Do you do this first? Allen Holub suggests you should
Think simple first and keep making progress on the tests
Isn’t being a good developer hard?
Allen Holub a computer scientist and prolific author shared some simple suggestions.
I have interviewed Allen a few times as the founder of the Agile Online Summit. He always has provocative opinions.
I emailed Allen for advice for developers. Here are his simple gems.
Write the tests
Firstly, Allen shared this nugget. “Write the tests before you write the code, and test every minute or two as you work.”
In Dream Big, Bob Goff spoke about mountain climbing. He related the story of always being tied to the mountain with ropes. Although he once forgot and almost fell.
Holub’s advice of testing often keeps us tied in. We are never too far from the
working code.
Talk to your users
Developers are cynical about their users. Earlier in my career, I could put off their requests.
Then I worked with Nakia. She knew our customers. To help us develop empathy for them, she had us take a field trip. We spent a day watching them work.
That day was quite an eye-opening one. We learned how little our application did to help them.
Allen implores us. “Talk to your actual users, ideally as you’re working, not after you’ve ‘finished.’”
Get feedback early and often. Not once the work is shippable. Allen and Nakia agree. The users can guide you best.
Write the simplest thing
Software architecture can become quite stilted. Exercises in futility. It pays to be a bit more pragmatic.
The last Holubism was this. “Write the simplest thing you can to solve the problem at hand, not one semicolon more.”
Start with a simple approach. Then add complexity if you absolutely need it. Don’t get too cute.
In conclusion, Allen shared three concise recommendations for the coders out there. I enjoy the simplicity of his advice.
Just to quickly recap:
Write the test first
Talk to your users
Write the simplest thing first
Guidelines for software and systems.