Contributing

The following document outlines how each team member will contribute to the project on this repository, as a part of the UBC Master of Data Science program. Each member will follow the same guideline to ensure code quality, reproducibility and smooth collaboration.

Collaboration Strategy

  • The main branch always contains stable and working code
  • All work is done on branches created from main
  • Changes are merged into main using a PR (Pull Request), which should include:
    • at least one team member for review
    • a short description of what was changed
    • how it has to be tested
  • After testing, the branch can be merged into main and can be deleted to keep the repository clean.

Branching

Each task is done on its own branch, and all the branches are deleted after being merged.

Issues and Project Management

  • Github issues are used to plan, track and discuss work
  • Issues are grouped according to Milestones
  • Each issue is assigned to one team member
  • Project boards are used to keep track of the progress

Commits

Commits should be frequent and should clearly state how the solution was managed. All the contributors are expected to collect a comparable number of commits throughout the project.

Pull Requests

Changes are merged to main through a Pull Request. - PR should include: - brief description to changes - any relevant verification steps - Each PR should be assigned for review to at least one other team member - PR feedback should be commented before merging to main

Getting Started

Clone the repository

git clone <https://github.com/UBC-MDS/dsci524_group33.git>

Create a new branch

git switch -c <branch_name>

Commit changes

git add <files> git commit -m "Add a brief and descriptive message"

Push changes to the branch

git push origin <branch_name>

Create a PR

Open a Pull Request on GitHub, link the issue, request a review from at least one teammate and address the feedback before merging.

Development Tools and Practices

The current project applies modern software tools and organizational practices to ensure quality, reproducibility and effective collaboration between each member of the team.

Used Tools and Infrastructures

  • GitHub was used as main tool for version control and communication. In order to reduce errors, branch-method and Pull Requests (PR) were created effectively.

  • GitHub Issues and Project Boards managed the division of the tasks, ensuring an even distribution of the workload and tracking of the milestones projects.

  • Continuous Integration (CI) was constantly implemented, running tests automatically and ensuring a correct functionality of the new branches before merging in the main.

  • pytest automated testing helped validate the functionality of the functions

  • Environment Management was ensured through environment.yml to ensure reproducibility across development environments

  • Documentation was maintained using Quarto files in order to provide a clear guide of usage for future users.

  • Netfly was used for the Milestone 4, to automatically deploy the project documentation website: whenever a change was pushed to the repository it triggered a new site build, ensuring a synchronized documentation.

  • Gitflow Workflow principles were applied to structure development, improving code stability and supported parallel development.

Organizational Practices

  • The collaborators demonstrate a consistent usage of branching strategy that ensured a clear and well managed workflow. Before merging into main, at least one collaborator is required to review the PR and provide a constructive feedback or suggestion whenever needed.

  • Clear guidelines of the code of conduct support and shape a clear collaboration.

Scaling the Project

If this project were scaled to a larger or production-level application, additional tools and practices would be required. These include stronger code reviews, more tests, versioned releases, and better dependency management. Automated deployment and CI/CD pipelines would help maintain reliability as the project grows.

Code of Conduct

All the team members are expected to follow those guidelines to support an effective collaboration (code of conduct)