Re:
by ok_dad on Friday January 13, 2023 @01:40PM
(#34372013)
I am here to say that both "too much" and "too little" process are shitty. I have been at companies with too much process (medical devices) and companies with WAY to little process, and both places are an absolute nightmare. What you want is a process that ensures features are spec'ed out properly, testing is performed, deployment is smooth, and etc., with a lot less or zero of the "put your hours into the Jira ticket" type bullshit.
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Tastes differ, as do circumstances, but the last place I want to work is one where things are spec'd out "properly". For me one of the great sources of joy in making software is jointly discovering needs by exploring the problem space. I've done whole companies with nothing more than index cards, napkin-quality sketches, and very close team relationships. I love it.
That's fine until half or more of the team moves on, then you have a spaghetti mess that newcomers have to theorize about and clean up.
I'm talking about product design, not technical design. But I don't think specifications help in the long term there, either. I think the way you get designs that are understood by both old-timers and newcomers is continuous improvement of the code through refactoring and cleanup.
> I'm talking about product design, not technical design.
Even worse!