Chapter 11. Knowledge and People
Software and architecture ultimately come down to people. People use software, software helps people, and people architect, design, and code software. You should therefore not be surprised that some of these knowledge patterns revolve around people.
Your peers, team members, and other colleagues are assets not just to the company but also to you. Utilize them wisely, and they can help improve your knowledge management, documentation, and software architecture overall.
Get Feedback Early and Often
One mistake that many people make is putting a lot of time and effort into their work before they get any feedback on it. This can waste effort and money as well as impact the architectural design of a system. This applies both to individuals and teams.
If you have experience with Agile and the reasons behind it, you probably know that Agile is all about getting feedback early with the fastest feedback loop you can get. Iterative and incremental changes. Fail fast or fail hard. You should follow these same principles when creating artifacts and documentation.
If you are not getting feedback on your ideas and designs, you are missing out on changing requirements and that second pair of eyes to help you with a sanity check. Consider the butterfly effect: one incorrect assumption early on could steer the architecture in a completely wrong direction.
Not getting feedback can mean you play into the hands of your own personal sunk cost fallacy: the longer you ...
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