Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Proper Software Development

I am working on several software development projects. Some for work and others for my own personal edification. One of my projects has recently come under some deadlines and so I have been forced to take one or two short cuts. This generally means that proper software development methods get thrown out the window in favor of getting something done quickly. You might be able to get away with it for a day or two, but eventually it will come back to bite you.

Having been in the software business for the past 26 years, I have learned when it is best to avoid certain short-cuts. This saved me today. Even though I was told to move a piece of code into production, I did so long enough to run a single test. Then I backed out the new code and put the old working code in place until the results of my test could be properly verified.

The new piece of code seems to be working correctly. To me, it works exactly the way I wrote it and the way the user asked for it. However, sometimes those looking at the results don't like what they asked for and request more changes. If I had left the new code in place, it would have meant a lot more work should any changes be requested. Guess what? There are always more changes and I saved myself quite a few hours of work.

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