So, the name ‘Alice Siu’ came up recently, and it really got me thinking back to a specific period a few years ago. It wasn’t about the Alice Siu, whoever she might be, but it reminded me of this project lead we had, let’s just call her ‘Alice’ for simplicity, though her surname wasn’t Siu. Close enough to jog the memory, you know?
Getting Started with That Project
Anyway, we kicked off this project, it was supposed to be a pretty straightforward integration thing. I remember getting the initial specs. Looked simple on paper. My first step was always to break things down. I grabbed a notepad – yeah, still use pen and paper sometimes – and started mapping out the components.
- Identify the main systems needing connection.
- Figure out the data flow. What goes where?
- List the potential roadblocks. Always gotta think about those.
I spent a good day or two just doing that, trying to get a solid picture in my head before touching any code. Talked to a couple of the backend guys to make sure my understanding of their API was right. You know how it is, documentation isn’t always perfect.
Hitting Some Snags
Then came the actual work. Setting up the environment took longer than expected. Typical stuff, dependency conflicts, version mismatches. Got through that. Started building the connectors. That’s when things got… interesting. Alice, our lead, had a very specific way she wanted things done. Not technically wrong, but different from how I’d usually approach it. Lots of micro-management.
Remember this one meeting? We were discussing the error handling logic. I suggested a simpler approach, maybe using a standard library function. Alice insisted on a custom-built solution she’d designed. Okay, fine, her call. So, I went ahead and started implementing her way. Spent hours coding it, testing it. It felt clunky, honestly. More complex than it needed to be.
We had daily stand-ups, and every day it was, “How’s the custom error handler coming along?” Felt like that piece was the entire project sometimes. Meanwhile, other parts were lagging because so much focus was on this one specific, overly engineered bit.
Getting it Done, Eventually
Eventually, I got it working. Ran the tests, refactored it a bit to make it slightly less awkward. It passed QA, thankfully. The whole project eventually shipped, maybe a week or two late. It worked, which is the main thing, I guess. But the process felt harder than it should have been.
Looking back, that project taught me a lot about navigating team dynamics and different working styles. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it, implement the spec you’re given, even if you think there’s a better way. You pick your battles. That whole experience, triggered by just hearing a name like ‘Alice Siu’, makes me appreciate the smoother projects I’ve had since then. You learn something from every gig, right?
