Burning Thoughts

Talking over the weekend about software development, reminded me of some rules of thumb I used to bring some order to the thicket of possibilities in software development.

• Design for requirements, not exceptions
  • Good data should flow easily through system, exceptions are handled outside the main flow
  • Good data should flow easily through system, exceptions are handled outside the main flow
• Our minds can only think of 5 to 10 items at a time
  • Limit of complexity to attempt in a logical unit
• Pushing against a wall is exerting energy, not doing work
  • Great effort can be reported, but if the requirement is not met, no work has been accomplished
• If you cut a block of cheese into teeny pieces, everyone will starve
  • In simplifying modules, the number of interfaces explodes, more than wiping out the efficiency gain in module coding
• Always create specific test cases
  • Don’t test with all the data! You will be swamped by extraneous failures

Screenshot of Software Development elements by Dusan Rodina, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons