Hello,

I am planning to take up freelancing on much coaxing from my friend. Though it's only for this one project that he is taking up, and we may start working from next week on. (I believe it doesn't matter how many people are involved!)

My problem is more with the kind of experience that I have gathered in 2-3 years of my career. It had been more of a coerced developer, pressurized by management to learn their ways of getting things done. Understanding what the end client is asking for, or looking for, was never my cup of coffee (umm tea, but well I have a coffee fetish )

So I am taking up this project as a challenge and planning to take up the task of foreman and interact with the client directly. But I am not sure what comes after that.

I discussed this with my friend and he told me to create a documentation or a synopsis of proposed system and get it verified with the client.

I don't know where to start from but based on conversation with 2-3 people, I planned a following to-do list:

  1. Creating a point-by-point list of jobs that the client want the system to get done.
  2. Creating a flowchart (probably in Visio) explaining the flow of the system.
  3. Draft of a probable DB design.
  4. Making designs of the proposed system and attaching its screenshots, explaining the flow of windows/Webforms and the expected data entry or what data can user expect at this point etc.
  5. Take it to the client, discuss it with them and getting their nod.

Am I on the right track? Am I missing something here or maybe doing too much? What if the user in the end denies that this is what they were actually looking for?

Could anybody please share some tips and tricks addressing these issues? I shall be obliged.

Thanking you.