Hello everyone,
My name is Dorothy Dede Quao, and I am thrilled to introduce myself to the Jenkins community as a GSoC 2026 contributor applicant. Currently, I am a Computer Science student at the University of the People and a graduate of the ALX Software Engineering program.
While my technical journey has given me a solid foundation in backend architecture and Java, my unique perspective comes from my professional background as a Virtual Assistant and Data Entry specialist.
Bridging my Experience with Jenkins: In my work as a VA, I’ve managed high-priority communications and seen firsthand how a failure in automated notifications can stall a team’s entire workflow. My experience in data entry has taught me the importance of data precision, a skill I plan to apply to secure token management and authentication headers. I believe modernising the email-ext plugin to support Outlook SMTP with OAuth is the perfect intersection of my engineering skills and my commitment to reliable, secure user communication.
Project Goals: I am specifically targeting the Jenkins email notifications using Outlook SMTP with the OAuth project. My goal is to help the community transition away from legacy “Basic Auth” to more secure OAuth 2.0 protocols, specifically for Microsoft 365/Outlook users.
Current Progress & Next Steps: I have been auditing the email-ext-plugin repository on GitHub, specifically focusing on MailAccount.java and ExtendedEmailPublisherDescriptor.java, to understand how SMTP authentication is currently implemented.
To my mentors @slide_o_mix and @krisstern: As a warm-up to get familiar with the codebase before the coding period begins, are there any small issues or cleanup tasks related to SMTP logging or credential handling within the email-ext repo that you would recommend I look at?
I am looking forward to contributing to Jenkins evolution.
Best regards,
Dorothy Dede Quao
GitHub: https://github.com/Dedeyd70