Cut the Fat
A while back, I wrote about two of the most dangerous words in the programing world - what if. Like many before me, I’ve been on teams that were stuck in analysis paralysis before and I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve attended that quickly devolved when people started tossing out loaded phrases like “well, I could see a customer doing…” or “you know, I think it’d be nice if…” Hey, I’ve been guilty of gold plating from time to time, but I’ve grown - I fully accept YAGNI in my life. Now, along with a blood sacrifice, I demand living breathing proof that we need to implement a feature…who am I kidding, I don’t have that kind of clout.
The next time you’re sitting around trying to figure out what you feature you *must* have in your next release, just ask: is it essential or not? Of course that doesn’t mean you should ship utter garbage either…and don’t get me started on all the beta-ware out there!
February 20th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
[…] I’ve touched on this before, but the next time someone says “what if a customer wants to do…” reply it just doesn’t matter. The hardest part of software isn’t figuring out what the system has to do - it’s determining what you can do without. When all else fails, keep it simple already (via Presentation Zen). […]