Never remove a flow from code without consulting all potential stakeholders

This is part of the Semicolon&Sons Code Diary - consisting of lessons learned on the job. You're in the collaboration category.

Last Updated: 2024-11-23

A freelances at Project S and adds in data about each individual service provider on the Project S website through her separate flow.

Thinking selfishly about code elegance, I modified part of her flow, streamlining it to be like the rest of the code. I also removed a confirmation page that I perceived as redundant.

The thing is, she didn't consider it redundant and had developed a workflow around this page I removed. Indeed, she probably requested it in the first place.

Therefore I creaetd upset for her and work for me (in later having to undo my work) becaaues my judgement was wrong and I hadn't looped her into the conversation.

Lesson

If you remove a flow in code that other people use, try and get their input first. Failing that, ensure you preserve their features and train them to use the new code.