Project Retrospective

Project Retrospective

Overview

From the beginning of the semester until the MVP milestone, the project progressed from initial design decisions to a functional MVP with partially implemented core features. While the team successfully delivered a working system, the process also revealed several technical and organizational challenges that impacted development.

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What Went Well

1. Implementation of Core Functionality

The team successfully implemented the main building blocks of the system, including:

• User authentication (sign up / sign in)
• Guest and authenticated user flows
• Help request creation
• Volunteer availability
• Basic matching logic

These features allowed the system to demonstrate its primary purpose during the MVP demo.

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2. Structured Development Workflow

The use of GitHub issues, pull requests, and code reviews provided a structured workflow. This helped:

• Track progress effectively
• Maintain code quality
• Ensure contributions from all team members

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3. Iterative Problem Solving

Throughout development, the team identified and fixed issues iteratively, especially during testing. This approach helped stabilize core flows and improve system reliability.

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What Went Bad / Unexpected

1. Integration Challenges

One of the biggest issues was frontend–backend integration.

• Some features were developed in isolation
• This caused inconsistencies and delays during integration
• Certain parts of the system relied on hardcoded data instead of backend integration

This showed that integration requires more coordination than initially expected.

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2. Incomplete Features Due to Time Constraints

Although core features were implemented, several important aspects remained incomplete:

• Authentication and help request flows are not fully stable
• Location-based matching is missing (location is hardcoded)
• Real-time location sharing is not implemented

These limitations reduced the overall functionality of the system.

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3. Communication Gaps

Communication between team members, especially across frontend and backend, was not always sufficient.

• Some assumptions were not aligned
• Dependencies between components were not always clear
• This led to rework and delays

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4. Weak Demo Presentation

Although the system was functional, the demo presentation was not as clear and structured as expected.

• Based on instructor feedback, one of the main issues was that the demo lacked a strong and convincing scenario.
• The demo followed a page-by-page explanation rather than a realistic use-case flow
• The flow of the presentation was not well organized
• Some features were not demonstrated effectively

Additionally, due to the presentation structure and time constraints, some aspects of the system were not clearly communicated. This led to certain misunderstandings about the system’s capabilities, even though some of these features were partially implemented.

This highlighted that a working system alone is not enough, it must be presented through a clear and compelling scenario.

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Additional Reflections on Decisions and Process

During the MVP phase, several key decisions had unintended consequences:

• The initial strict separation between frontend and backend development reduced early coordination and caused integration issues later
• Prioritizing rapid feature development led to partially completed and unstable components
• Delaying integration and testing resulted in critical issues being discovered late in the process

These decisions highlight the importance of balancing development speed with system stability, as well as the need for continuous integration throughout the development lifecycle.

Additionally, the team did not fully adopt a user-centered perspective during early development. Features were implemented individually rather than being designed around realistic user scenarios. This led to a system that was technically functional but lacked coherence and resulted in a weaker and less convincing demo.

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Lessons Learned

From this process, the team learned several important lessons:

• Integration should start earlier and be continuous
• Communication must be more frequent and structured
• Developing features in isolation creates problems later
• Focusing on fewer but stable features is more effective than partially completing many features
• A clear and well-planned demo is as important as the implementation itself

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Improvements for the Final Milestone

Based on the retrospective, the team plans to:

• Adopt a more full-stack-oriented workflow instead of strict frontend/backend separation
• Increase communication frequency and coordination within the team
• Prioritize frontend–backend integration earlier in development
• Improve user experience and UI consistency
• Complete missing features such as location-based matching and dynamic location sharing
• Prepare a more structured and clear demo presentation

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Final Reflection

Overall, the team successfully delivered a functional MVP that demonstrates the core idea of the project. However, the process revealed that technical implementation alone is not sufficient; coordination, integration, and communication play a critical role in delivering a complete and polished system.