Run like the wind

Today I found myself in a discussion about why the state of the project was in the state it was. The voices of concern were that we were just working blindly without there being a refined user story and ticket to keep track of. No usage of Pythonic standards were followed. No linting, no tests and no clear structure in the code. In short all the things we as developers have said time and again we should not accept in a project yet we did it again anyway.

Sophistry or excuses

So the reasons given were it was a short-lived project, tight deadline, I had to move fast, I was only supposed to write this one small thing, it was never meant to be seen by the customer and it was only meant to get a foot in the door.

To me these are sophistries because when faced with these conditions you need even more reason to stick to a standard way of working that has been established and preexisting. Otherwise it is like running through a field of trees with a blindfold on, to borrow from the Editors. Everyone will stumble at different locations and times and nobody knows who is running in the right direction only that we go as fast as we can in that state.

Protocol

Following standard way of working means following protocol. Something known by everyone who will be involved at one point or another. These have been established in times of calm to figure out what works the best and makes you fast in normal conditions. When faced with duress and the need for quickness you don't abandon the well known methods that make things go fast. The ticket needing to be there I might imagine being left out as a prerequisite for starting but it should still be there so you have a document of customer signing off on work. In essence validating your efforts and making the agreement complete that you provided the work requested.

This also means even greater need for open communication and transparency. This so everyone will run in the same direction, single file and no blindfold. You can still stumble and everyone will fall at the same time. However you all stumbled at the same time moving in the right direction.

#devlife