Sunday, March 25, 2012

Minutes Software

Finally I thought I would do some justice to my IT engineering degree and blog about the software I am working on for 2-months, at SELCO. When I entered SELCO, I was given a range of IS related projects that I should be working on. My first day as an intern was obviously shocking as I enter the organization and found out that I need to work on so many projects (and all related to IT !!Oh No!!). It is indeed horrifying for an engineering graduate who never got inspired to do any coding in her college days. Well, it's unfair to say that I didn't enjoy coding at all. I did enjoy few lab sessions, working on few programs/projects in Java and Android. Coming to SELCO, seeing the list of projects was like watching a horror movie. But then slowly as you start working, you know which project is doable and which projects take time and hence not feasible as a project for your internship. Slowly our work flow shifted towards the project 'Minutes Software'. The initial confusion we had was what language to use. First we tried out Macros. But few functionalities were not feasible using macros and found out it is a cumbersome language to work on. Then we started working on Android, but then realized it's not feasible for a 'Minutes Software'. We were back to square one, still figuring out what language to work on. Let me tell you all these things took one month. 
                                 Finally an engineering student from this college, who has finished his diploma and had some work experience came to our rescue. He told us that VB.NET would be the best language to work on for  this project. He also had some modules with the initial design framework which suited our project requirements. So, this finally channelized our efforts in the right direction because we knew we where developing the software with the right language. 
Now our project is done and ready for delivery !! Well Minutes Software is a productivity tool that SELCO can use to record their weekly meetings. SELCO currently uses word file to record the meetings . There is no problem with the existing system but a lot of time is wasted in preparing the document for the next meeting. It's a waste of time for Anand sir to edit the document every week for the meeting. So here comes 'Minutes Software' to the rescue. The software gives the format for every meeting. It will also hold the database which will store the discussions of every meeting. It also sends notifications of the action plan to all the employees through email and SMS. 
                               The best learning happened during the process of  development of the software. We were the system analysts. I sat down as a minutes recorder for every meeting. I understood that though editing the document is a job that seems simple, it does take away your time and energy. Attending the meeting not only made me feel the difficulties of a recorder, but also helped me in getting a better understanding of all the projects that SELCO is working on. I also understood where I lack my skills as an IT engineer. Though I could add on various functionalities for the project, I needed someone's help in getting the design started. The initial designing phase is what I am not good at and I need to work on. I enjoyed working on the 'Minutes Software' and what makes me happy is the fact that this software will make the work life of people at SELCO much easier !!!

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