When I signed up for the Review 2005 I had a clear idea of the achievment I was going to write about. My achievement for the year would be the release of my first piece of software.
Not the first piece of software of which I'd written a major part; or the first piece I'd been responsible for planning; or the first piece I'd seen in people's hands... Although they were all important firsts of which I'm proud, they all happened a few years back, earlier in my career.
This would be the first product that I'd built, from scratch, all by myself. Decided the feature set myself, written all the code myself, and planned and managed from start to finish myself. The culmination of over eighteen months' work.
It hasn't been the easiest of transitions, from employee to self-employed. There are many more things to take care of - I almost said to worry about, but the over-riding problem hasn't been worrying about them; rather finding the time to fit them all in and still keep the development of the software edging towards completion. Working alone, from home, has also been a challenge - I'm finally getting to grips with the self-discipline and motivation required to get through the times when the task seems to stretch away into the far distance. And I still need to keep reminding myself that most of the time any decision, even the wrong one, is better than no decision and will stop you procrastinating away hours...
Now all that's left is to close with a short description of what I've built... to point you to the website where the software can be downloaded, and then tell you how I'm going to relax and enjoy the Christmas period having achieved something I've been thinking about doing for many years.
Only unfortunately I can't.
Not just yet.
If you followed the link above, you'd just be asked if you wanted to join the beta testing (which, if you haven't backed up your computer lately, you should think about). For the software isn't quite finished. It's so close to being finished that I've begged for a special extension to the deadline for Review 2005 submissions, but even that hasn't quite been enough.
So my great achievement isn't going to happen in 2005. There have been plenty of other achievements made along the way: I've become a company director; run my first usability testing; launched a beta programme; and got my software into the hands or real people. So there's still lots for me to feel proud of, and I'll be all set for next year's review...
Adrian McEwen writes mcfilter
For an introduction and list of contributors to Review 2005, follow this link.
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