The Undertaking: The Life of Lambda Labs, Part 2
UGH! What is the worst thing that could happen to a computer programmer besides losing their eyesight? Losing their computer!!! Here I am on this energetic team working for an amazing cause, Family Promise of Spokane. I’m literally a few weeks from graduating LAMBDA SCHOOL, and my world starts crashing down on me…literally. My little 4 GB RAM laptop could no longer handle a programmer’s needs. Everytime I tried pushing or pulling from GitHub, it would go unresponsive and VSCode would close on me. If I tried to “npm start”, yea…good luck! But, I could still code. I just wouldn’t be able to see the results of my code. Then, add to the fact that on top of my computer wanting to commit suicide on me, I had Internet outages, family emergencies, including a death…I felt like Hades was calling my name.
I had a team program leader (TPL) try to help me out over Zoom to see if it was just my stupidity and errors…came to no conclusion. But, I know it wasn’t me because every Lambda student is a Git pro! So, I wanted a quick fix. I purchased a desktop online and upgraded my Internet, just in case. While waiting for my desktop to arrive — OMG! Haven’t used a desktop in over 20 years — I decided to start coding blindly. I figured once my new computer arrived, I could improve my code. Well, my computer decides to delay itself for another week. I had already blind-coded 8 forms, which I chose to use class components on because it is easier for me to do blindly.
Deadline is near and I have eight crappy forms to fix. I just had performed CPR on a loved one the night prior and threw my back out (yes, my meme is morbid…but that is the ER nurse in me). My TPL (the leader of the team) wanted to FLEX me, where I would have to repeat a month of Labs. There was NO way I was going to give up now! I was basically told to have the forms done in less than two days and she was holding me to it. All I could do was pray that the computer would arrive on time. But, it had its own timing…kinda like waiting for a baby to be born.
Although I had posted all of my code in Slack to my Front-End team days prior, I decided to ask my amazing teammate, Sarah, to run my code for me to see what it looked like. My code rendered. But…it was abysmal looking. She asked me if I wanted to push it and I said “NO!” The UX Designer in me would have jumped off a cliff before I’d let the stakeholder see that! Heck! I wanted to jump off a cliff, anyways. I had no clue how I was going to correct and produce my code. Then, the angel that she is, offered to fix my code for me. Actually, she asked if it would be OK if she could just start all over. This was understandable…fixing someone else’s code is a PITA. We explained the situation to our TPL and I straight up told her that it was in the best interest of our stakeholder and team if Sarah redid the code. I might have to make a blog post all about Sarah because she is the most amazing teammate ever with so much positive energy! So, what did I learn? I need to know when I can and cannot do something successfully. I need to improve my communication skills because I should have been more clear to my TPL of my situation. And, my coding skills are stronger than I thought if I could get eight pages to render from scratch.
OK…now onto answering Lambda’s mandated questions…
Although things did not go as planned, I did collaborate with Front-End on several pieces of code, including the Supervisor Check In Forms. This code below allows the Supervisor to visualize how many beds are reserved for each Guest.
Here is how the code renders on the Family Promise website for Guest Check- In, allowing for the titles in the code:
- Name of Guest
- Reservation
- Reservation ID
- Onsite (7pm)
- Onsite (10pm)
- Beds Reserved
One of the first technical challenges we faced as a team was trying to implement DocuSign into Family Promise’s Intake Packet. I put several hours into researching it and figuring out how to embed the code into our project. With our limited timeframe and the fact that the homeless shelter would have to pay for the services, it was decided that we would just use the Ant Design library to add form fields for signatures, dates, and initials. So, that is exactly what I did in my forms in order to mitigate the fact that we would not be implementing DocuSign.
We also ran into challenges with implementing visualizations from Data Science to the Front-End. This took many hours of research and Zoom meetings. The Front-End had never worked with a Data Scientist or visualizations before this Labs project. There was a great learning curve. But, in the end, Sarah was able to get the visualizations to work on the Front-End.
The final technical challenge we faced as a team was as we were getting ready to demo our project to the stakeholder. The “Submit” button wouldn’t work! All the code was there, but the button just wouldn’t work! We wouldn’t have been able submit the pages of the Intake Packet without it! With minutes left, Sarah saved the day again! It was like watching the final seconds of a football game where the punter determines who wins! I was on pins and needles! I needed to dig into my husband’s blood pressure pills after that!
(The green “Submit” button was our nemesis)
As for contributions to the team, I was, at best, moral support for Sarah. I did do wireframes and a lot of research. I collaborated on design and code. Had I gotten my computer on time, my code would have been ready to roll. I learned a lot about myself in the process. And, I’m very proud of my team and all of their hard work! All of my friends outside of my team have had a crappy Labs experience because of the lack of teamwork amongst the entire team and no clear direction. Perhaps, having a tough TPL paid off!
