A greenfield project is supposed to be a developer’s dream, theoretically one that has no existing infrastructure or legacy systems to contend with. In reality, unless you’re starting completely from scratch with no ties to anything external, what looks like a wide open field actually could have things hidden underground you may not be aware of.

We’ll look in depth at two recent projects that at first glance appeared to be empty, fertile ground but actually contained several surprises. Connections to external APIs, future-proofing and consistency with existing related data are all potential holes you might find yourself falling into. We’ll look at some general strategies for sussing out such hidden pitfalls and how they might best be avoided.