Department of Homeland Security Intrernship
As part of my internship this summer, I had the opportunity to work with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Public Affairs. This internship allowed me to explore areas of interest within the teams responsibilities. To ensure that my internship had a direction, we established learning objectives and deliverables for the summer.
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6/19/2023 – 8/25/2023
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1. Be able to create and/or edit content using the DHS.gov Drupal content management system and in adherence to US government/DHS laws, regulations, policies and procedures.
2. Learn how to generate custom Google Analytics reports to benefit internal and external stakeholders.
3. Gain a working understanding of an Agile development (project management) methodology and participate in a full-stack development cycle.
4. Ensure that website templates, HTML content and PDF documents adhere to Section 508 accessibility guidelines.
5. How to perform quality assurance testing on a Tier-1 US government website
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1. Complete DHS 508 Accessibility Trusted Tester Certification
2. Perform regular Quality Assurance testing for a Tier 1 Cabinet-level federal website
3. Participate in a full code deployment (with regression testing) for a Tier 1 Cabinet-level federal website
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Matthew Harmon: Director of Web Communications
Adriana Vecchio: Web Manager
Aunica Brockel: Web Community and Digital Services Manager OPA
Felicia Brown: Web Community and Digital Services Manager OPA
Brittany Kouandijio: Customer Experience Senior Analyst
Robert Mccain: Senior Web Analyst
Cory Moore: Business Analyst
Nathan Tabor: Senior Business Analyst
Learning Objectives
To ensure that I acquired a firm understanding and comprehension of the learning objectives, I shadowed several team members as they performed their tasks.
Drupal Content Management System
To understand how to use Drupal Content Management System, I underwent training with Aunica Brockel (Web Community and Digital Services Manager OPA). She showed me how to create and edit content on Drupal my first day, and she assigned me some mock-content to create for practice. I utilized this skill frequently while performing regression testing throughout the internship. Pictured to the right is the starting screen for creating content in ‘News’.
Gain an Understanding of the Agile Methodology
The OPA team worked in an AGILE methodology. This is clear through their use of the Jira ticketing board. What they would do is create a sprint period that usually spanned 3 weeks. This was to ensure that small improvements were made towards an overarching goal. By using AGILE, it was easy to implement changes for the website without causing the website to be down. This resulted in better success rates of creating and implementing solutions. Large focal points for the sprint were tickets created for issues found on the website. To the right is an example picture of a Jira board. I shadowed Nathan Tabor (Senior Business Analyst) and Cory Moore (Business Analyst) to learn the Jira system.
Google Analytics
To learn about Google Analytics, I shadowed Robert Mccain (Senior Web Analyst) as he went through the process of creating Google Analytics for the website. He showed me how to generate new reports and solve problems for existing reports. I was also able to shadow him on ore than one occasion to learn more detailed aspects of Google Analytics
508 Accessibility
I underwent a certification process for testing government websites for compliance with 508 accessibilities. This course took roughly 80 hours to complete and included practical examinations and knowledge checks. In order to receive my certification, I was required to achieve a 90% grade on a cumulative exam. I will discuss this process in more detail later on in the deliverable section.
Deliverables
To ensure that I had material to showcase from my work with the DHS, my boss and I came up with a series of deliverables that I would aim to complete by the time the internship ended. Some of the deliverables contain tangible material for show, while other deliverables focused on application of skills for future employment. A brief explanation of these deliverables can be found according to the right, and a carousel full of my certifications can be found below.
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In order to receive my final certification, I had to go through several topics and pre-certification steps. All of my certifications are visible below in the carousel. The lesson plans I had to go through involved learning about why section 508 is important, what are the criteria and requirements for section 508, what tools will I be using, and finally the actual certification to perform the testing.
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This was a major part of my internship. To achieve this goal, I had to learn about the standards of government websites, requirements for media and content, and then familiarize myself with content creation and the revision process. To do this I learned about Drupal, the content management system used by the Department of Homeland security, and practiced content creation as well as putting it through the revision process. This was only half of the process and performing quality assurance testing. The second half included performing regression testing on the website. I was fortunate enough to come on to the team after they created a guide for performing regression testing. I'd follow this multi-step guide to ensure that all functionality was correct, and all content was functioning properly. Another step was assisting with resolving tickets for issues on the website.
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This was the final deliverable that my bosses and I decided on. A code deployment and the DHS listen of work done during the AGILE sprint. The sprints at the DHS generally last three weeks and aim to solve problems with specific tickets created in Jira. The key aspect of this deliverable is my ability to perform regression testing during deployment. The way this would generally work is the code will be deployed and the development team would ensure that the problems that were aimed to be fixed were fixed. Once this was confirmed, the testing team and I were tasked with testing the general flow of the website. This means going through and ensuring that content creation function still work, coded functionality on the website works, and most importantly the website is usable and there doesn't need to be a rollback due to severe functionality loss.
Certification stating that I successfully completed training on why section 508 is important.
Certification stating that I successfully completed training about section 508 standards for web.
Certification stating that successfully completed training introducing me to trusted tester testing tools.
Certification stating that I successfully completed training for trusted tester for web on windows.
Reflection
I loved my time at DHS. I was given opportunities to fully join and contribute to the team at a level that I thought I'd have to wait years to reach. There's a lot of stuff I got to do that I can't share, but I got an amazing experience working with professionals who truly have a mastery over their material and care greatly about their work. The use of a daily check-in mitigated the lack of in-office interaction with the position being remote. The team had great camaraderie and truly embraced me into their team. I learned countless skills and knowledge about working in such an environment while being encouraged to explore my areas of interest.