Just a Thought...

Software engineering is a lot like a marathon. If you all out sprint at the beginning you’ll ruin your chances of finishing first, if at all. If you simply walk along the route sniffing daisies and waving at the people on the side of the road, you also won’t have any hope of finishing first—although you stand a good chance of finishing the race. The key to a successful project is maintaining a realistic, yet brisk pace.

The Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools of the past were more like sprinting toward the goal. It might work if you are running 100 yards, or maybe even 400 yards. If you are running a 10k there is no reason to start out at a sprint. In fact you’ll find that the limitations of the RAD tools will get in your way and keep you from finishing the 10k.

The point of doing at least a few projects using test first practices is to develop some conditioning so that you can bring your pace up. With a comprehensive test suite you tend to do things so that as few red flags appear as possible. That means that your software is more truly modular. It helps develop good practices and style, which all contribute to the overall goal of increasing your normal pace.

What’s important is that you choose tools that compliment what you are doing. A good pair of running shoes will do you better than some basketball high tops. Same goes for the frameworks you use. Sometimes the framework can get in your way and hold you back. Sometimes it helps keep you on point and even helps push you forward. One isn’t necessarily better than the other in every situation.

Now, when you race cars there is a counter-intuitive concept where good braking will actually help you go faster. As you round the corners, you brake going into the turn so that you can accelerate coming out of the turn. It’s the same concept when you manage your software team. By adding review periods so that you can take stock of where you are and where you are headed, you can refocus the team so that they can perform quicker. The trick is to provide just enough of a slowdown to keep the team under control while not grinding them to a halt.

A well tuned team of developers can get the job done quicker, more consistently, and using less cost. The trick is careful tuning and tweaking of the team and how you do work to make sure that everything just works. To truly do rapid application development, you don’t need a tool to do everything for you. You need a team of professionals who know how to get the most out of the project.