Great Coding a work in progress

Posted by Matt on Jan 31, 2009

Programmers need to "Plus It"

One of the things that has driven me crazy over the years is when developers I’m working with phone it in.

The Problem

When I say phoning it in, I don’t mean show up late, surfing Facebook, and leave early. (Let’s face it, we all know people like that in all professions.)

So what do I mean then? Requirements are barely met. The code is sloppily written. There are no tests beyond “assert true”. The code is unmaintainable. The code smell would make hardened, jaded programmers faint.

How do we combat the problem?

Plus It

Recently I’ve been reading a book on Disney’s Imagineers. One of the mantras they use is to Plus It. Plus It means to go beyond your personal best. Raise the bar for yourself and others.

How do we Plus It?

In the world of developers, Plus It means you make your code, user experiences, support, etc. better than your previous best.

• Don’t settle for mediocre.
• Work hard.
• Don’t just create code, create great code.

Test everything. And I don’t mean just unit testing or feature testing. I mean, end user testing. To steal another concept from Disney, your only real critics are your audience. End user testing will tell you if the interface and features created meet their expectations or not. If you don’t meet your end user’s expectations, meet them. Once you meet them, exceed them.

How do we encourage others to Plus It?

Peer review. It’s one of the most powerful tools I’ve encountered to influence other’s to Plus It. I’m competitive in nature. Some of best coworkers have been as competitive. Without being volatile about the situation, refactoring or critiquing other’s code challenges them to produce a higher level of code.

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