JHammond CSUMB

     Agile and Plan and Document processes approach development very differently. Agile focuses on short iterations and frequent changes, which can be useful, but it can also feel chaotic when requirements keep shifting and there isn’t much long-term planning. Plan and Document puts more emphasis on fully defining requirements and design up front, which can make expectations clearer and reduce confusion later in the project. While Agile allows teams to adapt as they go, it sometimes leads to rework or unclear direction if not managed carefully. Plan and Document can be slower to start, but it provides more structure and documentation, which can be helpful for larger or more regulated projects.

     Writing system tests this week really pushed me to understand how the code operates as a whole rather than looking at methods in isolation. To get the tests working, I had to track how the controllers, services, repositories, and security layers interact and how a change in one place affects the rest of the flow. One issue I had to fix was the use of a hard coded email in the controller where the code should have been using the token from the authenticated user. Updating that forced me to understand exactly how the token is passed through the system and why relying on the hard coded value was causing failures. System testing does not let you rely on assumptions because you have to understand the full request path, the data dependencies, and how all of the pieces fit together. It ended up being one of the best ways to learn the actual structure and inter dependencies of the project.

     This week I got a lot more comfortable working with Git, specifically using pull requests as part of our team workflow. Creating branches, making changes, and opening PRs feels much more natural now, and I’m starting to appreciate how they help track work and keep everything organized. In my own personal projects outside of school, I’ve had a bad habit of doing everything directly in main, so this class workflow is helping me build better branching habits. Since our team is working in different files, we haven’t really run into merge conflicts yet, so the review and merge process has been pretty straightforward. Overall, it was a good chance to get more hands-on practice with PRs and see how they fit into collaborative development.