In what kind of projects have you been?

[Georgen]

Helloo! I was thinking it could be nice if we can tell here some or at least one of the projects that we have worked on in our careers. It doesn't matter the kind of projects, the idea is not to categorize the project and how hard it was or whatever, I just pretend to know more about the folks around here in a more personal (story-like) way.

I'll start myself:

"Nothing too fancy nor trascendental but definetely was my first long-term project, I was 19 (Ok Im Just barely 20), and thanks to a friend of mine that recommended me to this company in the city I live a receive that call that terrored me. I went to the interview, it took like 2 hours the whole thing. I came home and I was amazed, I was gonna do something actually usefull for anyone. I started programming and after 2 months I release the first test-run. It worked fine besides some issues with the DataBase access, (problems with the outdated providers of the client machine) I managed to solve it at deadline limit.

But that was not the end, they wanted more and more, and I was like Is there more money? Is there more money? Ok I got screwed ... but I dont feel bad cause the xperience its not something anybody can read or buy. So after another month (maybe less) I gave birth to Auto-Track a system to keep track of the company business (operators, clients, transactions, sold security alarms and other specifications).

I took my first step into the wild but honestly everyday I find how small and insignificant I am... ironically that is what keeps me going!!"

Ok, that was my story! Feel like sharing??

 

[Denaes]

But that was not the end, they wanted more and more, and I was like Is there more money? Is there more money? Ok I got screwed

Word.

I think this happens at least once to everyone.

I went to work for a company doing scheduling software. It started off as a rewrite of an old Delphi application. Just duplicate it. Then 3/4ths through they had changes which knocked me back to 1/2 done. Then I was like 9/10ths done and they informed me that they sold it to a company and needed X changes. back to 6/10ths done.

Happened to my wife in graphic design as well. She does layout for a book and if she lets a client have their way there will be changes every day and it'll never get done.

Now we've both learned from our mistakes and make sure the clients know up front how many free changes they have and how much they cost per change afterwards. For her design this works fine. For my programming the costs are much more subjective.

The point is, given a chance they'll keep using you saying "but this isn't what I want yet". This is why you need a contract stating what they want.

You live, you learn.

 

[michael_hk]

Your customers will change whatever they can change.

I forgot I read that from which book (just can remember it is a computer book). So the your design (yes, I am talking about programming) should be flexible to adapt those changes.

I am currently working on a ERP which includes many modules, like HR, Finance, Inventory, etc. It's not that hard to code but it really is a long-term project that will undergo a long testing and deployment stage.

 

[Georgen]

Its been some time since I posted this... I encourage you to post your experiences here, in my case Id love to know about the people that hang in here, Im sure others feel the same...