What notes should I be taking, if any, at the beginning of a project?

Question

I was recently asked by a Team Leader (not mine) if I would be willing to undertake a programming project. The members of his team are currently pre-occupied with other more important projects. I graduated college two years ago, and up until now programming has only been a hobby of mine. Recently I decided that I would like to pursue a career in software development. I accepted his offer so that I can gain some real-world experience and start building a portfolio.

In about an hour I'm scheduled to meet with the Team Leader to discuss the details of what he needs. From a short e-mail exchange with him, I know that the base project is to update an existing ASP.NET form—but I also think there's more to it than that.

Considering that I'd like to eventually put this project in a portfolio, what kinds of notes should I take at the meeting?

Answer 1

Take whatever notes you can that will best help you understand the use cases and the user requirements. Everything else is just technical details that can be figured out later.

Answer 2

I graduated college two years ago, and up until now programming has only been a hobby of mine.

In that case, my suggestion is:

revel in your ignorance.

Make the most of the fact that you know nothing and you're being given an opportunity to learn - abuse the chance to ask as many questions as possible of the Team Leader in question regarding what type of questions you should be asking and how you should be documenting what you learn.

You only get one chance to be ignorant, once you've wasted it you have to spend the rest of your life as a know-it-all; take the chance to enjoy the learning process.