Rules of thumb for successful software development

(This post is based on an email I sent to a friend and coworker who had just had a long day at a new job.)

I will now share my very finite wisdom (with regards to software development):

1. Get a little better every day. Consciously. Don't ever get worse. At the very least break even. Here's an article with some tips. I personally find that you can work an hour a day on average just making things better and a) no one bugs you about not getting your work done and b) life will get easier. People will follow this example generally once you start seeing success.

2. Don't try to get too much better too fast. People don't like change. Plus you can do little changes without needing to do a lot of convincing, and big changes tend to fail, encouraging people to not try it again. Little steps. You may even have to hold yourself (and/or team) back on these sometimes, but trust me, it's worth it.

3. The Joel Test. Shoot for all twelve, but go for them one at a time.

4. Read like crazy. Technical stuff. Software stuff. Comic books. Sci-fi novels. Old-school detective novels. Histories of religion. Whatever. I personally go for an every other approach; one tech book, one solely for fun. Or I may have one I'm working through, and one I'm just enjoying going at the same time. Of course, I enjoy reading. I do believe that studying something, anything, will help keep the brain sharp and you do better throughout the day. Hobbies are good for you. Maybe yours isn't reading, maybe you'll play guitar or learn a language or something else, but you will need to spend some time on the tech stuff. This is an industry and a job that requires constant learning to be good, and I think that's a plus. Get in the habit of constantly learning. Fortunately, once you find a subject you're into, it's easy to get in the habit.

5. Actually use the stuff you read. The Pragmatic Programmer is a great book that a lot of people have read and then ignore or forget to use. I know I have. (in fact, I should reread it now.) Definitely start there. With that being said, only use what makes sense and take all advice with a big grain of salt. Throw out what doesn't work. This is really a part of XP that I feel people forget. Basically, screw the rules. There are no hard and fast rules. There are a lot of good ideas that you see out there, learn what you can and then use your brain.

And that's about it It's really all summed up in tip #1. I'm a big fan of continuous, slow change. Tortoise and the hare and all that.

The sites I have found most helpful and where I've gleaned most of the info are now listed in the right nav. The Joel on Software subreddit has probably been the most handy since through this I have found a lot of other good writers and/or articles.

So that's my advice. Print that out, take it and add $2 or so and it's worth a cup of coffee at any local Starbucks. You probably knew most of it already. Hopefully it at least made a halfway-decent blog post.

Here's to better software. Good luck.