Duke University's
Code+
co-curricular program
promoting undergraduate
Diversity / Equity / Inclusion
Link to presentation: https://duke.is/b9tbe
Kyle Skrinak
https://www.drupal.org/u/screenack
Senior Manager, I.T., Duke Web Services Development and Support
Duke University
Our team builds, hosts, and maintains over 250 Drupal websites, including multisite, headless, and other websites and applications.
What is Code+?
Origins for the Drupal module project
- A re-org at Duke
- Office of Information Technology's call for Code+ projects
- A mutually-beneficial project
- Supports the Code+ team, Drupal, Open Source, and Duke
- Duke maintains an internally-developed module on D.O. in need of attention
- AKA "BasicShib" https://www.drupal.org/project/basicshib
- A Duke need: integrate Grouper with Shibboleth
A Code+ Project is born
- Draft and submit my proposal
- Lots of edits
- Code+ administrators accepted my proposal
A Code+ Project is born
Drupal Module for Software Design and Development
The Drupal open-source software platform provides an opportunity for those who wish to design, develop, release, and finally maintain a non-commercial software project. A team of students will work with Duke's Office of Information Technology and other partners across campus to develop a Drupal module to extend the functionality of the existing framework to create an application. Students will work with Drupal 9 to extend Symfony's PHP object model paradigm. This allows students to work within a fully compliant Object-Oriented Programming, or OOP, paradigm.
A Code+ Project is Born
A Code+ Project is Born
A Code+ Project is Born
A Code+ Project is Born
A Code+ Project is Born
A Code+ Project is Born
Project Parameters
- Code+ administrators assigns five students to project
- We discuss project, training, and software requirements
- Lando for development.
- Identify common means for collaboration.
- Daily check-in and check-out on Microsoft Teams and Zoom
- We had a mix of on-campus and remote students across time zones.
- Encourage team collaboration on a standard platform.
Project Parameters
- Respect each Code+ team's individual working style
- Regular checkin and feedback from leadership
- Encourage independence and team ownership
- Be approachable and available
Project Parameters
- Code+ administrators assigns five students to project
- A project manager (Code+ administrator)
- Me: Project director, guiding direction, providing mentoring, and supporting the team
- Supporting partners from OIT
Project Successes
- A dedicated, highly-talented team
- Students developed knowledge in our software ecosystem
- Students developed professional development and communication skills
- Project deliverable: A Drupal module published on Drupal.org
- Open source software contributions
- Supporting undergraduates
Project Outcomes
- BasicShib Module Requirements and Learning Curve
- Module Maintenance Updates
- New Features Development
- Testing and Quality Assurance
- Team collaboration improvements
Challenges, Learnings, and Next Steps
- Software development in an enterprise environment
- Open source community contribution
- Time management and project planning
- Professional communication and mentoring
Challenges, Learnings, and Next Steps
- Difficulty in planning time for mentoring and team support
- Communication in a multi-timezone environment with MS Teams and Zoom
- Complexity of the BasicShib module architecture
- Team changes during the summer
- A re-org at Duke
- Office of Information Technology's call for Code+ projects
- A mutually-beneficial project
- Supports the Code+ team, Drupal, Open Source, and Duke