Before you start writing code

Today should be used for finalizing planning and doing research on data, technology, and tools you might need.

Checklist for the whole team

• Every team member is clear on your MVP, and you know what you are building.
• You have added user stories and tasks (at minimum, for MVP) to your Trello board.
  • Your tasks should reflect the decisions you have made about how you will implement things.
  • Make sure your tasks are labeled according to what responsibilities belong to the front end or back end.
• You have created a team organization on GitHub and added every team member.
• You have created your project repo or repos on GitHub.
  • Make sure you have a .gitignore file! You can get one that is specific to your project at gitignore.io.
• You are clear on the git and GitHub workflow for your team.
• 🚨 Make sure you are using django-environ and a .env file. This will be especially important for secret keys and sensitive info, like AWS credentials. DON’T COMMIT YOUR SECRET KEYS!

Checklist for the back-end

• Make sure you are using Postgres and not SQLite.
• Models! What models will you need?
  • What fields belong on those models? Use the Django Model Field Reference.
  • What relationships exist between your models? (one-to-many, many-to-many?)
    • Consider using the CRC model to help guide your discussions.
    • You should create an ER diagram for your models to map relationships. This may change as you work, but you should have a good plan to start with. See resources section below for helpful info on ERDs.
• What URLs will the front end need?
• What data will the front end request?
  • Are you returning HTML? -> What templates does the front end need, and who will make those?
  • Are you returning JSON? -> How will you structure your data?
• Deploy early and often – who will deploy? Make sure more than one person on your team has the ability to do this.
• Consider appointing a rotating team lead who can be responsible for running standup, leading at check-in, and looking after the Trello board.

Checklist for the front-end

• Can you map out a user flow through your app?
• Wireframes for each interface the user will see
  • With the input of back-end devs, can you say what URL corresponds to each page or interface the user sees?
  • If using React Router (with a separate front-end application), what urls do you need?
• What data will you need on each page or interface? Where is it coming from?
  • What requests will you need to make from the front end?
• Are you making forms? Discuss data with the back-end.
• What assets will you need?
• What is your general strategy for css (using a library or writing custom styles)?
  • Start to think about UI/UX and design

Reminders

• Standup starting Monday 10/12
  • Three-to-Django @9:30 am
  • ClimbGuide @9:45 am
• First check-in Monday 10/12
  • Three-to-Django @1:30 pm
  • ClimbGuide @2:30 pm

Standup and check-ins will use the Zoom Phase 4 classroom.

🔖 Resources

• Django Model Field Reference
• The CRC model
• What is an ERD?
• How to create a simple ERD
• GitHub Flow
• Collaborating on GitHub
• gitignore.io
• Django project template: You don’t have to use this, but it might be a good idea. Most, if not all, of your assignments used this structure.

Katie will be joining us today to talk about how Phase 4 and Career Services work together. We’ll have time for any questions you want to ask about preparing for the job market after graduation, and how to maximize your work in Phase 4 to set yourself up for success.

Today’s topics

• Finalizing your product idea
• Writing user stories
• Turning user stories into tasks
• Creating your Trello board

Create tasks on your Trello board today

Your team’s trello board has columns predefined to start you off. Please add the tasks you create to the backlog. You may also want a column for user stories that are driving those tasks.

You are welcome to adapt the board to your team’s needs and create additional columns to support the way your team works.

Slides

• Creating Tasks

Resources

• Atlassian: Writing User Stories
• FreeCodeCamp: How and Why to Write User Stories

Today’s topics

• What is agile development?
• Creating a product roadmap
• Thinking about features and implementation
• Refining and finalizing your product idea

Defining MVP and prioritizing features

What is your app and what does it do?

One representative on behalf of your team should fill out this form by tomorrow morning, describing exactly what you are building. Please make sure the responses represent everyone on your team.

Use the product roadmap slides to guide your team discussions today. Your team should continue discussing your product and start defining the features you will build. You should get clear on who your users are and work towards being able to write user stories tomorrow.

🔖 Resources

• Agile Development slides
• Product Roadmap Slides
• Atlassian: Writing User Stories
• FreeCodeCamp: How and Why to Write User Stories

The past twelve weeks have prepared you to take on the challenge ahead in these next four weeks. Your goal is to design and build a real-world software product, working collaboratively on a small team using agile development practices and all the tools you’ve learned – and some you will learn as you go.

At the end of the phase, your team will present your product to an audience of local tech professionals, hiring partners, and your peers.

The experience of working on a team during this phase and the product you build will form the foundation for your job search after graduation.

You will not begin writing code for your project until Thursday of this week.

Today’s topics

• Forming final project groups
• Brainstorming product ideas

Slides

• Phase Overview
• Coming up with your product idea

Evaluation time!

It’s time to do your self-evaluation for the week. Unfortunately, you will see topics you don’t know – React or advanced Django, respectively. You can give those the lowest rating.

Links to videos for the week

Front-end

• Tuesday Passcode: v9QSU?Y9
• Wednesday Passcode: P$T*.!17
• Thursday Passcode: 65=RArwK

Back-end

• Monday Passcode: @%=79Lh8
• Tuesday Passcode: y^40VX@0
• Wednesday Passcode: %3A%Q3lz
• Thursday Passcode: b%H14bY.