97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

Chapter 47. Know Your Next Commit

Dan Bergh Johnsson

I TAPPED THREE PROGRAMMERS ON THEIR SHOULDERS and asked what they were doing. “I am refactoring these methods,” the first answered. “I am adding some parameters to this web action,” the second answered. The third answered, “I am working on this user story.”

It might seem that the first two were engrossed in the details of their work, while only the third could see the bigger picture, and that he had the better focus. However, when I asked when and what they would commit, the picture changed dramatically. The first two were pretty clear about what files would be involved, and would be finished within an hour or so. The third programmer answered, “Oh, I guess I will be ready within a few days. I will probably add a few classes and might change those services in some way.”

The first two did not lack a vision of the overall goal. They had selected tasks they thought led in a productive direction, and could be finished within a couple of hours. Once they had finished those tasks, they would select a new feature or refactoring to work on. All the code written was thus done with a clear purpose and a limited, achievable goal in mind.

The third programmer had not been able to decompose the problem and was working on all aspects at once. He had no idea of what it would take, basically doing speculative programming, hoping to arrive at some point ...