Development Gets Boring? Software development can be broken down into five distinct phases. When things are going smoothly, it’s easy to ignore all the work that goes into these steps and focus on the parts that you enjoy more.
But when something goes wrong, these processes become much more important to discuss and understand, especially if it means you can prevent them from happening again in the future.
This article will cover each of these five phases and identify the boring parts of software development that no one wants to talk about but everyone needs to understand.
Setting up
When you first start a project, before you even write a single line of code, is where most projects fail. Having an organized and well-managed environment is crucial; without that, it can be difficult to even get started.
Setting up a good working space and making sure you have everything you need are all important steps in getting started on a software development project. The better set up your computer is, and the more organized your notes are, will make writing code that much easier down the road.
Maintaining the environment
Every developer has a list of things they’d rather not think about: things like configuring your development environment and logging out of many services. In fact, it’s very likely that you spend more time configuring and maintaining your dev environment than actually writing code.
And let’s face it: These are some pretty boring tasks! But maintaining your development environment is an integral part of any project. It may be boring but a good development process will have these tasks baked into your everyday routine so you don’t have to think about them when you need to focus on something else.
Getting your head in the right space
Starting out on a project can be exciting, but it’s important not to burn yourself out right away. There are boring parts the stuff that takes hours and hours to get through but is necessary for long-term success.
It can be overwhelming, but if you break down your goals into manageable steps you can enjoy completing each step as it comes instead of dreading it. For example, if you want to create a new website but don’t have any experience coding, you could make a list like
Breakdowns and fixes
Most software developers know that we have a lot of boring tasks. For example, maintaining existing code and doing bug fixes are not as fun as coming up with new features and working on exciting problems.
But when we decide which tasks to work on next, sometimes we forget about these boring (but important) parts and focus too much on new shiny things, or worse, neglect them altogether. When do we really need to fix a bug? And what exactly is needed in our codebase before it gets released?
This post will explore different kinds of bugs, their impact on an organization, and how you can decide which ones deserve more attention than others.
Gotchas and other frustrations
There’s more to being a developer than just sitting at your desk and writing code. From documentation and testing to adding support for new languages or devices, there are lots of important jobs that go along with development.
Unfortunately, many developers don’t want these jobs they end up in charge due to their seniority within an organization or because no one else wants them. But should you take them on? The answer is yes and no yes because it’s crucial that they get done, but also because these parts can be where you find some opportunities for job satisfaction.
Bored meetings
In software development, there’s no shortage of meetings. You’ll have sprint planning meetings and product meetings. Your team will conduct peer reviews and Scrum standups.
The list goes on and it can get tedious for people working in other parts of your company or organization who have less at stake in each department’s processes and outputs.
You should make sure that everyone on your team is setting an example for good meeting etiquette by avoiding these common pitfalls
Doing more with less
As a programmer, you’re likely familiar with YAGNI (You Aren’t Gonna Need It). While that mantra is great in theory, it may not always work in practice. The question then becomes: when do you break from YAGNI?
Well, it depends. In many cases, an extra hour spent doing up-front planning can save you hours down the road (or prevent a nightmarish bug!).
There are certain processes where skipping over important steps can lead to more technical debt than necessary. For example, designing for testability and readability early on in development helps eliminate obstacles down the road as does establishing conventions and patterns. Check this one also here.
