Beyond the deadline: What I learned from a recent taskforce experience

The taskforce I was part of the last weeks is finally done! The deadline for the production deployment was met and today also a knowledge transfer took place. I’m happy to not have to fear weekend work or do overtime in the evening anymore, and hopefully return to a more regular workload again.

This was a new experience to me, although I was already helping in taskforces before. This time, the scope of the taskforce was bigger. It involved more things to implement, and the deadline was quite short. And there were constantly changing requirements until the last day.

Even when I wasn’t thrilled with being part of the taskforce in the first place and am quite exhausted now after finishing it, I think I learned a lot from it. The taskforce required me to get out of my comfort zone in many ways, I needed to try to understand complex requirements in a short amount of time and take a more active part in a team.

Here are some key takeaways I learned:

Requirements should be clear from the start. Changing requirements during the implementation of a user story are annoying and will result in a lot more unnecessary work. If requirements change, they should be part of a new user story. If the requirements aren’t clear, ask.

Having a big picture of the system you are working on helps to better evaluate technical options, design, and implementation decisions. The lack of a big picture or overview might cause problems.

Business analysts should clarify all requirements with the customer but give the developer team (and architects) the decision on how to implement things. Developers shouldn’t be just stupid programmers.

Stay calm, even when under pressure. You are trying your best, but you don’t have to be a magician. Also know your rights and limits. After all, It’s only a job and not your life. If you are trying your best, it’s probably not your fault when it fails.

You have a voice in your team, and your voice matters. Share your opinion and thoughts in a professional and friendly tone.

Share your knowledge and learn from the knowledge of your colleagues. Team work makes the dream work.

After all, I think I made the best out of it, and it let me grew professionally as well as personally. And I hope it will also help me to leave the junior developer level soon. 😄

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