Learning Log: Navigating Weekly Lectures and Course Insights

During this week, I gained a better understanding of why teams choose one process over the other. The Waterfall approach is very structured and planning-heavy,which can be helpful when everything is clear from the start. The downside is that once you’re deep into the process making changes is difficult and usually expensive. Agile feels like the opposite. It’s more flexible, focusing on small improvements over time and encourages constant feedback. What stood out to me is how Agile allows teams to adjust as they learn instead of locking in decisions too early. This comparison made it clear that neither approach is “better” in all situations it really depends on the project and how much change you expect along the way.

This week I learned how to write full system tests that actually simulate a real user going through the app using Selenium and ChromeDriver. Instead of just testing individual pieces of the backend. I got to see how everything connects from the UI all the way to the database. I also learned how tricky timing can be with React since pages refresh quickly and elements don’t always appear right away. Overall this helped me understand how system testing proves that the whole application is working together the way it’s meant to be.

This week during our project I learned how the Gradebook and Registrar services actually talk to each other and how final grades move from the instructor side into the student transcript. I had to fix queries, add endpoints, resolve merge conflicts and debug why data wasn’t showing up. It was a good mix of API integration, frontend cleanup, and getting more comfortable working with branches and pull requests.