Week 9. Post 2.

 Client's requirements VS your vision. 

This week we have been working on developing a faceting feature for our search application. There were no clear criteria in the beginning so I started implementing it in the way I vision it - filtering the resource types of our publications in the search in the format of checkboxes. So, whenever I check the box with a particular resource type of our data files and hit the submit button, it will only show this type of particular resource. However, after spending two days trying to get it done, I realized that this is not the kind of UI and architect design that the client wanted.

After I showed my work to my mentor, he said that it is not the way the manager would like to see it. My first reaction to this was not positive since I spent hours working on something that I would have to revert. This was the time when I kind of disagreed with the client's vision because the way he envisioned it was being able to filter only by one field. However, my code was allowed to facet by multiple fields. I felt stuck and disappointed that I had to revert and start all over again. For the first time, I felt like my work was just wasted. 

After this situation, I realized that my software developer vision might not always match the client's vision. Thus, it is highly important to really understand the acceptance criteria for the task before you start coding. I also learned how to be more flexible and not get stubborn about my vision. I learned that it is important to communicate better and ask clarifying questions instead of jumping straight into coding without any feedback. 

Next time, whenever I am given a task, I will make sure I understand every single piece of the implementation vision before starting to code. I will also try to make sure I will communicate more and ask for constant feedback throughout the development process so that I can stay on track as much as possible.