As of last week, I had a first client assignment completed. It was a new experience on many levels since this was the first work i got to do from home with occasional visits to discuss. The work was a simple one, modify a webdesign and migrate to a new host. The techinical aspect of it was not a complicated one. Worry about a few css script, one javascript and a bit of php altering followed by migration. The migration part was something that i new in theory (or atleast the ground knowledge of it) but it gave me an experience to work it out in practice. The basic principle get the cms installed in the new host, rsync the static parts between both the hosts, get mysql dump , load the sql in the new host database and make sure the cms connects to the correct database.
The above should have worked pretty well in theory and it did in practice when i did the migration. But ofcourse thing went wrong. I wouldn't be talking about it here if it did not. The bottleneck in the whole process came from an unexpected area. My lack of proper or rather incorrect communication with our clients. Plus making presumuptious assumptions about the other parties Technical knowledge. Additionally, since they were my first clients i was more than willing to please/accomodate them. Naturally, this led me to not setting certain rules in the begining , which further added to the chaos.
The migration part was successfull, but in my overenthusiasm, i did not finalize before making the migration. Not a big issue as such since the site is operational . The next day i meet with one of the partners to finalise minute adjustments, i get a request to change a font. Well not a big problem as it is only a matter of tweaking around css and before i know it i am receiving request from 3 different people on various tweaks, including changing slogan layout, readjusting slideshow and minor layout changes. And yes, all of these were happening on a runing drupal site with cache turned off and being rebuilt every time with periodic css crashes and the dreaded DWSOD.
In the end, all those drama could have been avoided, had i laid some steadfast rules in the begining and with keeping the client in loop about the ongoing process. All Nighters were perfect in academics but communication seems to be the norm in the Industry. Finally, work is over with me gaining some insight on working with people. To be fair, my clients were fair folks who were willing to drive me back and forth. Now onwards, leroy jenkins.
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