Hi everybody! Welcome to my first Sprint review blog post.
Ever since the start of the semester my team and I got along well with each other. We started with some ice breakers and getting to know one another, and then moved into discussing our team agreements. What I liked about our team is that everybody felt comfortable sharing their opinions and thoughts during our discussions, and it felt like a very inclusive environment. I asked many questions during this sprint and learned a lot from my teammates, even small things like different ways of thinking, terminology, and new tools. I also liked the small discussions with the professor to make sure our questions were answered and that we were on the right track.
After the first week of the sprint, I felt like we didn’t have many new tasks to add and we started taking things a bit slowly. That might not have been a problem if it wasn’t for the snow days when we didn’t meet, which slowed things down even more. However, we still managed to finish our jobs on time and received really good feedback for our first sprint.
One thing we can improve in the next sprint is communication. Even though the atmosphere felt comfortable for me to speak up when I felt lost or didn’t fully understand something, not everyone felt the same way. This made me realize that making people feel included is not just about being talkative during meetings, but also about answering questions that haven’t been asked yet and being aware of where others might feel lost or shy to speak up.
Personally, I want to improve by being faster with the tasks I am assigned. I sometimes tend to leave things until the last minute. I also had the impression that we had more time left in the sprint, but the sprint review came sooner than I expected. Improving my time management will also allow us to review each other’s work more thoroughly as a team.
I also appreciated how my teammates contributed during the sprint. Elizabeth was always taking notes during meetings with the professor so we didn’t miss anything important. Ben took over the Keycloak task and explained it to the rest of us so we understood how our work connected. Daniel worked on the UML diagram after finishing his task early, and Jonson offered to help me with Vue.js after finishing his first job.
Apprenticeship Pattern Reflection: Expose Your Ignorance
The apprenticeship pattern I selected from Apprenticeship Patterns is “Expose Your Ignorance.” This pattern encourages developers, especially those early in their careers, to openly admit when they do not understand something and use those moments as opportunities for learning rather than hiding their lack of knowledge. The idea behind this pattern is that learning happens faster when people are willing to ask questions and make their knowledge gaps visible instead of pretending to understand everything.
I chose this pattern because it relates strongly to my experience during this sprint. During many of our meetings I asked questions about things I did not fully understand, whether it was terminology, tools, or how different components of the project worked together. At first I worried that asking too many questions might make me seem inexperienced, but I realized that those questions helped me understand the work better and also opened useful discussions within the team. For example, when we were trying to understand how Keycloak connected with the frontend pages, our team initially overcomplicated the solution. By discussing it openly with each other and with the professor, we were able to simplify our approach and move forward with a clearer plan.
If I had read and reflected on this pattern before the sprint started, I think it would have influenced my behavior in two ways. First, I would have been even more intentional about asking questions earlier instead of trying to figure everything out alone. Second, I would have made a stronger effort to encourage my teammates to ask questions as well.
Overall, this pattern reinforces the idea that learning in software development is a continuous process and that admitting what we do not know is actually a strength.
Here is a link to my Sprint1 commit about the two admin frontend pages, the first allows admin to enter the email of whom the role is being changed, and the second shows the email entered with the role options to select from.
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