Project Retrospective

1. Overview

This page documents the team's self-reflection on the project's progress from the beginning of the semester until the MVP Milestone. It evaluates our successes, challenges, and the impact of our managerial decisions on the Social Event Mapper development lifecycle.

2. What Went Well?

Team Communication and Dynamics

One of the strongest pillars of this period was our internal communication. By utilizing WhatsApp for rapid coordination and weekly Google Meet sessions for alignment, we maintained a high level of transparency. The team fostered a culture where everyone felt comfortable asking questions and providing feedback, which accelerated problem-solving.

High Sense of Ownership

The division of the team into dedicated subgroups (Backend, Web, Mobile, and DevOps) proved highly effective. Each member demonstrated strong ownership over their respective modules. This autonomy allowed individuals to take initiative in technical implementations without waiting for constant oversight, leading to a faster development pace.

Technical Foundation and CI/CD

We successfully established a robust technical baseline. Implementing CI/CD workflows and Docker deployment early in the process ensured that our MVP was always in a "deployable" state.

3. What Went Badly / Unexpectedly?

Time Constraints and Pressure

The most significant challenge was the limited timeframe to move from initial elicitation to a fully functional MVP. While we met our goals, the "crunch" period towards the end of the milestone forced us to prioritize speed over exhaustive cross-platform alignment, leading to some technical debt.

Platform Inconsistency (Web vs. Mobile)

Due to the rapid pace of development, we experienced synchronization issues between the Web and Mobile platforms. While the backend was unified, the two frontends occasionally diverged in terms of UI logic and feature parity. This created a "fragmented" user experience that we need to harmonize in the final phase.

Scope Trade-offs

We had to make the difficult decision to defer highly requested features like the Map View and Real-time Notifications. While this was a pragmatic choice to ensure a stable release, it was an "unexpected" realization during development that these features were more complex to integrate into the core flow than initially estimated. Consequently, these features have been carried over to the Final Milestone as high-priority objectives, ensuring they receive the dedicated development time they require.

4. Conclusion and Future Outlook

The MVP Milestone was a success, proving that the team can deliver a complex, full-stack application under pressure. However, for the Final Milestone, we must shift our focus from "building from scratch" to refinement and integration.

Key adjustments for the next phase:

• Better Cross-Platform Sync: Ensure Web and Mobile offer a more consistent experience.
• Addressing Feedback: Prioritize the customer's new requests (file attachments, age/gender filters).
• Bridging the Gap: Transition from page-based tracking to a proper notification system to improve UX.