The current project i’m working on is my company’s website. Just for background’s sake, we do TONS of websites for other people, that’s why our current site is more than 5 years old. As a company we could never justify spending company resources on something that was, in effect, still working and “good” just maybe not the design we wanted. Well, starting about 2 years ago I got the project and have since been moved to other “more important” projects having to set that one on hold. Now its coming down to the end of the project and i’m completely and totally alone. I’m the sole programmer on the project and it will succeed or fail based on my performance. I’m either the hero or the villain. I either get a raise or I get fired. Almost no in between.
If you read this blog you’ll know I recently went to the Big Nerd Ranch for their cocoa programming class from the i-ching of cocoa programming himself Aaron Hillegass and while I was there I started reading some of his blog. He had a blog entry where he talked about how your performance goes up when your chance of success is not assured.
So what is my chance of success for this project… i’d put it about 50/50. And by “chance of success” i mean chance of the rest of the company perceiving this website as a success. Depending on how the rollout goes and how many issues arise from the website after rollout, that will determine the perception of the site. Fifty-fifty. So far the site is 400+ files and will probably be more before it’s all said and done with. Debugging team: me. Testing: 3 or 4 people in marketing… no business analysts, no testing analyst. And really and truely, no project owners. Because it’s the company’s website most everyone involved in the project doesn’t really take ownership of the site. They don’t feel like their job is on the line if the project fails. But mine is.