Back in May of 2008 I got involved in a new project. The client and I had some really fun collaboration sessions to get things started, but then I had to do the inevitable ‘sit and wait’ while the project worked its way through the machinery of the organization. The first couple of months there was some small doubt about the project coming together, but it has been a sure thing since then. I did what I could to prepare for getting down to work, but there is only so much you can do ahead of time.

This past Thursday (the 19th) we got together early for the kick-off meeting. It was an intense session with the client, where I mostly watched, listened, and encouraged. But toward the end of the meeting, the project was delivered in to my waiting hands. This looks to be a long term collaboration with the client, and I plan to use every trick I know (agile or otherwise) to make this successful! I’m still getting to know this project, and like any interesting job, it will certainly be a learning experience. I currently have another similar long term project with this particular client, but every one is different!

I plan to occasionally update this blog with the status of both projects. The client and I whiteboarded a bit of code to capture some metadata about the project as we see it currently:

family.children << Child.new( :name => 'Leif Everett Crawley',
                              :gender => :male,
                              :weight => 8.pounds + 14.ounces,
                              :height => 20.5.inches,
                              :born_at => 'Thu Feb 19 09:36:19 EST 2009',
                              :birth_location => :home )

So far, things are going great! But projects like this are always easier at the beginning, the hard work comes much later!