Over the weekend of August 3-5 I was working on a resume and trying to study up on Python and Java to take an online screening test for a recruiter, when a former business partner approached me with an offer: build a new Linux server out of a spare PC and parts I have, with email and a Web server, and after fixing up the existing e-commerce site that I had developed and supported in my spare time over years, but had been broken due to months of problems with new DSL “modems” (they’re routers, really) and the site being broken from changes the owner had tried to make to the database and SQL queries, and PayPal having changed their API to support their new $5/month service. More on all these later.

In return, I could have all the profits from online sales for a year, simply by pointing the PayPal and Google Checkout (which has only been used once in four years) at my own account, and forwarding the invoices to the owner (now “client”.) He’d continue to sell on Ebay and Amazon.

Since it wasn’t an up-front paying gig, I negotiated rewriting the site in Python with Django so that I could ramp up my experience from “rusty.” He agreed, and we set a two-month project date with an extra part-time month in case things ran over, which they already have, of course.

Although a solo project, I decided I could still use an Agile approach, posting to this blog as a way of doing the Scrum, aka “thinking out-loud.” I’d been able to strip away or adapt most of the Agile approach to writing resumes, which I’ve written up here: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/agile-resume. Needs to be updated, of course.

I’ll be writing up things as the project moves along, with insights as to how the Agile process works for solo projects and how making it flexible at the start of a project is very important.