Hi all, I am Derek Riebau. I have been with the Serve IT Clinic since it’s beginning last spring, working with Christole, Inc. and the Bloomington Playwrights Project. This semester I am working with a special team of individuals to finish projects from last semester; we will be working on the finishing touches of the website for the Bloomington Playwrights Project and then on a project for the Dean’s Advisory Council.
It’s exciting to be so close to finishing another project. Our team spent a long time working closely with the BPP last semester to get the site’s specifications, and now we are working to develop those solutions and put the content in place on the new site.
There are still issues of course: some of our solutions are more difficult now that we are so far along than they would have otherwise been if we had specifically developed for them at the beginning of the project. What this means for us now is that some pieces of the website are being reverse-engineered rather than appropriately designed with forethought.
I am excited to finish the work with the BPP for one more reason, too. After having been with the Serve IT Clinic for 2 semesters now, I have seen some pitfalls; some have been avoided, and others have occurred more than once. I hope that I have the opportunity in the future to help newly formed teams through the initial planning process, especially during the beginning of development, so that these pitfalls can be avoided with more ease as Serve IT continues in the future.