Software development practicum

A hard day has taught me a couple of extra lessons about the software development process. The first lesson of the day was that no one should ever listen to the voice inside one’s head that says it’s okay to make a small tweaks to the source code after final testing and release the result. That voice is evil. Shoot it if you come across it or if you hear it coming from the mouth of another.

The other lesson is more of a best practice than a lesson, but I was going over the Joel Test today with some peers and I realized that we have a tendency at my company to hold project meetings without actually having the schedule, project plan, and the specification in front of us. After careful thought, I conclude that we must shoot this practice as well.

I can think of no better way to ensure that project is managed improperly over time than to have the documentation involved absent from its meetings, the one place where ideas can be tossed around, scribbled out, and later, accurately transcribed to a digital format. I wouldn’t ask a waiter to remember the orders of fifteen tables without having a written tab. Neither should we expect ourselves to remember what schedule changes are required since yesterday’s meeting.

To do anything else would be uncivilized.