Solo Developer Success

Have you ever thrown together a development project to try something out, and then allowed it to grow into a “real” application instead of starting over and doing it right?  I recently made that mistake, which almost became a really big mistake when I did something I shouldn’t have in a hurry. If it wasn’t for using version control, I’d still be fixing my problem instead of writing about it.

I recently needed to develop a web service desktop client application for my employer that would communicate with one of their clients to retreive orders, match them up with data in our database and pass the result back.

Since I had never created a desktop application that communicates with a web service, I cobbled together a VB.NET application just to see how it all works.  Due to pressure to get it done, I continued with the “test” application and turned it into a released version for the users.  But, since it was put together quickly and was supposed to be short-lived, I didn’t follow my normal naming conventions for the objects in the application.  I did, however, take the time to check the project in to it’s own subversion repository. Boy, am I glad I did.

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I have always used my own personal computer for all of my development work, both as an employee and as a contract developer. This would make for one crowded laptop containing multiple development tools, project files, databases, etc.   Invariably there would come a day when I would have to migrate to a new computer or upgraded hard drive, reinstall everything due to crash, or lose hours fixing some broken aspect of my development environment.  I have lost days of billable time in the past trying to get everything back up and running so I could get back to work.  I had to find a better way.  I needed to separate my personal usage, employer work, and client work in order to minimize risk and maintain my sanity.

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