Comments on: “Doing it Right” vs. “Getting it Done”

By: sonicoliver

sonicoliver — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:48:30 +0000

As you get more experience, you will do better work.

As you do better work, you will get more trust.

As you get more trust, you will get more time.

As you get more time, hopefully, you will be able to focus on quality rather than quantity.

By: gid

gid — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:31:48 +0000

in our environment, there is a set of ‘minimum expectations’. This is preset list of stuff that needs to be done in a project…it balances the need for getting it done and doing it right. everyone agrees to this set of (including the director) criteria. This minimum expectations help the team to know what is the very least that is expected from them. If they have time to do more, then by all means they can do it…just don’t do any less.

Sounds like you need a similar meeting and list of minimum expectations.

In terms of academia, the minimum expectation is what the professor is satisfied with. Probably will get a B or something. Anything less will get you lower marks…and more effort will get you higher marks (an A?).

By: Daryl

Daryl — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:06:24 +0000

@Bryan: I think any quality programming done in any manner saves time in the long run. It doesn’t necessarily *have* to be OOP.

For example, C has libraries, which also promote reuse.

However, in this case I’m not just talking about reusing classes and modules. That is a warped way of thinking that universities have instilled in their students. Proper encapsulation, abstraction, good structure will all save the day in the end.

Unfortunately, as I was saying in my post, this thinking is very idealistic. More often than not (and more a reality these days), budget is a major factor. Even for a home-brewed project.

How much time are you willing to spend? How much are you willing to let a deadline slide just so you can release a “polished” product? Remember, the time you spend could be time better spent elsewhere with a better financial result.

And finally, too much planning for “quality programming” distracts the developer from what REALLY matters: what the software actually does.

Of course, the point of my post was not to say “quality programming is BAD”. I was simply reflecting on the everyday choices I have to make, from a developer POV, and a business POV.

By: Bryan Grezeszak

Bryan Grezeszak — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:15:00 +0000

Quality programming when done in an OOP manner saves time in the end, since you can just reuse classes. By doing this quality wins out in the end.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:01:20 +0000

I guess it depends on the size of the organization that you’re dealing with, and also the kind of work that you do.

A lot of the work that I’ve been doing over the past few weeks has been reviewed and made to be completely conformant, and optimal (without going to the extreme level).