University of Guelph - Computing & Communications Services

S21 & F21 Work Term Report

Introduction

I am Jainil Patel, a 3rd year Computer Science (Co-op) student, minoring in Statistics. This is my first work term report on my experience working at the University of Guelph - Computer & Communications Services from May 2021 to Dec 2021. I would like to share a few things about my employer, responsibilities, accomplishments, and the skills I have developed over the 8 months.

About the Employer

Computer & Communications Services (CCS) is a department at the University of Guelph, providing a wide range of IT and communication solutions to the university community. The provided services range from computer and server support, email and calendaring tools, software downloads, file storage and databases, as well as web hosting and web development help.

UoG-CCS

In 1969, the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) was created to operate the IBM mainframe computer and support administrative computing applications. After several years of providing services and innovating new tools for the university community, ICS migrates to Computing and Communications Services (CCS). Since 1992, CCS has been an important part of the University of Guelph.

Job Description & Project Overview

As a Junior Analyst at CCS, my job was to help develop and maintain software for the finance team as well as the University of Guelph treasury department clients. Occasionally, I also tested and debugged applications for the student team and the human resources team.

My first major task working at CCS was researching the front-end web component framework, Lit. The Polymer framework, currently being used in CCS applications, is no longer supported by Google and the team of developers was in search of a new framework to migrate to. I researched the new framework, tested the creation of web components, and documented my process in a report format to present to the entire team of developers at CCS.

Throughout the 8-month work term, I developed, tested, and maintained various different applications across the four teams at CCS; Finance, Student, HR, and Research. A previously developed application, MAD, which converts CSV files into a more readable and organized Excel document started to have minor issues. I worked with the client directly to resolve the issue and document the solution for future debugging.

I was also given the wonderful opportunity to work with two other developers in the Finance team to create the RRV application for the Treasury department. I helped create the PDF functionality for the application using the Speedata framework. This included designing the template for downloadable PDF documents, data entry, as well merging multiple PDFs into one file. I gained lots of knowledge in PDF template creation during the development of this application while also researching deployment configurations.

Finally, I was given an individual project to be completed for in-house usage. An inventory application for CCS members to track loaned hardware, software, and licenses. I was really excited to create this application as the technology stack being used was completely new to me. This was an opportunity to learn new languages and frameworks as well as participate in the deployment process. I demonstrated the application and received feedback from CCS members at different stages of the development phase.

Ultimately, I got to work on many different applications throughout my work term. I also had some exposure to Microsoft Azure DevOps to create PBIs. These PBIs helped track work from our team’s bi-weekly sprints, and the migration of applications from on-premise to the cloud. Alongside developing programming skills, I am grateful I was able to improve some of my soft skills as well such as teamwork, communication, and time management. Although working remotely was a unique challenge, I was able to adapt to the schedule. This also meant separating my personal and professional life.

Learning Goals & Reflections

Build Confidence Communicating to Large Groups

I have never been great at presenting or speaking to large groups, so I wanted to build my confidence during this work term, especially in front of senior members and clients. The daily stand-up meetings really helped in achieving this goal as I occasionally lead the meeting on my Finance team. I was able to practice speaking in an organized manner communicating to several attendees. I was also given the opportunity to demonstrate my projects at our bi-weekly .NET meeting in front of approximately 15 members from various different teams. At the end of my work term, I was much more confident speaking to large groups of people and successfully presenting my work to clients and stakeholders.

Improve Organization and Time Management Skills

When I started my work term at CCS, one of my struggles was organization and time management skills. I’ve been accustomed to being given assignment instructions and deadlines in university classes. However, in this work environment, I was given a task to complete for which I would need to research the necessary technologies needed and refer to any useful resources. I realized that I would need to improve my organizational and time management skills in order to complete the task successfully and efficiently. I succeeded at this by using Azure DevOps Product Backlog Items (PBIs) to track my outstanding and completed work. I created sub-tasks within PBIs to split a large work item into smaller portions to complete. I used Trello to keep track of deadlines and assist with my time management goal. With the usage of Azure DevOps PBIs and Trello I was able to organize tasks in a time based manner while documenting the process for my co-workers.

Learn C# and .NET Core for Application Development

At the start of my work term, I was completely new to C# and .NET Core development. The language and framework combination is very popular and widely used in the software development industry. Learning this technology stack can be very beneficial for a programmer. Since C# and .NET Core is often used at CCS, it was a great opportunity for me to learn. To strengthen my understanding and apply my knowledge of the language and framework, I was given tasks that met this criteria. I worked on various applications that directly used C# and .NET Core or a variation of the combination. Towards the end of the work term, I was very comfortable working in this development environment having gained experience through application development and testing.

Conclusion

Overall, my 8-month work term at the University of Guelph - CCS was extremely successful. Azure DevOps, C#, and .NET Core were all new to me however, I was motivated to learn and work hard. I am satisfied with all that I accomplished. I was able to learn the aforementioned new technologies as well as improve the ones I already knew like HTML & CSS, JavaScript, and SQL. My time working in the Finance team allowed me to understand about the industry and the working environment. I am thankful for the opportunity I was given which made me a better programmer, speaker, and overall strengthened my individual skills.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all of the people that I met and worked with during my time at CCS. A special thanks to my supervisors Paul Tang, and Tim Frank as well as my Finance team members, Margaret, Alex, Dan Ping, Diorge, and Navneet, whom I worked with very closely on a daily basis. I was given exceptional guidance and support from everyone around me which helped me immensely throughout the 8 months. My team was available for me for every question I had and any help I needed. I had an outstanding time working at CCS, and I am grateful for the opportunity.