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The 10 Commandments To Survive Software Development
Development is hard, it’s what makes it fun
Every software project I work on, I’m convinced that creating software is a job for crazy people, and I must be one of them
I read this Ten Commandments For Living From Philosopher Bertrand Russell, it made me wonder what would be the 10 commandments for surviving software projects. If you want 10 commandments on how to be a software developer — ten commandments of egoless programming
Software projects rush to action, try to create software as quickly (and cheaply) as possible. This leads to software development teams agreeing to impossible plans and missing fundamental steps.
The initially priority should be to avoid disaster before thinking about how to create an environment for success.
Many projects I have seen started badly (no licences, workstations or internet connection) and go downhill from there. Software projects are a 12 round fight. Avoid getting knocked out in the first round. Give yourself a chance and stay in the fight.
- Creating software is harder and takes longer than estimated
- Let the business lead
- Ignore the noise — Think long term
- Never develop without signed off requirements
- Quality is the fastest way to create software
- Be prepared for anything that can go wrong, will go wrong
- Keep in sync — Only make changes in the development environment
- Keep knowledge in document, not in people or local machines
- Avoid disaster — Without trust, it’s over
- If it can be automated, it should be automated
Creating software is harder and takes longer than estimated
The common approach is to oversimplify the software needed and underestimate the time it will take. This makes the team over confident and equipped with a plan that could be up to half the time it will actually take.
