We now have our first official team exercise under our belts, and it went really well. To be honest, I’m not sure if any other group had nearly as much fun as my group did with creating/coding the project.
Our task was to come up with a fake online company that sold either real or fake products, and then utilize all of the skills we have learned thus far to complete the project. My group mates and I came up with a company called “The Brocery Store,” which sold your typical “bro” items, such as Hoverboards and vape pens.
We designed and coded 6 pages for the site; 4 of which we worked on individually, and two which we all had contributions to. I really enjoyed this project for multiple reasons. First of all, it allowed me to further hone some HTML, CSS, and JS skills. Also, it allowed us to really work as a group for the first time, where we all contributed to one final product. In the past, it always seemed like I got grouped together with people that didn’t want to be there, and half-assed their way through the exercise. But with this, everyone was highly motivated to do their best, and worked to their full potential. It was quite refreshing.
I learned a few things about working as a group on a single project. First, and probably most importantly, communication is key, just like with any kind of relationship. I feel really lucky, everyone in my group is pretty good with communicating with one another. Another thing I learned was that it pays to have a good group leader that can delegate tasks. Dre was our team leader, and he did a fantastic job of fulfilling the role. One thing that really impressed me about Dre is how he knew everyone’s skill level, and then used that knowledge with delegating tasks. For instance, if he knew that you had a stronger understanding of HTML or CSS, he urged you to take more JavaScript tasks so you have the opportunity to practice.
The last thing I’ll say about this project was that it came at a great time. We had spent quite a bit of time deep diving into some pretty complex JavaScript, so it was nice to take a short breather from learning new material. The project gave me the chance to do more work with functions, objects, arrays, and loops, which was great since I desperately needed the practice.
So, all-in-all, I had a great first experience working on a group project, and I look forward to opportunities to do more of them!