At the start of my final year in college, I began thinking more seriously of what I would do once I graduated. With some hesitation, I would say I was not entirely sure as there are so many choices and decisions that I felt I needed to make. Not having a plan is scary. I then took ICS314, a software engineering class, and I never expected to learn things in this course that could be applied in places beyond web application development.
Design patterns are a solution to a problem that occurs commonly and can be used in multiple situations. At first I thought design patterns are pretty complex, and also thought they weren’t that important. However, I learned that I’ve been using them this whole time without even knowing that I was using it. I think design patterns can be applied beyond web application in almost anything to help solve problems that can occur in life. Although we may face hardships, challenges, and struggles in work and life, I think that design patterns are created in these moments by those who are able to work through adversity and use their personal experiences to thus come forward with a design pattern that will help others solve or work through those problems. There will never be a stop to the creation of new design patterns and so anyone has the ability to discover a new design pattern after putting in enough work and effort, and that will to help make life more easier for everyone.
Before taking this class, collaborating as a team was pretty difficult, especially when it involved multiple files with a large amount of code and no assignment to who does what. I was happy to learn about Agile Project Management. This involved tools and tricks to collaborate within a team more efficiently by breaking the project up into milestones, and having issues assigned within each milestone for each member in the group through Github. Through this, I was able to keep track of what was getting done. In addition to this, I believe planning is an important skill and setting up due dates for yourself and the team to stay on track and avoid procrastination.
I have learned a lot of things throughout this year, but a great lesson I learned is that learning never ends even once I graduate from college. There are always new things to see, new patterns to create, and smart questions to be made. In the midst of challenges and difficulties that I faced in my classes and in life, I am thankful for all that I have learned and hope to take it with me along the way.