Helmes Summer Bootcamp 2017

Helmes Summer Bootcamp 2017

Thursday 24 August 2017

Day 17

Today we instinctively started talking about tasks before the stand-up even officially even started. Everyone who arrived shared what we wanted to do today and what tasks we would be taking on. As it was first come first serve type of situation we had divided all of the juicier tasks, meaning the ones that required more time and effort. As our last member walked in all they could do was take on some of the smaller tasks and help others. By now it was time for our actual stand-up. So we reflected on what we had done yesterday and filled our PO on what we had planned for today.
This is not the stand-up you're looking for

I ended up with the task of integrating our project with the previously completed part of the system. I've heard some horror stories when people have been dealing with integrating systems together, so I was cautious when approaching the task. Luckily for me it was a tiny change, only requiring changing 2 tables and the code connected with them.

As that would be the juicy part of the solution I naturally decided it would be smart to leave this problem for the evening, when I'm tired and there are no mentors to help you. The other task of submitting data to the other part of the system was straightforward and I had done it by lunch. As I already had some momentum writing the code I tried to keep it going by moving to the harder task.

The right approach would have been to map out what needed to be changed and what changes in the system when I make my changes. This calm and collected approach would have saved me time in the long run. Boys being boys I went in guns blazing. The database change was completely painless as it had been done on the first day by one of my peers here in Bootcamp. Then with some back and forth I changed the views to contain my id and text for the user. This was somewhat challenging, but it did submit to a few wild swings of the hammer.

Now it was time for a seminar about software development in Helmes. The seminar started with our presenter Eliis Väert asking each and every one present about what we would like to hear about. We went over the whole process how development happens in Helmes. Starting with finding clients and how the analysis process takes place. The duration and requirements for the analysis can vary wildly as the client can come to Helmes with just an idea or have their analysis done already or they want to use the waterfall method. To quickly mention the stages of analysis are called
QuickStart → R&D Meeting → Scope definition & solution design → Presenting solutions → Offer presentation & contract. We moved on to the kick-off, where development starts and the number of  team members are ramped up. As a part of kick-off we fleshed out the roles in a team and what the function is for team lead,  analyst and lead developer. We discussed the problem, that the product owner is not always available or great at developing backlog and how the extra load is carried by the 3 more senior roles in a team. After the development cycles comes the release of the MVP. This means that the system needs to be supported by the team. There may be additional developments for this client, but it might just be all the client needs and need for the code to be maintained. This creates a problem of motivation for the team as no new technologies are introduced and the team happiness may suffer. A solution can be to rewrite the system whenever a functionality is requested. We ended the talk with some differences in finding clients in regards to culture, preconceptions, ease of communication and briefly discussed how these differences could be overcome.

After the talk I refined the previously written hammercode with a small chisel. Apparently thinking about your solution and stepping back for a while helps, who knew? The rest of the evening I battled with some errors and quirks caused by my changes. Fortunately by the end of the day I fixed it with some levelheaded help from my teammate.