Week 1: Planning and product backlog creation (20 Oct - 27 Oct 2022)

The process leading up to the hackathon was an interesting one. We had three sprints of a week each to complete our solution. At the beginning, it was not easy to agree on a solution as a team we did not have a complete idea on how we were going to tackle the challenge. There were many different ideas given but we felt that none of them were significant enough to make our solution stand out from the other groups. As we did not have much time, we had no choice but to settle on an idea quickly.

Together as a team, we agreed that we would create a web application, called iTracker, that caters to both the staff and customers. The customer service staff would be able to track customers' application status by simply entering their account number or NRIC. This would benefit the customer service as in the event customers call to enquire about their application status, they can simply have it checked immediately without needing to direct the call to other departments. Customer service's workload could also be lightened as they could direct enquiring customers to the website itself to check their application status. Back-end staff could also access the web application to update customers' status after they have completed each step, for example, update that application has been reviewed successfully, together with the date it was updated. This would allow them to manage the application reviews better and reduce human errors such as missing out applications. They would have an estimation on the amount of applications they have left to review from the dashboards which are created in the web application as well. Lastly, customers who have submitted an application to open a Digital Securities Account are able to track their account opening status by logging into the web application. They are able to view the estimation date of completion, as well as their application status. Personal details such as contact number and email could be amended through the web application as well. In the event where there are issues with their application and their application is being rejected. They are able to amend their application through the web application and the staff would be able to continue with the application process as soon as possible. This would bring more convenience for the customer as they do not need to go down to a branch to settle their application. After the planning of the solution was done, I, as a product owner, created the product backlog, and thereafter the Scrum life cycle could begin. 

Week 2: Sprint 1 (28 Oct - 3 Nov 2022)

The sprint backlog for sprint 1 consisted of completing the web application wireframe on Adobe XD and create the class diagram and sequence diagram for the web application and database. The product goal was to set up the structure of the web application before we start the coding process. We had a sprint review at the end of the sprint with our stakeholder, Yanjie, to give us feedback on our progress. Initially, we intended to allow all staff to be able to edit customer's applications. However, he suggested to us that the customer service stuff could also have access to the web application to check customer's applications if they have any queries.

Contributions
In this sprint I contributed to the creating of the whole wireframe. Ming Feng and Luismika contributed towards the creation of the sequence diagram while Ming feng, Junxi and I contributed towards the creation of the class diagram. I was the one who distributed the tasks among our team and ensure that it was completed before the deadline. We had an online meeting in the middle of the sprint to ensure that everyone was on the same page and collaborate on the diagrams. However, Yu Zet did not attend our meeting and did not update us on his progress or why he could not attend our meeting. Hence, for this sprint, he did not contribute to the project at all. Other then that, the other team members were cooperative in completing the work on time.

Our Progress Showcase














Week 3: Sprint 2 (4 Nov - 10 Nov 2022)

​The sprint backlog for sprint 2 consisted of creating a git repository for our team to code together, creating an architectural diagram, creating our database,  and completing the log in pages for both the staff and the customer. The product goal was to work on setting up the database according to the class diagram that we have created in the previous sprint and start coding our web application. Sprint 2 was the most important sprint as it builds the structure of our code before the hackathon where we would implement the web application features in the code. We had a sprint review at the end of the sprint with our stakeholder, Yanjie, to give us feedback on our progress. Some of his feedback includes how to make the log in process for new customers more seamless as they do not have an account with the bank. 

During this sprint, our team felt very nervous as we were unsure if we could finish most of the work before the hackathon. It was very stressful as this was the first time that we are participating in a hackathon and we were not confident that we could complete the project on time with standard.

Contributions
In this sprint, I contributed towards the implementing the staff and customer log in page and the design of it. I also updated the trello board regularly to ensure that we were keeping track on our progress. We had an online meeting as well to collaborate on the architectural diagram and database. The architectural diagram and database creation was mostly contributed by Ming Feng. Junxi and Luismika contributed by inputting the values into the database and testing it out. Junxi also created the git repository on Github for out team. Similarly to sprint 1, Yu Zet was uncontactable and did not contribute to the project. 

Our Progress Showcase