Personal Reflection: Development of the Visa Buddy Application

PERSONAL REFLECTION: DEVELOPMENT OF THE VISA BUDDY
APPLICATION

The development of the app was a personal journey of self actualization and discovery; studying
application development and project management methods in class made me eager to be involved in
an actual development. Applying the agile SCRUM methodology, I was able to gain a first hand
practical experience on exactly what needs to be done, the steps followed, and why it is a good
approach to application and software development (Alexander, 2018; Landau, 2019). Knowing
something theoretically is a just the first step, its application and getting the desired results, I came
to learn, is the most challenging aspect. In developing the application, I worked in a group of three
and I was a developer and also doubled up doing the documentation for the project. I came to
realize that groups follow specific steps; at first I couldn't understand why everyone appeared edgy,
each person trying to push through their agenda. After reviewing the group forming process, I
realized that most groups undergo a series of definitive steps, starting with forming, storming,
norming, followed by performing, and finally, adjourning (Abudi, 2010). Despite earlier
disagreements and my fear that the group would not gel and cooperate to meet the project objective,
we eventually managed to bond together and got going.
I came to realize that getting the user requirements was the most important step in ensuring the
success of a software/ application development process as this (Rivero Esqueda, 2018; Eid, 2015).
As such, the team took a lot of time to fully understand the development process and create the
requisite user stories. I realized that while scrum agile is a good process for developing software
projects, its effectiveness still entail having some aspects of the traditional project management
process, including having an initiation, planning, execution, and closure phase. Following this
process using scrum agile enabled the team to successfully complete the project. I have also learned
the real value of scrum agile; it ensures the process is able to move forward because not all issues
can be resolved when they arise (Miller, 2013). I also realized its value in ensuring the final product
has very few errors and problems because of its iterative development nature. Playing the role of
designing the interface and also being part of the development team, I came to understand the real
value of human computer interface principles in designing an application or software. In the end, it
is where we realized there were problems and areas that required making changes and
improvements.
What I had not expected was conflicts among team members that in some cases threatened to
disrupt our development time table and execution of the project. I imagined that past the norming
stage, things would flow smoothly; however, we had several disagreements on the best user
interface, the color scheme to be used, the user work flow diagrams and how to make the
application simple to use yet effective. At one point I even felt like leaving the group; however,
upon reflection and reviewing project management principles, I came to the realization that
conflicts in projects are inevitable (Kerzner, 2014). This gave me some relief; knowing that