W01 Assignment: Books Web Service - Process Overview
Complete the learning activities first
You must complete the Week 01 learning activities before beginning this assignment. This assignment depends on the project setup, Express server, environment variables, database preparation, deployment setup, and other steps you completed in those learning activities.
Overview
- Purpose: Demonstrate your knowledge of this week's concepts.
- Task: Complete the assignment requirements and submit the required deliverables.
Every week of this course, you will complete an assignment where you fix bugs or add new features in a web application. The assignment will follow the same process every week. During the first week, you will be guided through the process in detail. Then, in future weeks, you will be expected to apply the same process independently.
Career Preparation
The process you will follow is designed to mirror the work done by professional software engineers. When you work on a professional team for your internship or full-time job, you will follow similar steps.
Process Overview
The process you will follow for each assignment in this course consists of the following four parts:
- Develop a detailed specification: define what the feature should do.
- Prepare a plan: break the feature into clear coding tasks.
- Implement the plan: complete each task and verify behavior.
- Reflect on the process and results: record what changed and what you learned.
Why this process matters
This is the same basic process you will use in your career. Many beginners start coding right away. They may not think about how their work fits the larger design or affects others. This can lead to extra work and hidden bugs. A short planning process improves code quality and helps you work more confidently.
Also, you will use AI in this course and throughout your career. If you use AI without clear directions, it may create incomplete or incorrect solutions.
In this course, you will learn to use AI to create detailed specs that define exactly what you want, and then you will use a detailed pull request and code review process that professional software developers use to ensure their projects are of high quality.
Working with others
For the first two weeks of the course, you will work individually to complete each assignment. Beginning in Week 03, you will add features and fix bugs in a team repository where you will review each other's work.
Assignment Parts
Complete the assignment in the following order:
- Part 1 - Develop the Specification
- Part 2 - Create the Plan
- Part 3 - Implement the Plan
- Part 4 - Reflect
Next Step
Begin with Part 1 - Develop the Specification.
After you have completed all parts of the assignment, return to Canvas to submit your required links.
Other Links:
- Return to: Week Overview | Course Home