The CS 210 Experience

CS 210 is...

Software Engineering + Product Management +
Founding a Company + Managing Group Dynamics

CS 210 provides hands-on experience with...

- Knowledge and rational capture
- Market awareness - brainstorming, need finding, and benchmarking
- Rapid prototyping
- Agile development (Scrum framework)
- Readme Driven Development (RDD)
- Distributed source control (Git & Github)
- Issue tracking (Trello)
- Team communication (email & Facebook group)
- Documentation for new employees (Google Drive) + potential customers (blogging)

CS 210 requires from its student teams that they...

- Build team identity (team name, logo, members pic + bio, communication channels, product definition/mission statement)
- Develop and iterate on product ideas aligned with sponsoring company's (SAP) product theme
- Engage in user feedback driven prototyping ("pink bagel" testing)
- Present to company (SAP) liaisons at various product stages (in Palo Alto and on campus)
- Convey how the team would attract desirable new hires ("closing a candidate")
- Formally demo software twice - at the course halfway mark and at the end of the course
- Present to an unaffiliated corporate audience (ShopKick)
- Present to company (SAP) at international headquarters (during spring break in Walldorf, Germany)
- Compose necessary documentation to onboard a new hire efficiently
- Maintain a blog presence throughout product development
- Enter into a contract with company liaisons on what team intends to deliver by course end
- Launch product to a real-world audience

My personal takeaways...

- Just because you like someone doesn't mean you'll like working with them on a long-term basis
- Around The Corner (ATC) would have benefited from more frequent user feedback during development - we developed in a vacuum most of the time
- The ATC team should have elected a media relations manager in its later stages to organize outreach
- User interface design is HUGE
- Having a solid team and product identity promotes team bonding and unity (why t-shirts matter)
- Assigning team roles and responsibilty over particular product aspects is crucial to really getting things done
- Rotating a few key members through the acting role of "CEO" can be effective in managing burnout
(section may be updated in future)