Develop software in a way that lets you learn and respond quickly
I cannot fathom working in a software shop where you gather requirements, disappear into your cubicle for a year, and come out with the product. Duh! That product was *so* last year!
Getting something out there and learning quickly is key to successful software development. "Good software today is better than great software tomorrow" almost sums it up. It is missing one part of the equation: learning.
If you have good software today and you want to have great software in the future, how do you get there? What is your road map? A clue: data. Whether that data be customer feedback or (as is oft the case on our team) user data -- you should make *as few decisions as possible* until you have data to back them up.
If you are able to deliver fast, you are able to begin to gather knowledge sooner than if you had waited to deliver. To gather knowledge, though, you have to:
- Have a general idea of what data you want to look at
- Have a way to find and analyze that data
If you were to deploy software without any logging, how would you know how it is being used? If you were to deploy software without sending error reports, how would you know when things are going incorrectly?
In "Journeyman to Master" they discuss "Tracer Software". Their point is that when shooting a machine gun you can spend your time analyzing environmental variables (which, they contend, will likely change over time) and calculating the trajectory of the bullets based on that information (which is alot of up-front work that has not yet helped you hit your target) ...
... or you can pseudo-aim and fire. In machine guns they have tracer ammunition [wikipedia.org] that allow a human eye to detect where their stream of bullets is hitting: "ready, fire, aim."
This of course does *not* mean that you should fire as soon as you grab the gun, then turn around until you see your target. What it means is that once you have a good idea of where your target is, you do not waste any more time on finding the perfect way to reach that target; you start firing, and correct your aim thereafter.
In software development, this means that you do not find the perfect solution. You gather the basic requirements from the user, prioritize (find the general area of your target), and get something out that they can see in order to help you correct your aim to hit the target. That "something" is what Pragmatic Programmers call "tracer software".
So here is to us spending less time like physicists and more like Rambo: First Blood Part II.
Disclaimer: the Rambo method does not apply in all situations. Some situations may indeed require the services of a sniper. In those situations you should follow the correct protocol which (if I have learned anything from movies, which I obviously have) goes something like "ready, aim, aim some more, confirm your aim, confirm your target, confirm you have permission to fire, fire, confirm the target was hit, have someone else confirm the target was hit." Or something like that.
They think that your early ending Was all wrong For the most part theyre right But look how they all got strong Thats why I say hey man nice shot What a good shot man -- Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter
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