In my latest project we have just entered sprint nine putting us nearly two thirds of the way though it. I would like to take some time now in this blog to reflect on my experience with the project and see how I can do better using a series of focusing questions.
How have you grown as a developer over the last eight weeks?
My biggest growth has been as a team member and collaborator. I have been working on doing my work in a timely fashion. This has enable me to revive meaningful feedback from my team in a timely manor that then can be implemented quickly. I have also been working on giving meaningful feed back to other enabling them to have the same advantage.
How have you improved upon the skills you identified in your first development blog?
Over the past few weeks I have greatly improved my time management skills. I have been able to consistently able to accomplish my tasks in a timely manor. In the past my work was disorganized with me doing rando pieces of work whenever I felt like it. This lead to less being done in the project and the work that was being done was not being prioritized correctly.
During this project I have done a better job of breaking down my tasks so that they can be completed in one sitting. This enables me to focus on one part of a larger problem without being overwhelmed by it. By doing this I am able to accomplish bigger issues more efficiently by focusing my intentions and not being distracted by taking on too many issues at once.
In addition to allowing me to efficiently complete my work this has enabled me to maintain a better work life balance then in the past. In the past I had no defined daily work load or goals for the week. This lead to me being in a constant state of either working or feeling bad because I was not working. In addition it lead to an abundance of "all nighters" that became detrimental to both my work and my mental health. Now with clear daily goals I can make sure that I am getting my work done in a timely manor and able to have free time knowing that I have accomplished what I needed to do.
The one area where my skills have not been progressing at a manor that I'd like are my design skills. During this project I have been working almost exclusively as a programmer. Since the team is composed of more than half designers there is not a lot of design work to go around and my programming work takes up the vast majority of our tasks. This has meant that besides giving feedback I have been unable to do any design work. This is unfortunate as these are some of the skills as I wished to develop the most.
Do you have new things that you want to work on or things that you've learned that you hadn't expected?
There are specific technical elements of unity that I am learning more about and hope to use in future projects. Both ridged bodies and character controllers were new concepts to me and I hope to apply my knowledge in them to future projects.
What do you believe are the biggest opportunities for both you and the group to grow and strengthen over the next several weeks? How can you contribute?
I believe that we all have the opportunity to strengthen our skills as team members and contributors. Everyone on the team seems to have a firm understanding of their particular trade and how to produce quality work. Where many struggle is in there collaboration skills. As a team member I can help by giving honest constructive feedback and communicating as much as possible with my group members.
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