This is part of the Semicolon&Sons Code Diary - consisting of lessons learned on the job. You're in the collaboration category.
Last Updated: 2024-04-26
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.
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.