Three Tips for Developers at the Start of Projects

Here in Brazil we just launched two major projects.  If I had to start them over again, here are three tips I would take with me.

Tip #1
Automate.

People underestimate the amount of time it takes to perform routine tasks like deployment. Automation doesn’t just save time it keeps teams motivated. Automate any routines that distract from the development process.

Tip #2
Time Box.

There’s no better way to find a solution on a tight schedule. I typically reserve fifty minutes for research and another fifty minutes to implement the solution and prove the solution works. If it does, cool.  If not, I attempt other solutions based on my original research.

Tip #3
Do not anticipate too many problems.

Being safe is different than anticipating problems. Finding solutions for too many edge cases can waste precious time. Instead, focus on high priority issues with time constraints. These are the issues with the real risk of  catastrophe if not addressed.

I’m always looking to follow these and  other tips to make projects more enjoyable and  free up time for experimentation and research. For example, time saved following these tips was repurposed to ramp up on MongoDB and implement it on two projects and  combining JRuby and Groove on AppEngine.

Three Tips is part of a new series on Techblog where we’ve asked members of our team to share some of their best secrets.