Mike Neely from college gave me a call a couple of months ago about helping him out on a PHP/MySQL/Flash project he was contracting. He wanted to contract out the back end programming part of the project to me. It sounded like a great way to pick up more PHP and MySQL; so I took it.
Two months later, his clients were still dragging their feet on getting their shit together on requirements, interface mockups and functionalities. And then all of a sudden, the project was due in two weeks…. So for the past week, I have been hauling ass trying to put the back end programming and database together.
The most interesting part of this project was the “discovery” phase, where I got to talk to the clients and asked them just how exactly they wanted certain things to work in the database. And boy, was I in for a surprise! I have never seen a company of its size with so much mess in its internal logistics and planning. Everything was revealed when I was asking questions regarding how each database entity should work with each other. The clients were practically making up rules and company policies as we went along. It was freaky. How can a profit-making, fairly well-known niche company be so clueless about so many things? That almost makes me wonder if all the other companies are the same way.
That was a drastic change from the last company I worked at where the top brasses were micromanaging everything. This makes me appreciate even more for a healthcare products company I am consulting at… The trust is on me to make all major decisions. But because of that trust, I am cautious enough to reconsider all possible angles and consult with the owner(s) for things that warrant discussions.