The EPA requires that an SWPPP form be filled out for every house that is in process every 14 days, unless it rains more than 1/2", when a form must be filled out within 24 hours. A community manager asked me to work with a superintendent and automate this practice, because it took the man about 5 minutes per house for 100 houses every time it rained. I researched the problem by asking the EPA consultant about the data and forms required, then created a prototype and asked her to get the EPA's blessing. They were pleased to see the effort, and gave us the green light to try it.
Biggest business challenge: the client did not want to pay for development. We agreed that I would develop the application at my own expense, and that any community manager who wanted to use it would pay me a setup fee. It was somewhat difficult to adapt the application to other communities, when they used different general ledger codes for certain phases of production.
Biggest technical challenge: a one click inspection if nothing was found out of order. Data was imported from the corporate SQL server when houses were started and closed. The various steps in the manufacturing process that had to have dates documented were captured from the Accounts Payable transactions for the homes. It became clear that the application would have two parts - a stand-alone database for keeping the required records and forms; and an optional front-end that would extract information from the client's proprietary database to reduce the amount of entry required by the superintendent.
Buzzwords: JAD, Workflow, SQL.