When Reality Hits: Lessons from My First Live

About a week ago, I started building a live ERP software for Sakore Dairy Farm. Initially, I shared a login page screenshot, thinking it would be simple—just like the projects I worked on during college. Soon after, I built a home page, but then reality hit me: I wasn’t sure what the actual workflow should look like. When I showed my uncle (the client) my progress, he asked practical questions: Where can I see today’s milk sales? How much stock is left? What’s today’s turnover? Weekly turnover? How much milk did we purchase from a specific client? These questions felt like a wake-up call. I realized I was approaching this project as if it were another academic assignment—focusing on pages like “Add Product” or “Add to Cart”—instead of understanding the real business needs. That moment taught me the importance of gathering requirements and following a proper Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). I cleared my earlier work and restarted with a structured approach, focusing on solving ac