Having some fun in the snow.

The Bartow County Social Club (BCSC) website is finally done. Over all, I’m pretty happy with how it has turned out. Working with the BCSC group left me with the impression that they liked my work as well. It’s a good feeling.

I recently got back from my winter vacation and had a great time. Recharging really does help, plus, I really like snow. I took up snowboarding for the first time last year, but this year I got more involved. Having my vacation after the end of this project seemed like good timing. It let me give myself a little pat on the back AND this project helped pay for part of my funs.

I digress; I did take away a lot from this project that helped round me out as a developer and a designer. I learned some things towards the end of the project that I never really thought of in the beginning. Basically one of those “If I knew what I know now” situations. I always like to have some time to have a few take-aways with my projects from work at INPO or my side projects. A glimpse of what I’ve learned:

Don’t rush it

Your quality of work can show based on how you paced yourself. If you do a rushed job, the job looks rushed. Take your time to do it right and the results will show.

This doesn’t mean drag your feet, this means don’t skip over planning and designs for expansion.

Set time limits

Some people work the best at 3am in the morning and some people work better only after noon. Overloading on your hours will only lead you to get burnt out or worse of; tired or un-enthused about your project.

Set time limits for yourself of when you are going to be working on Part A and when you plan on doing a spot check. Chugging away late into the night should be reserved for the one-off case where you HAVE to get something done. But consistently burning yourself out can only lead to your decision to hang it up. Yea, it can be frustrating to not have something working, but sometime you just need to step away from whatever you are doing and revisit another time.

After a while, you’ll get an idea of how long it would take you to do something and it will eventually help you plan the overall project timeline.

Keep the customer/client informed in stages

It would be nice to send an email every time you do something for the customer, but more often than not, you’ll start to dilute the importance of that update email. Try sending an email out at set intervals; weekly, monthly, after 5 items on your check lists are complete, etc. I find that if I send email after email I lose the importance of some of my emails.

I cut down my email contact (the update ones at least) to weekly. I had enough work to do between each update plus it gave my client a nice list of additions/changes/updates to have.

Take it one step at a time

Some parts of the project seemed impossible to finish and started to feel as though it wasn’t going to get done. Bashing in that one widget or adding that one plug-in all at once is a bad idea. Take things in stages.

You never know what is going to break your site and doing 10 things at once will make it difficult to find that stupid little tag that wasn’t closed properly. Save + refresh. Test along the way before you switch gears to another function you need to implement.

Don’t be afraid to not know and try

No-one knows everything and it shows even more when you are the only one working on a project. I lost count of how many times I would be working on a part of the project and get to a point where I have NO idea where to go from there. After a while, you pick up on a few tricks and you can start to see “will this work” and BAM, it’s all gravy.

If you don’t try things that you may not know about, how do you know you’ll fail? I always keep an eye out for things that I would like to try. A lot of times I see someone else create something amazing or useful and it’ll spark something in me to create my own version to suit my particular needs. I like finding my limits and pushing that further back.

Research, research, research!

This brings me to my next point. A good deal of my time working on projects can be some intense reading and testing. Not actually doing anything directly towards the project, but more or less finding out if a function or ability that I want to incorporate would work.

Finding neat trick or gadgets would more often by my reward for having a curious mind. Most cases this would spark my own imagination and I would run off to create new things. I can personally say that I learn a chest full of tricks and tips with every phase of the project because I take the time to research.

Keep everything

Sometimes you need to use that image that you created in the beginning of the project that you didn’t think you needed. But, you deleted it. So you have to make a new one. It can be annoying sometimes to need something that you got rid of a while back, so I keep EVERYTHING I create because you just never know.

This also applies to any communications, documents, contracts, emails, etc. I use Gmail and Google docs to keep all of stuff organized by projects/clients. It’s just easier to pull up the maintenance contract that is up for renewal when you know it is accessible from anywhere.

Sometimes you can save yourself from ruining a relationship or avoiding other nastiness if you keep all agreements and communications of changes.

Ask for help if you need it

Banging your head against that brick wall isn’t going to get those creative juices flowing. I think everyone reaches a point where they can’t think of a solution or don’t know how to do something. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others who have done what you have done or something similar. They may be able to point you in the right direction or a quick solution.

Technical books and manuals can also be very helpful. Pick up a few if you can afford them and brush up on some basics of what you’re trying to do. It might help you get a foundation of the limitations of what you are trying to do.

Every project is different and almost never comes out the same. The requirements are different, the scope is different, and the clients are different. It all boils down to your own effort and what you are willing to put into it. I was worried about meeting my limitations and not being able to finish, but soon realize that this was just part of the challenge. I don’t think I have ever walked into a project and said “I know exactly what to do”.