Up until that point, I mostly wrote programs as a jumble of code. They functioned, but to effectively work on it I had to load the whole program into my head. As the program grew larger, it eventually became impossible for my limited faculties to understand exactly what effects any single change would have. And it became frustrating to work on.
So I began to research how to make programs more maintainable, which led me to software architecture patterns. I started with the basics like 3-layer architecture. That was a big help, but eventually I found the rough edges. Throughout my career I've kept researching and striving for the goal of code that I don't dread maintaining.
After almost 2 decades, I feel like I am finally on the right trail. 🤣 But it turns out, on their own, the best tools in the world (if they existed) aren't enough to make good software. The more important part that I missed for many years is actually learning the customer's problem from their perspective. I can't tell you how many times I did exactly what the customer asked, but they were still disappointed with the outcome. Because I was too focused on using the tools instead of getting to the root of their problem.
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Great story! Thank you for sharing that. Curious to know what steps you took to make it less overwhelming?
Up until that point, I mostly wrote programs as a jumble of code. They functioned, but to effectively work on it I had to load the whole program into my head. As the program grew larger, it eventually became impossible for my limited faculties to understand exactly what effects any single change would have. And it became frustrating to work on.
So I began to research how to make programs more maintainable, which led me to software architecture patterns. I started with the basics like 3-layer architecture. That was a big help, but eventually I found the rough edges. Throughout my career I've kept researching and striving for the goal of code that I don't dread maintaining.
After almost 2 decades, I feel like I am finally on the right trail. 🤣 But it turns out, on their own, the best tools in the world (if they existed) aren't enough to make good software. The more important part that I missed for many years is actually learning the customer's problem from their perspective. I can't tell you how many times I did exactly what the customer asked, but they were still disappointed with the outcome. Because I was too focused on using the tools instead of getting to the root of their problem.