Photo by Mr Xerty on Unsplash
When I'm working with a client, I respect their time and energy by keeping things simple and easy for them. I make as many decisions as I can, and try not to bog them down with every complex decision I have to make.
I've learned to trust my instincts, and to escalate important choices only when the trade-offs are truly business decisions.
This is a story of when this instinct led me in the wrong direction.
A static link to a static zip file
I often work on projects with fixed-price and flexible-scope. What this means is my clients know exactly what a project will cost, but I'm also okay with the odd surprise.
That day, I was working on a web app that was powered by static data files. I was working on the simplest task of the project. The client wanted to add a link so users can download all the data files in a zip file. Sounds straightforward, right?
Commit #1: "NEW: add data download"
< a href = " data.zip " > Download Data
I could have just zipped the data files up on my laptop and called it a day. However, I didn't want to be in a situation where I forgot to update the zip file if the data changed. I decided to automate the process by creating the zip file during the automated deployment pipeline.
... continue reading