CST 438 - Week 8

 The five most important things I learned in the course: 

1. How to create and read a Software Requirement Specification document. This was important because it exposed me to something I had no prior knowledge about. The guideline provided was especially helpful in understanding all the requirements needed within the documents (i.e. the use cases, ER diagram, functional requirements, etc)

2. Different types of software development, specifically Agile and Plan and Document. This was important to learn because it highlighted two different methods of project development. Agile was shown to be more iterative and useful for completing projects quickly, while Plan and Develop (aka the Waterfall Method) is a more linear approach. 

3. What software engineering means in both the technical sense and in theory. I had just assumed it was related to coding and testing, but this course showed me that there are concepts essential to learning what it means to be a software engineer.

4. Testing. I learned more about both unit testing and system testing in specific environments. I found Assignment 2 and 4 of this class to be especially helpful with understanding more about the types of testing that was needed to make sure your code was functional. 

5. Learning how to code a rest controller. This was essential to the class because it allowed us to build a backend API for a web app (however this could also be applied to mobile apps). In general, coding between the front-end, back-end and database was extremely helpful in learning new skills and understanding how the different layers of a full-stack application come together.