Every project goes through this phase. It's the end of design—things are almost locked down, and suddenly, for a variety of reasons, big scope issues come out of the woodwork. So, you know, you have a little, modest, half-million-dollar project, and suddenly people think they're going to solve world hunger with some tiny corner of it. Some people figure that by waiting until the last minute to ask you to solve world hunger, it'll get snuck into the project. Some people genuinely didn't think about world hunger until they saw the almost-finished design and realized it was missing. And some people just get carried away with how awesome the project is and how much it's going to accomplish, and just let their optimism run rampant, generating a list of crazy blue-sky requirements. I would say those last people are in the minority.
In a way it's my favorite part of the project. People get crazy—I get crazy. Tempers flare. You work really late with people on your team trying desperately to nail down the corners of the design, only to have each one unfasten itself and flap in the breeze when you go on to nail down something else. Developers sputter in that exasperated (and entertaining) way as they finally lose patience with explaining technical stuff to the rest of us mortals. There's a certain camaraderie that builds during these stressful bits of the project that's worth a lot.
That said, it really is exhausting. Every day your brain feels like it's been run through a potato ricer. Whenever anyone asks you a question, you feel like you have to pause to assemble a few of the working bits of your brain into a crude machine before you can answer it. It makes me want to drink copious amounts of wine, and it makes me want to sleep a whole lot.
It won't come in time to save me, but my move date is set. Yep, 3/21, that's the big day when I return to suburbia. Wish me luck...
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