not According to a stupid book made by a human being who's just like you. I mean, You just need to understand and then do things your own way and get creative + innovative. Not following the book as if it's the constitution rofl. What would you do if you face a real life problem? tell ur boss "srry it wasn't in the book or the lectures"? wtf?. Anyhow some ppl didn't believe me and that made me even more dedicated cuz now, I have a bigger purpose which is not just to win this thing. I need to prove my opinion which I think I did at the end =D
Where did I fit
On random, I was a part of component 1 which is basically a sub-team consisting of 5 members including me. We were responsible for the users and roles in the system and this include things like security, permissions, user roles & account types, registration, deactivation,notifications, deletion from the system, System logs, System requests & project requests , ... etc). I really liked working in this area of the system cuz it matches my nature. I mean we were like the high level developers/admins .. we own the accounts, logs, system admin panel, ... etc) And this is definitely me because I usually understand things up to bottom. Or, in other words, from more general to less general. (Like a tree view, I like to understand the whole tree 1st before i work in a node). However, some developers like to understand the details 1st and then conclude or expand their knowledge to the whole hierarchy. Forgot to mention: that in many real life cases I won't have that available but, this is just the way I prefer or makes me understand things better (Of course , You get better view of things .. it's not magic). I really cannot imagine myself in another component such as component 5 for example working on heavy visual drag and drop interfaces and intense javascripts. I would've hated my life lol. However, it was a critical part of the system we -component 1- were workin on. All other developers depend on our work and therefore we have to finish really early and provide something stable with minor future changes so as not to confuse everybody. A little change can affect the whole company! We also have to deliver our vision of the system and the database to other developer when necessary
I was also a member of the Design team, A focal point (Someone who can help others) and a software architect in the company. I didn't contribute much to the design team (Except for stating my opinion abt some stuff, reporting bugs and making some logos) thanks to our lead designer elleestCrimi. She's really creative and more experienced than anybody else in the company when it comes to web design and stuff =D. As a focal point, I think I helped some friends online. But, I didn't attend the extra coding sessions. I only code and can focus at certain environments. And as an architect *coughcough* I made only a couple of decisions but u know ... *coughcoughcough*.
I was also a member of the Design team, A focal point (Someone who can help others) and a software architect in the company. I didn't contribute much to the design team (Except for stating my opinion abt some stuff, reporting bugs and making some logos) thanks to our lead designer elleestCrimi. She's really creative and more experienced than anybody else in the company when it comes to web design and stuff =D. As a focal point, I think I helped some friends online. But, I didn't attend the extra coding sessions. I only code and can focus at certain environments. And as an architect *coughcough* I made only a couple of decisions but u know ... *coughcoughcough*.
Hardwork, dedication and time management!
Sprint 1 and Sprint 2. Ahhhh! what can I say. It was an infinite loop of events, discussions and dedicated hardwork. Seriously, I was stressed out but having fun though. you go to college , attend weekly scrum meetings, chat online abt the project, check ur email every few seconds. Don't sleep at night. Plenty of coding !! and on top of all that updating the issue tracker, document the code.. make UMLs, sequence diagrams and making test modules for the user stories, updating the product backlog and updating the sticky notes board in the software engineering room. And don't forget we have other courses during the semester, quizzes, assignments, ... etc) Time management was impossible !
Except for some company time management fail a couple of times, I was impressed. Everybody put their hardwork caps on and people were really concerned and collaborated well together. Thanks to our company manager mahmoudsakr who managed to hold to grip and solve many conflicts and indeed fix many Many problems. His decisions were most of the time simple and clear and he also managed to have great influence on everybody. Not to mention, his endless help and important announcements to wake everybody up. Even some people showed really great throughput which I wasn't expecting from them. And we were all contributing to one project peacefully as if there is a special bond between us. Like we all understand each other =D. we were all dedicated, hardworking and caring =D
I remember staying till after midnight at the university, Working on our vacations, Dish parties <3, Ignoring quizzes and other subjects just for the sake of the team work spirit. Even helping each other through other courses. Fighting negativity (thanks to me and elleestCrimi haha!) and spreading motivation + positivity all the way (My goal in life and the key to success of team work). Also, there was another special bond between our company smartsoft and our competitor coolsoft. We helped each other out many times. And I had some of my friends in coolsoft such as mohab, salem (Okay I mentioned u guys cuz u were the only ppl who can do sth to knock us out lol). Summary is: I never felt so dedicated to anything that way in my life !
Success !!
At the end of the semester on the glorious date of 19.05.2010, The Software Engineering ceremony was held and the winning company was announced as well as the best members of other companies. And the winning company was .....
SMARTSOFT !!! ... US , I sill feel that YAY, that jump, that moment and those facial expressions right now =D. It really felt so good after such a stressful semester and such hard work. Happy Endings <3 <3. What even makes it more awesome is that we all decided to print smartsoft T-shirts and come wearing them on the ceremony. And I proposed a slogan "SmartSoft ... cuz our solutions are simply beyond smart" and thanks to my friend amrotto who bought and printed the T-shirts =D
SMARTSOFT !!! ... US , I sill feel that YAY, that jump, that moment and those facial expressions right now =D. It really felt so good after such a stressful semester and such hard work. Happy Endings <3 <3. What even makes it more awesome is that we all decided to print smartsoft T-shirts and come wearing them on the ceremony. And I proposed a slogan "SmartSoft ... cuz our solutions are simply beyond smart" and thanks to my friend amrotto who bought and printed the T-shirts =D
SmartSoft forever after...
And Out of love and dedication we -SmartSoft members- Decided to continue working on and perfecting the project during this summer vacation. We extended an extra Sprint , Sprint3 and there was also Sprint4 which was basically a one month internship at the GUC campus where ppl code at the university and start perfecting things & usability for an initial release. The whole project is now open source and anyone is welcome to contribute. And guess what? the beta release of the software is now temporarily online for testing purposes @ http://smarterscrum.info/
You can aslo:
Take a look on the project source on google code.
Check our tiny little cute google group =)
You can aslo:
Take a look on the project source on google code.
Check our tiny little cute google group =)
And indeed all the credit goes to:
Our awesome scrum master and tutor: Saher El Neklawy
Our perfect professor and CEO: Dr. Fatma Meawad