I'm currently working on writing a Java based Rubik Timer. A Rubik timer is a specialized timer that can be used to track the time it takes to solve a Rubik's Cube. There are some implementations available currently but the ones that I tried lacked some much needed features. And since the current projects I'm working on are not proving challenging enough, I needed something else to keep my life exciting.
Even though I've written some code already and am faced with some design decisions, it came to my mind that it'll be a good opportunity to put myself in different shoes - as a requirements/business analyst and document the requirements, as a programmer/designer and design/develop the solution, as a tester and test the implemented solution and finally as a user and use the application. Inextricably entangled with all these roles will be a project management role that I will have throughout the project. So I plan to follow and document the project as it goes through its own lifecycle, in an attempt to learn more about different phases that a project goes through. In the process, I also want to understand the roles of all these different actors and the challenges they face. I know it is easier said than done and at times, it may seem like an undiscerning adventure. But I want to at least give it a try and even though the project is smaller in terms of effort required as compared to real life ones, I believe that it'll prove to be an enjoyable and learning experience. And the fact that I'll be playing all those roles will make it as challenging as (or even more than) those I face in real-life.
In upcoming related posts, I plan to detail the progress as I find time to work on this project. As it seems, resource availability will be the toughest challenge this project faces since my current projects, even though minimally challenging can be substantially time consuming and resource (in this case, my mind!) draining. And every now and then, smaller challenges have a tendency to pop-up and provide exciting distractions.
