Managing Personal Projects As Solo Developer - Getting out of depth and failing projects

Posted by James Jeffery on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by James Jeffery
Published on 2013-11-05T13:03:47Z Indexed on 2013/11/05 16:11 UTC
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I need some advice on project management.

I start a project, and often times it will a large project for a solo developer. Usually its a web project. I handle everything from the UI, to the JS, PHP, server management etc. Half way in I feel out of my depth. I lose where I am, so I spend a couple of days away from the project to avoid the stress and before you know it, it becomes another unfinished project.

I try to use frameworks and code libraries to make my developments easier on myself. Sometimes I will complete a project so it "works" and then go back and handle errors, design the UI properly and stuff. But without fail I will always end up out of my depth.

I've though about outsourcing tasks such as the UI, and the behaviour, and focusing just on the PHP - which I feel is my strong point. But then pride kicks in, and I don't feel at one with a project I haven't completed myself. Does this make sense?

I am sure there are many others who have felt like this either at home, or at work, and I would love some advice on managing my projects better.

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