Dealing with Difficult Development?

jjwahl queries: "I've recently been handed a funded web development project, and in an industry where almost any paid work is good work this is a welcome opportunity. This database intensive site basically has the look and feel developed but none of the plumbing. I have been given the job to create the database and write the code to make the site work - all at a reasonably good rate and with a time and materials payment structure (i.e. this is not a fixed cost project). Sounds like good news, right? Not necessarily." The company wants the work done in a timeframe that prevents a well thought out design and pretty much eliminates a decent testing phase. How would you handle working on such a project?

"Why [is this not good news]?

The project timeline is insanely short given the complexity; there is nothing of substance developed yet - no schema, nothing; given the timeline, all schema development will have to be done on the fly - no time to sit down, take a holistic view of the project and develop the schema properly; and there is also no timeline for testing - other than the ad-hoc testing a developer does, there is no time for formal testing at all. All of this means that I'm basically going to develop this site on the fly which means that I'll eventually make mistakes, and won't have a proper testing cycle during which I could catch them -- the public will catch them, instead and complain.

I'm afraid that despite my heroic efforts to bring this site to fruition, this job will look sloppyand reflect badly on me. Have any of you been in a similar situation? How did you deal with it? Should I just turn the project down?"

Comments

What has always worked for me

[arcadum]

I drink a cup of coffe and read the paper. Automagicly the job is complete when I get to it. Thus, my reward for hard work.