Every time I hear about software maintenance as a distinct activity, I cringe. That’s because it is based on the outdated notion that first software is developed, then it is maintained. But that is not how software development works today. Software development does not have the two phases development and maintenance – it is a continuous process. Software maintenance is simply software development.
Here is my list of heuristics and rules of thumb for software development that I have found useful over the years:
1. Start small, then extend. Whether creating a new system, or adding a feature to an existing system, I always start by making a very simple version with almost none of the required functionality. Then I extend the solution step by step, until it does what it is supposed to. I have never been able to plan everything out in detail from the beginning. Instead, I learn as I go along, and this newly discovered information gets used in the solution.
I like this quote from John Gall: “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.”
Posted in Debugging, Learning, Programming, Work
Tagged heuristics, lessons learned, rules of thumb, software development
Is software antifragile? I think so. I recently finished the book Antifragile – Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I liked it a lot, and I think the ideas in it are quite useful when examining various systems and phenomena. What especially struck me when reading it was how much of it applies to software development. These are the main themes: Continue reading
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