Part 6: Full-Scale Development & Agile Iterations

For developers, this is the fun part. It’s where ideas take shape, code comes to life, and you finally see the fruits of your labor. In personal projects, this is often where we start—skipping planning, requirements, and prototypes to dive straight into coding.

When I built shotsrv, my solo project for taking screenshots of URLs, I didn’t bother with sprints or standups. I just opened my editor and started coding. If I hit a snag, I’d Google a solution or switch tools. There were no deadlines, no code reviews, and no one to answer to.

But when you’re building something like FamFlix, a Netflix-like platform for families to share private videos, that “just code it” approach falls apart. Why? Because full-scale development isn’t just about writing code—it’s about collaborating with a team, iterating quickly, and delivering value on time.

In this article, we’ll explore how to turn the FamFlix prototype into a production-ready platform using Agile methodologies—and why this phase is both challenging and rewarding.

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The Solo Project Mindset: Freedom, Chaos, and Hidden Costs

In personal projects, you’re free to:

• Ignore deadlines: You finish when you finish.
• Skip collaboration: You don’t need code reviews or standups.
• Cut corners: If it works on your machine, it’s good enough.

This freedom is liberating, but it comes at a cost. Without structure, you might:

• Waste time rewriting code because you didn’t plan ahead.
• Miss critical bugs because no one reviewed your code.
• Build something that works for you but fails for real users.

For example, when I built shotsrv, I didn’t think about security until a user pointed out that my API was vulnerable to SQL injection. Suddenly, I was scrambling to sanitize inputs and patch vulnerabilities—a problem I could’ve avoided with code reviews.

The Team Project Reality: Structure, Collaboration, and Shared Responsibility

In a team project, you don’t have the luxury of winging it. You need to:

1. Plan sprints: Break the work into manageable chunks.
2. Collaborate daily: Address blockers and align on priorities.
3. Review code: Ensure quality, security, and maintainability.

For FamFlix, this means:

• Sprint Planning: Divide the work into epics (e.g., upload service, storage layer, streaming UI) and assign tasks to team members.
• Daily Standups: Check in with the team to address blockers (e.g., optimizing FFmpeg parameters for faster processing).
• Code Reviews: Ensure adherence to best practices (e.g., sanitizing user inputs, writing unit tests).

This structured approach ensures the project moves forward as a cohesive whole—while leaving room for iteration and improvement.

Agile Iterations in Action

For FamFlix, full-scale development is divided into iterative sprints, each focused on a specific epic:

1. Upload Service:

   • Build secure file upload APIs with rate limiting and validation.
   • Implement a transcoding microservice using FFmpeg and AWS Lambda.
   • Success Metric: Videos process within 5 minutes of upload.

2. Storage Layer:

   • Integrate AWS S3 for video storage, with lifecycle policies to move older videos to Glacier.
   • Implement access controls to ensure only authorized users can view videos.
   • Success Metric: Uptime of 99.9% during load testing.

3. Streaming UI:

   • Build a React frontend with video grids, search, and comments.
   • Integrate HLS.js for adaptive streaming and lazy-loading thumbnails.
   • Success Metric: UI loads in <2 seconds on supported devices.

Each sprint ends with a demo to stakeholders, who provide feedback and prioritize the next set of features.

Measuring Success in Full-Scale Development

How do we know when full-scale development is “done”? By measuring:

1. Functionality:

   • Are all must-have features implemented and working as expected?
   • For example, can users upload, process, and stream videos without errors?

2. Performance:

   • Does the system meet performance SLAs (e.g., <500ms API response time)?
   • Can it handle 10,000 concurrent users during load testing?

3. Quality:

   • Are there unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests for all critical paths?
   • Does the code adhere to security best practices (e.g., input sanitization, encryption)?

When the system meets these criteria, we know it’s ready for QA and deployment.

Why This Process Matters

At first glance, Agile development might feel like bureaucracy. But it’s the backbone of any successful team project. By working in sprints, we:

• Stay focused: Each sprint has a clear goal and deliverables.
• Iterate quickly: Feedback from stakeholders ensures we’re building the right thing.
• Reduce risk: Code reviews and testing catch issues before they reach production.

For example, if we’d skipped Agile for FamFlix, we might’ve wasted months building a feature no one wanted. Instead, we’re delivering value incrementally—and adapting to feedback along the way.

Coming Up Next…

In Part 7, we’ll dive into Quality Assurance & Testing: how to ensure the platform is reliable, performant, and secure before launch.

In the meantime, ask yourself:

If I built FamFlix alone, what issues would I overlook? And how would that hurt real users?

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Your Turn

Have you ever worked on a project where poor planning caused chaos during development? Share your story in the comments—let’s commiserate about the importance of structure!

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