About  Dhrumil:

• Harvard Kennedy School
  Visiting Associate Professor of Public Policy
   
• Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
  Associate Professor of Journalism
  Assistant Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism
   
• Formerly:
  • Database Journalist, Politics @ FiveThirtyEight
  • Software Development Engineer @ Amazon
  • Education
    • BA in Philosophy
    • MS in Computer Science

Database Journalist, Politics

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/job-opening-database-journalist-politics/

Data-Driven Storytelling

https://fivethirtyeight.com/contributors/dhrumil-mehta

Building Software

Public Facing

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/national/

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

Polls Database [Internal]

Scrapers

Open Data

data.fivethirtyeight.com

https://www.datajournalismawards.org/project-listing/?project_id=2082

Research

http://journalism.stanford.edu/cj2016/files/Newsbots.pdf [2016]

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1554477X.2022.2004846 [2021]

About  Aarushi:

• i co-teach this class with Prof. Mehta!
   
• also, a professor of quantitative methods at American University, in Washington D.C.
   
• past:
  • White House Office of Science & Technology Policy
  • COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic
  • Cisco Systems
  • Education
    • BS in Data Science & International Relations
    • MS in Data Science

About the Class!

Learning Objectives for #Code4Policy

Learning Objectives focus on:

• code

• management

• policy context

What is Agile?

• What is agile and why do people use it?
   
• “Learning by doing” rather than “learning by debating”
   
• Agree to try it out for the next two weeks ("buy in")...
  • you're welcome to be skeptical, but try to be so in a way that is conducive to learning

Suspend disbelief for pedagogical purposes

#foundational-knowledge

#learning-how-to-learn

AI-Generated Image Using DALL-E

Don't do Fake Agile

• Agile is a philosophy, not a set of rituals
• Bad, or "fake" agile, is a common anti-pattern
• Be able to utilize agile software dev/management techniques effectively and adapt them to your needs rather than creating a bunch of extra overhead by following a template from a textbook
• Observe the benefits and challenges while implementing agile methods in your group projects

Identify agile anti-patterns

#application

Agile in your life

Reflect on how lessons from the:

• hands-on project-based learning
• case studies and readings
• guest speakers
   

to identify how agile can apply to your own institutional context

...and your life outside work?

How can agile help in you in your own institutional context after HKS? 

#integration

Learn tech skills on your own

• Reframe learning technical skills - "How do i learn enough to build X?"
   
• Using ChatGPT, Google, and your community  to help pick up programming skills
   
• Like learning a language

#learning-how-to-learn

Learn as you build!

Become a tinkerer

• Become the kind of person who will boldly start tinkering with a piece of technology and will fearlessly ask questions about the guts of how a piece of technology works.
   
• Identify counter-productive thinking and planning

#caring

Unlearn FUD/unneccessary risk-aversion

AI-Generated Image Using DALL-E

"Talking Tech" & Bridging Gaps

• Learn how to “talk tech”
   
• Be able to bridge communication and culture gaps between policymakers and software engineers

#application

AI-Generated Image Using DALL-E

Data Visualization

• Learn how to effectively communicate data visually (with the help of your two data-journalist professors)
   
• Utilize principles of UX testing and iteration when communicating with data

#application

AI-Generated Image Using DALL-E

Make charts that tell a story or effectively convey a point.

Build in the open

• Learn about the value of open source technology in government
   
• Have a civic-tech mindset
  • open first
  • user-centric

#caring

Logistics

#Code4Policy

Slack: Our primary mode of async communication

https://code4policy.slack.com/signup

GitHub: Lecture notes and assignments will be here

https://github.com/code4policy/2022
 

Panopto: Videos will be available on Panopto, links are embedded into the GitHub lessons.

Daily Standup Meeting: At the start of class, daily.

Communication

GitHub: Lecture notes and assignments will be here

github.com/code4policy

About You!

Please take a moment to find the slide with your name on it and fill out your bio. Link will be provided in Slack.

...as your classmates introduce themselves, make a mental note if you might be interested in forming a project group with them

Remember, Scrum teams are:

-  self organizing

-  cross functional

Tell us your name and (very quickly) a bit about yourself... then the following three things:
 

1. What have you been working on since the last meeting?
    
2. What are you working on between now and the next meeting?
    
3. What are your blockers?

We will do this daily. Keep it short and sweet!

STANDUP!

Dhrumil will assign a "product owner" and "scrum master" for the day.

Academic integrity

The class is highly collaborative. Academic integrity for this class means making a good-faith effort at learning the material. Collaboration is always allowed.

Privacy

• Do Not record your classmates without explicitly obtaining permission. You can record me if you want, but don't post it publicly.
   
• Class is a space for exploration and understanding, everything said is off-the-record.

Time Commitment

• As a J-term course, this class is compressed into two weeks. That means it is a bit of a bootcamp. It will be hard to take other classes during this time, expect to be doing a lot of homework daily and working on projects over the weekend.
  
  
• Front-loading technical learning - Week 1 will be busy. Week 2 is more flexible.

Flexibility

I will check in with everyone daily. During standup, via slack, etc...there will be lots of polling. Please let me know if the class needs to slow down or be sped up. I will be responsive to your collective needs.

https://github.com/code4policy/2024

brainstorm.md

project.md

• Final Project (40%)
  • Product (30%)
  • Process (10%)
  • For both parts you will be graded as a team. Smaller individual adjustments may be applied.
     
• Assignments (40%) - GitHub & Coding
   
• Class Participation  (20%) - Slack participation and collaboration, demonstrating engagement with learning materials. Reflections and readings.
   
• Usually on the HKS grading distribution

• Video on whenever possible
• Standup meetings / async participation.
• Slack
• GitHub Tickets 
  • https://github.com/code4policy/2023/issues/new/choose
• Reflections

  • Technical Reflection Form

  • Agile Reflection Form

Need help async?

• Dhrumil/Aarushi - Always on Slack / by appt / hanging out in-person after classes or on weekends
• Hilea - 
• Innocent - 
• You can file a ticket in the 2024 repo: https://github.com/code4policy/2024/issues/new/choose
• You can ask in a Slack channel!

Stay glued to Slack

If we run into any technical issues, that is where I will be communicating with the class.

A Scrummy Class!

Let's talk about Agile and Scrum

https://github.com/code4policy/modules/tree/master/agile

User Stories Workshop

Agile J-term Expectations Setting