Developers And The Distraction of Barking Dogs

Nice to have requirements are the ultimate distraction

Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

You will never reach your destination if you stop to throw stones at every barking dog Winston Churchill

If you stop to add every requirement you can think of, you will never finishing building the software. Until Software is in production and being used, it’s all cost and no benefits.

When creating software you have to stay focused on building only what is required and put everything else on a nice to have pile that you can come back to later.

When the first steps of creating software are

1. Simplify the software required to make it seem easy
2. Over estimate benefits of software
3. Exaggerate the ability of the software development team
4. Create an optimistic plan with the desired timeline and cost
5. Add nice to have features

Many of the steps, mistakes, and decisions are driven by emotions. The desire to succeed and dreams of career progression.

The over estimating of the development team and underestimating of the work is done when making a plan. It's easy to make…