„You can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards.”
– Steve Jobs
Today, I would like to introduce you to my project that I will be working on during Get Noticed contest (http://devstyle.pl/daj-sie-poznac). Hopefully with a lot of perseverance, hard work and of course your help (git comments / reviews are highly appreciated) at the end of May there will be a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) ready. Below you can find some answers to critical questions about the project.
WHY
Various reasons are standing behind the idea for this project main ones are described below:
- Simplification – simply Expense Tracker will make my and my wife life easier. Having everything in Google Sheets is on the one hand convenient, however on the other hand it is cumbersome. A lot of different sheets with different months, no aggregations and overview of year are causing a lot of troubles. In addition monthly cycle of adding new sheet with it’s own configuration is something that I would like to replace with Expense Tracker tool;
- Data analysis – as a data addict I’m always looking for a possibility to get more insights based on data that I have. Spending / savings are awesome data to dig into, create some nifty visualizations with crucial KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). This is something that I’m looking forward to implement based on Expense Tracker project;
- Learn new stuff – it’s hard to admit but I was always a bit jealous for my colleagues that are working as front-end / full stack developers. Seeing results of work straight away (almost) is something that I’m looking forward to, as currently 90% of my tasks are back-end stuff (ETL processes etc.) and only 10% visualizations.
HOW
Systematic development using technologies such as:
- PostgreSQL
- Node.js
- Angular2
- HTML5
- CSS3
will lead to solid back-end, awesome front-end (subjective opinions), and extraordinary user experience.
„Krzysiek why these technologies …” you may ask – very good question, and there is a simple answer – I always wanted to use them in real life project. This is brilliant opportunity to learn them and get a value based on that.
WHAT
Based and thanks to above two points Expense Tracker application will be created, that will deliver significant value to main audience that it is directed to – me and my wife for starters. However I hope that with your help and suggestions we can make it the best tool in the market.
Looking forward to your opinions about the project.
Project site: https://github.com/morb1d/ExpenseTracker
In the next post, I will describe you how currently we (me and my wife) are managing expenses, so stay tuned.
Thanks,
Krzysiek