--- title: Agile Collective tags: Interview description: View the slide with "Slide Mode". --- # Agile Collective: Introducing Oli 🦆🐰 ___ ### Challenge 1 Balliol College, has logged a feature request. Hello Agile team, Would it be possible to replace the video in the homepage of our site (https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/) with a slideshow? We would like to make some of our events and news more prominent. Let us know if more info is needed from us. ___ ### Task: + highlight and justify possible approaches to tackle the challenge. + For the chosen approach, produce a task list and, for each task, attempt to plan its implementation --- ### Step 1: Gather and evaluate information + What is the goal? Which events and news pieces need priority? + Explore why slideshow is important and whether it is best suited for goal + Project management: what are the deadlines, budget and risks? ___ ### Step 2: Plan early work with designer + Next stage is to sketch out some designs with help from team members, or search for good templates to start from + Work closely with clients and share initial designs to ensure that feature is aligned with need + Assess accesibility requirements ___ ### Step 3: Work on eseential implementation + Build working version. Images and Text could be pulled in by a CMS, collected via API calls, or stored in a database. + Slide show could be automatic using setInterval, but should also offer manual control --- ### Building task list #### News-slider + HTML section container for single large image. + Button controls either side for sliding left and right. + Buttons clickable via keyboard. + See more events button to show all (gallery view) + SetInterval to periodically shift events (not flashy) #### Events slider + Multiple events can be seen at once + Slider buttons for left and right + No automatic movement, to reduce chance of overwhelming people + See more events button to show all (gallery view) --- ### Step 4: User testing and unit testing + Ensure application is resilient, robust and well tested + Gather feedback on UX --- ### Step 5: Reflect and implement production version + Take stock of how development is going, implement changes based on feedback and consider further features: -- Newsfeed and events email sign up -- Events calendar -- Catalog of past events/trending news --- # Challenge 2 ### Blackjack game # success and challenges I shared the app with my friends and family and got positive feedback from them. It's hard to get my friends attention with my coding projects but it was great to see this was something they genuinely enjoyed. It was a project I could build on as my skills and interests grew. I feel much more comfortable with event listeners and the concept of passing around state with javasScript. ___ ### learning points Thinking carefully about writing functions with a relatively complex app is essential, to start with, too many of my functions were calling others which started a confusing chain that was hard to debug. I refactored my code so that functions either returned a value or had an endpoint side effect. Tests are extremely helpful for this type of work, there are so many combinations of hands and so many edge cases e.g. (low Aces ,pocket blackjack etc.) Writing tests gave me confidence my app worked, to start with I was just playing the game until i noticed a bug. ___ ### what could have been done differently. I adapted my functions so that they could be pure functions, this enabled me to test them. However the functions in the production verion of my app did have side-effects. This meant that once after a failing test in my function I updated my test function but not the production one. It took a while for me to remember and could have been a cause of a bug. I would and will write tests for my production app too that are not abstracted away from the real world. ___ # Challenge 3 ### code reading challenge ___ # pros What’s your opinion of Drupal as a CMS? Strengths and weaknesses? It is flexible and more customisable than wordpress. The documentation is said to be very good and very comprehensive. It's well established and has been a top player as a CMS for over 10 years. It is a web application framework and can be used with frontend frameworks like react and vue, but it also has it's own theming and styling options. The community is well established, built around open source principles and is friendsly and open. For the end user it offers a code free or low code way to build sites, but the developer has access to customisable modules and tons of APIs. Drupal Admin features very good. ___ # cons + Maybe less suitable fro E-commerce compared to Shoppify or Wordpress + Some businesses may feel locked into wordpress + Not as many templates and themes as wordpress (wordpress is huge) + Eco-system learning curve ___ What can you bring to Agile Collective (skills, experiences, passions)? + I understand importance of UX and digital exclusion + Passionate about being part of a co-operative and new ways of working + I have experience with CMS such as Wix and Wordpress + Very good at learning new skiills How can Agile Collective best support your development and learning? + Importance of time to switch off + Encouragement!