Item: GitHub
Rating: 10
Author: Richard Ngo

Overall Satisfaction with GitHub

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

GitHub is used by pretty much everyone I know in the software engineering department for its valuable use as a code repository. It is most likely used by anyone that is able to create shareable code or even private repositories. I have most recently used it for my senior project at RIT, where we worked with the NTID department to use it for not only our project organization, but also for its useful integration with other tools, such as CircleCI (which would run our tests) and Slack (which would notify us about changes).

GitHub addresses accessibility within the team and organization, as it is able to function as a team's main code repository, as well as a great way to track issues stemming from the project. This was done by utilizing GitHub issues, another useful aspect which organized bugs, issues, enhancements, etc., in a way that was useful for the project team.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Branch organization: This had allowed teams to review other team member features separately before merging any pending changes (via pull request) into the master branch. The visual given within GitHub makes it clear what changes were made and allowed for easy code review.
Issue Tracking: The bug tracking in GitHub allows teams to keep track of the different issues presented by the team, with a timeline of changes and happenings within the application.
Integration: Its integration with other tools like CircleCI and Slack have made it extremely useful in keeping the team up to date with the changes made within the system.

Cons

Cleaner User Interface: The user interface could be a little bit more intuitive to users that do not know all of the features GitHub has to offer.
Clear way to see changes not in a pull request, since you can see individual file history fairly easily, but not overall application file changes,
Better user search: When adding members to a project, sometimes the search is not as well organized as it could be.

Return on Investment

I am not a part of a business but it has had a positive impact on my ability to focus on learning objectives and sponsor objectives.

Alternatives Considered

Local

Local storage of your repository is not exactly the safest thing you should do, since if you lost your project, you lose your project. This is not really a great alternative when you are considering it over using some thing you can access from any computer at any time. GitHub is useful because of its accessibility.

Other Software Used

Eclipse Luna, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Systems Management Server

Likelihood to Recommend

It is appropriate depending on if the organization is already using some sort of repository already, like GitLab or something like that, but if not, I would definitely prefer to use something familiar and reliable. While there was an instance of GitHub being down once throughout my 4 years of using it where it mattered, I would still recommend this. It is even a good idea for individual projects, because then you have a place where your projects are backed up.

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