CUNY Codes
The program
Last spring semester (Spring 2016), I joined a portfolio development program called #CUNYCodes. This program caters to helping tech majors or individuals who are interested in developing an app from the ground up, to be able to learn, hone and display their skills. Most importantly it allows recent grads or soon to be grads to have more hands-on experience all within 10 week-span. I joined #CUNYCodes to mainly build my social skills, in addition I just learned iOS development! So, I wanted to be able to apply what I just learned to a project, not a solo project! I know my weak point is being able to communicate clearly about my thought processes, which I’m still working on; so, by joining I was able to work on that aspect.
There is something different from creating something on your own versus creating something with other people: communication. Things can get so complicated! Especially when there is a group of people from different backgrounds, different programming experiences, and most importantly different thought processes!
Now, back to #CUNYCodes! At #CUNYCodes, there are mentors with software engineer backgrounds; so, essentially there is always someone who will be able to guide you with the project you’re working on. Moreover, it wasn’t just a program to just build your portfolio, but this program will provide knowledge and tools used in the real world. I recall when I joined, not everyone knew what Scrum was and how to use version control systems or even what is version control.
In addition, every week there are different speakers from various tech backgrounds that will come in and speak about their experience and their transition from being the new guy on the block to being who they are now. I felt that was a good insight for recently graduates and inspire us to better ourselves.
My experience and Hidden Gems
Honestly, I was one of the last people who joined #CUNYCodes. I was placed in a team that was working on an iOS app called Hidden Gems. It’s an app that caters to travelers or anyone who are interested in finding local venues and events based on their current location.
The team I joined had in total 5 people. Each of us had different skill sets and various programming experiences. In addition, there was already some layout components piece together; however, the backend was not yet setup. Since, most of us was interested in learning how to set up AWS server and installing the LAMP stack, we all worked on the same thing — learning how to install AWS and LAMP. And now, all of us know how to setup the backend.
From there, we finally split our tasks as to who was tackling to front-end and who will be working on the back-end. We decided that for the front-end, we would use Swift — and we did.
When I first joined, I mentioned wanting to work on the back-end. But, I think it was safe to say I was full-stack. I initially started out creating our REST api for our iOS app. But at the end, I was working on the front-end, creating various features for Hidden Gems some which used some of Foursquare API.
How we managed our project was using Scrum with weekly sprints. We have our tasks and goal distributed using Pivotal Tracker.
Problems
Yes, I created a section for this! There wasn’t any real problem — just at the time I was working on Swift 1.2 and the most of the team was on Swift 2. So, there was a huge conflict, but we somehow made it work. I wish Apple wouldn’t have their language dependent on their operating system. I didn’t upgrade to Swift 2 because I didn’t want to upgrade my operating system. LOL.
Anyways, the next big issue was it seems like some of my teammates either has never worked with git or any version control systems or didn’t know how to work with it.
In the end
Surprising enough! We got our app together and was able to demo it after 10 weeks (probably 6 for me) of hard work.
Thanks Team Hidden Gems and our mentors John Enyame and Gregrian Vassell!
