Monday, November 10, 2014

Google Summer of Code - student experience

This year we received a great contribution from Martin, who worked on a GSoC project for EASE. Belows post sums up his experience with the GSoC program. So I leave the stage for Martin...




Hello everyone. First off let me quickly introduce myself. My name is Martin and I study software-engineering at Technical University Graz. This summer I participated in the Google Summer of Code program (GSOC) where I implemented a Jython debugger for the Eclipse Advanced Scripting Environment with the help of my mentor Christian who today is so friendly and "borrows" me his blog.

I wanted to write a blog entry for quite a while now but was never sure what to write about. I finally decided to simply tell my experience with this year's GSOC program and try to give a few pointers to anyone who is interested in participating next year. Please understand that these are just things that worked for me and there is no guaranty that you will be selected next if you do everything I did.

In general the most important part about applying is to have a pretty good plan what you are going to do. The application phase was mid of March this year and applicants where expected to submit a project proposal. This proposal should contain an outline of what you want to achieve, what your milestones and deliverables are and an estimation about your timeline. Based on this application your mentoring organization (the open source organization you are applying to) will choose who they take.

Eclipse has a list of projects for Google Summer of Code and so do several other organizations but if you think you have a potentially great idea just get in contact with them and they will likely tell you if this is something they are interested in.

Once you think you have an idea I would recommend getting in touch with the mentoring organization and see if they have anything particular in mind for your project or if they can give you some tips on how you could tackle the problem. I always like an open dialog about my projects and to hear what others think about it. It is hard to let go off a fixed plan in your head if you don’t get reasonable input from someone else. In my case my mentor helped me a lot in shaping the idea to an actual plan.

If you finally think you have a decent plan about what you want to do it is time to think about how you want to do it. This phase to me is the most important phase of the whole GSOC program. The better thought through your plan is the less work you’ll have to do in the actual implementation phase. Don’t get me wrong, you will still make amends as you go along but the better the initial plan the less derivations there will be and the less additional time you will spend planning.

Make a list of all deliverables (necessary and optional), order and rank them and create your deliverable plan. Once again the more time you spend here the less surprises you will face when doing the actual implementation. Should I even mention that you should give your planned timetable some thought and try to be as accurate as you can at this point of you project? I think you see where everything so far was going…

So one last time: Take your time when writing your project proposal, try to go into enough detail and do not just quickly hack together a proposal. It will help your chances of getting selected because you obviously show dedication and once you actually are taken it helps you bring your project to a satisfying end. The rest of the program – the actual implementation – is quite straight forward. I will still give you some last hints that helped me and hopefully help you too.

Communication is the most important part in the implementation phase. Try to align with your mentor regularly, try to get feedback from others working on your open source project (mailing lists, IRC, you name it) and try to communicate your progress with everyone involved. Your mentor can and will help you with your problems, that’s why they are mentors in the first place. I knew my mentor before so it is easy for me to say this but from what I’ve heard from others every mentor seems to be nice and willing to help you if you only ask. There are some shy people out there – which is totally okay – but they will probably have a harder time. As I said, I really like feedback and it helps me finish projects better than if I was working completely on my own. I know it is hard for software developers to change their minds once they have it set on an idea (believe me I’ve been there more often than I can count) but feedback will almost certainly help. Being more open minded about this is something I strongly believe most (including me) should always try to improve.

The other persons involved in your OS project will probably be the first ones to use your software and play the beta-testers. Listen to their feedback, try to be open to their ideas and wishes and by this you will get the most out of your project. For them as well as for you.

Lastly try to communicate your project’s progress regularly. This is something I could have done a little more and although it worked this time it is still something I would do differently in the future. Your mentor and everyone else involved will help you avoid the stress of having to work triple-shifts just to finish before the deadline because you did not see the stress coming. Most people working on an open source project have experience and have been in similar situations (be it at work or in private) and will help you anticipate these things.

For GSOC there are two deadlines, one in the middle of the implementation phase to show that you haven’t completely wasted the first one and a half months and one at the end where you have to deliver your final results.

I guess lots of people handle deadlines the way I used to do, which is procrastinating until it is almost too late. I understand that you work best under pressure and seek the thrill and challenge of having close to no time to do your job, but it is still something I try to avoid as much as possible (although it still happens from time to time). Your mentors will very likely give you a positive final evaluations if you do not complete everything but tried your best throughout the whole project. If you procrastinate and do not finish then I’m pretty sure you will fail your finals and (maybe even more important) will not get the payment.

These are all tips I can give you, maybe there are others out there that can help you even more. Still I believe if you keep these things in mind but still tackle the program in your way there will be nothing stopping you from participating and finishing next year. Believe me, it is worth it.

Have fun and who knows maybe we see each other during next year’s Google Summer of Code program. I will definitely try my luck again.