Edutrium — Dev Team Progress Report
Comprehensive development team progress covering the first 13 weeks of building the Edutrium platform. Period: December 28, 2025 → March 22, 2026
Table of Contents
See also: Development Phases · Team Roles · Weekly Progress
Executive Summary
The Edutrium dev team has been building the System Dashboard (internal admin panel) and the Backend API for the Edutrium education platform. Over 13 weeks, the team produced:
- Frontend: 440 commits, ~68,635 lines of code across ~389 source files (Next.js 16 + React 19 monorepo)
- Backend: ~120+ commits, ~14,660 lines of code across 28+ modules (NestJS + Drizzle ORM + PostgreSQL)
- Shared Packages: 5 internal packages (
@edutrium/api,@edutrium/auth,@edutrium/ui,@edutrium/i18n,@edutrium/typescript-config)
The platform now has full CRUD operations for all Phase 1 core entities (Universities, Programs, Applications, Students, Settings), authentication with RBAC, file uploads via presigned URLs, i18n (English, Arabic, Turkish), Docker containerization, and CI/CD via GitHub Actions.
Current status: Start of Phase 2 — delayed due to unstable data analysis and feedback, financial constraints, no company registration, and lack of training data for AI systems.
How the Dev Team Started
The development process was initiated and led by the CTO / Head of Product, following a structured approach from zero to a working product:
1. Vision & Architecture (Pre-Development)
The CTO defined the overall technical vision for Edutrium, combining the roles of Tech Lead, Product Owner, and AI Strategist. Key decisions made:
- Architecture Choice: Monorepo with Turborepo + pnpm for the frontend; modular NestJS for the backend
- Tech Stack Selection: Next.js 16 (React 19) for SSR/SSG capabilities, NestJS for a structured backend, Drizzle ORM for type-safe database access, BetterAuth for authentication
- Infrastructure: Cloudflare R2 for file storage, PostgreSQL for the database, Docker for containerization, GitHub Actions for CI/CD
- Design System: Tailwind CSS 4 + Radix UI + shadcn components, ensuring RTL support from day one
2. Project Organization & Analysis
- Analyzed the complete student journey (7 phases from discovery to enrollment) to determine which system modules were needed
- Mapped every entity and its relationships: universities → faculties → campuses → programs → program prices → applications → students
- Defined the RBAC permission matrix — which roles can access which resources and actions
- Created the 4-phase development roadmap splitting 6 months of work into prioritized module groups
- Wrote detailed OpenAPI specifications so frontend and backend could develop in parallel using auto-generated types
3. Team Formation & Role Assignment
- Assembled a lean dev team under the CTO's direct supervision
- Assigned clear ownership:
- CTO — architecture decisions, code reviews, DevOps setup, security reviews, and coordination between frontend and backend
- Frontend Engineer — responsible for the entire System Dashboard, UI component library, and frontend architecture
- Backend Engineer — responsible for the API, database schema, authentication, and infrastructure
- Project Manager & QA — sprint planning, stakeholder sync, issue tracking, quality assurance oversight, and progress documentation
- AI / LLM Engineer — AI strategy, LLM integration planning, data pipeline design, and ML model development (Phase 2+)
- Frontend Trainee 1 — assist with UI component development, page layouts, and form implementations under Frontend Engineer guidance
- Frontend Trainee 2 — assist with i18n translations, RTL fixes, and data grid feature enhancements under Frontend Engineer guidance
- Backend Trainee 1 — assist with API endpoint development, DTO creation, and database schema work under Backend Engineer guidance
- Backend Trainee 2 — assist with testing, documentation, and migration scripts under Backend Engineer guidance
- Established coding standards, commit conventions, and PR review workflows
4. Development Kickoff
- CTO scaffolded the initial project structure, editor settings, monorepo configuration, and core packages
- Set up the OpenAPI contract so both engineers could work independently
- Development started on December 28, 2025 with the first commits
Development Stages (Workflow)
Every feature follows this standardized workflow from idea to production:
| Step | Stage | Next |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Analysis — Understand requirements, map data model, define criteria | --> |
| 2 | Plan — Break into sub-tasks, estimate effort, find dependencies | --> |
| 3 | Write Issue — Create GitHub issue with title, description, labels | --> |
| 4 | Assign Issue — Assign to developer, set priority and milestone | --> |
| 5 | Work on Issue — Create branch, implement, write tests | --> |
| 6 | Review Issue — Open PR, code review, address comments | --> |
| 7 | Upload to dev then prod — Merge to dev, CI checks, then to main | --> |
| 8 | Update Version — Bump version, update changelog, tag release | Done |
Stage Details
| # | Stage | Description | Responsible |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Analysis | Understand the business requirement, map the data model, identify API endpoints needed, define acceptance criteria. Review the student journey to understand how this module fits. | CTO + Assigned Developer |
| 2 | Plan | Break the feature into sub-tasks, estimate effort, determine dependencies (e.g., backend endpoint must exist before frontend can consume it). Define the database schema changes if any. | CTO |
| 3 | Write Issue | Create a GitHub issue with a clear title, description, acceptance criteria, technical notes, and labels (feature, bug, refactor, chore). Link to related issues. | CTO / Project Manager |
| 4 | Assign Issue | Assign the issue to the appropriate developer (frontend or backend). Set priority and sprint milestone. | CTO / Project Manager |
| 5 | Work on Issue | Developer creates a feature branch from dev, implements the changes following coding standards, writes necessary tests, and ensures i18n support. |
Assigned Developer |
| 6 | Review Issue | Open a Pull Request to dev. CTO or peer reviews the code for correctness, security, performance, and adherence to conventions. Address review comments. |
CTO + Reviewer |
| 7 | Upload to dev → production | Merge PR into dev branch. Run CI checks (i18n validation, build, lint). After QA on dev, merge dev → main (production). Deploy via Docker / Cloudflare. |
CTO / DevOps |
| 8 | Update System Version | Bump the system version, update the changelog, and tag the release. Notify the team of what's new. | CTO |
Report generated on March 23, 2026.