The first project

It has again been a long long time since I posted something on this blog. And though reading this post will be a complete wastage of time, writing it won't. :)

So it has been seven months since I joined my first job, and finally in January we went Live with three products for the same client, and one of these products was the one I was working on since I joined. 18th of January to be exact. Yup, it was a SUNDAY!!!!

I have been working for the same client, and two versions of the same product. One version was already LIVE and I only had to do maintenance, deal with any issues that arise and stuff like that. The second version was developing an entire module, a new functionality our clients wanted.

Developing wasn't the hard part. The hard part was testing it. I have always hated testing and I am not good at it.

We had already gotten the clients to approve a static version of the new module. And we developed it, tested it on the client side and deployed it. But they wanted a lot of changes in it. So it was going through the process again. Develop the module, test it on the client side and deploy.
Second time around it wasn't just the testing I had to worry about. My finals were starting from the next day and as usual I hadn't prepared at all. Who prepares before you really have to???? (Don't answer that!)
So anyways, my supervisor took over the project for the time I wasn't around. And when I came back after giving my last paper. It was the same cycle again. And it was worst than ever. The clients had started complaining, demanding changes on every single page and still complaining. This was the most worst part. Had to listen to a lot of things. Days spent feeling low about myself and had no one to discuss it with. Each day when I reached home it was too late to call up any of my friends, SMS doesn't convey the feelings too well. And along with that my results were coming out. One of teachers had an actual meeting with me, scolding me on why was my performance going down the lane. And all this time work had to continue. And for the third time the cycle - develop, test and deploy was executed.

Meanwhile plans for Sunday (The Launch Day) were being made. Some of my colleagues who were working on two different products were supposed to spend entire Saturday night at the client side. I was supposed to come on Sunday at 8 A.M., while my supervisors were to reach by 6 Sunday morning.

Finally Sunday came. We went Live with all three products. With a very funny incident in between, for which there were high chances that I'll be scolded like anything, but my boss somehow decided to pass on that. I was going very low on my confidence level, and didn't want to launch the product just yet, while my boss was saying "Ab Live kar detay hain". I continued saying, "No, we should test that again." At first, he listened to me, but then at some point in time he realized that it's useless and that I'll never be satisfied so he decided to go live with it.

This wasn't the end though. The next week was spent monitoring, and dealing with issues. What made things worst was that people from other, more complex products were done with monitoring in just one day. And only I was left. Being this my first project, I was more nervous. Things like "Mera hee kaam khatam nahi ho raha.. pheli dafa mein sahi se kyun nahi ho gaya tha" etc. kept running through my mind.

But anyways, it all ended. A lot of people helped in getting this project complete. Supporting whenever necessary, boosting my confidence level when needed. Saying stuff like "Pareshan honay kee baat nahi hai". Also saw different sides of people and realized you don't have to take everyone on their word.

It was overall a very good and learning experience.
And the thing is I am finally done with the development and launch of my first ever Professional Project. Hurrahhhh!!!:D :D