Every Time We Touch Code, We Have An Opportunity To Make It Better
I said that today in a meeting and it struck me how true it is. I wanted to write it down somewhere. Every time we’re asked to rush something into production or add a ‘temporary’ hack, we have to stop and remember this simple phrase. Are we really doing right by the sales person that is pressuring us to go against our own better judgement? Or we just adding to ever growing pile of issues to be addressed at a later date? Sometimes, stopping to think for a second lets you realize that doing things the ‘right’ way only means a little more time and even maybe the same effort as the hack you are rushing to put in. While this sounds stupidly obvious, its easy to forget when your office is filled with people clamoring for your attention, each with their own unrealistic timeline requirements. I think that by sticking to our guns as architects and developers, we are actually doing a proper service to the very same folks who are asking us to take the shortcuts and bend our own rules. By allowing ourselves to enter into ‘hack’ mentality, we are doing a disservice to ourselves, the company, and to the very people pressuring us to do so.