Every other time I start making my fingertips dance over my chin and look towards the ceiling wondering...how much is too much?
Well...obviously in the context of software developement. School projects...atleast there were time constraints...so...it was basically to write the least possible amount of code to meet the requirements and then ... thats it...
Then came a project that I did to automate book-keeiping stuff at one of the departments at the university....and there was my coursework pressure to keep up with and then the amount of time I was allowed to spend on the on-campus job....so...yet again...meet the requirements and keep your employer happy....thats it.
Now... I am given a responsibility to write requirements for an exisiting system. Ok...rephrasing it....there is an "awesome" system in COBOL which managed to stand the turbulence of time for a looooong time...and now the company from whom they bought all the room-filling equipment does not support the OS or COBOL anymore.....niiiice.
So...I step in....I am to analyze the system, understand how it works and talk to a bunch of users of the system...and come up with a better system to be implemented using .NET. Not hard....well...atleast technically.
So, I break my head reading COBOL code....interact with whoever sane person I could find, and understand the system. All set and done, I start writing out what I expect the new system to provide (basically overcome the difficulties of the old system plus more) as features.
As I start documenting features, use cases and requirements, one thing starts leading to another...towards the end of the day, I have a bunch of whiteboards filled up with requirements. Every new feature seemed to impress atleast one person...but ... for the least, I am unable to decide when to draw the line.
An immediate concern would be time, $$$ and resources. I am not yet told the whole thing yet. As of right now, my assignment is to understand the system and gather up features and requirements.....
Its like....walking with a carrot over a donkey's head.......as long as there is a carrot...the donkey keeps moving...and god knows how far the donkey has travelled eventually....