---
tags: group-project
---
# Group Project

This guide is designed to provide a helpful guide as you start your group projects.

## Project Guidelines

Keep in mind the following points when deciding on an application idea with your team:

- Focus on apps that would make for a good 3-minute demo.
- Retrieves data from the network and presents this data within the application.
- This means creating your own API backend and using someone else's API (ie, Google Maps, TMDB, etc...)
- Creation and update aspects that allow the user to engage with your application further.
- You need to be adding to and updating/deleting from the database
- Must use a ReactJS front-end and Spring Boot backend
- Demonstrate ethical and responsible AI or data use where applicable.

## Evaluating Product Ideas

What makes for a "good" application idea? When evaluating projects, be sure to consider the following five elements:

- Story: How compelling is the story around this application once completed?
- What problem is your application solving?
- How is it different from what already exists?
- How clear is the value of this application to your audience?
- How well would your friends or peers respond to this product idea?
- Market: How large or unique is the market for this application?
- What's the size and scale of your potential user base?
- Does this application provide huge value to a niche group of people?
- Do you have a well-defined audience of people for this application?
- Habit: How habit-forming or addictive is this application?
- How frequently would an average user open and use this application?
- Does an average user just consume your application or do they create?
- Scope: How well-formed is the scope for this application?
- How technically challenging will it be to complete this application by the end of the program?
- Is a stripped-down version of this application still interesting to build?
- How clearly defined is the product you want to build?

More important perhaps than anything in terms of evaluating an application is asking yourself: "If I built this application and published it, could I or others I know start using this application with friends on a regular basis?"

## Demo-centric Planning

When designing your application, be sure to consider a demo-centric approach to planning. At the end of this program, your team will be presenting a demo of your application. Consider the following aspects of the demo:

- Start with a description of a problem that your application addresses
- Follow-up with a succinct description of the solution your application provides
- Create a setup with a few characters and a narrative for how they are using your application

Spend some time discussing this demo with your team from the outset and consider planning your application around an effective demo. Once development starts, plan sprints based on the minimum viable product needed to execute that demo.

## Project Planning

- List out your application's user stories
- Bucket user stories into required, optional and stretch
- Sketch wireframes for your core flows
- Develop data schema for your models (nouns and attributes)
- Convert each noun into Parse model classes
- Plan each sprint with team by breaking out issues for that week
- Assign each of the issues to team members balancing out the work
- Repeat from step 6 until all sprints complete

## References

Refer to these helpful guides during your group project:

[Past Projects](https://www.youtube.com/@famucisinnovationtechnolog5694/videos)
[Resolving Merge Conflicts](https://help.github.com/articles/resolving-a-merge-conflict-from-the-command-line/)
[Understanding Github Flow](https://guides.github.com/introduction/flow/)
[Github Issues Guide](https://guides.github.com/features/issues/)