Software Development 101

Over the past 27 years, I have delivered software systems across various domains. Some of those systems have served millions, others have won awards, and some set the company into the future.

This is where I learned the value of Delivering Daily.

And I use the same 6 techniques every time:

#1 Story Slices

Work through the system, front-end to back-end.
Independent pieces of work. i.e. create before delete.
Someone non-technical can click and use the system.

#2 Automated Tests

Specify the behavior you want.
Run extremely fast, hundreds per seconds.
Do not depend on anything external, like a file or a database.

#3 Acceptance Tests

Work through the entire architecture, like a user would.
Hit the representative, highest level features.
Gives you confidence that it all works well together

#4 Automated Deployment

Push one button, wait, use the updated system.
Validates each deployment by running tests.
Lets you roll-forward if there ever is an error.

#5 Feature Flags

Select whether you show a feature based on some criteria.
Lets you roll out to a small number of users.
Allows A/B testing.

#6 Refactoring

Keeps the code clean.
Allows you to work incrementally.
Puts the SOFT in software development.

That’s it!

It took me 15 years to bring this all together. The last several teams I worked with have gotten the benefits very quickly.

Let me know which one of these techniques you found most helpful in the comments.

Happy to do another post going into more depth on whichever one you find most interesting.

Software Development 101

Software Development 101 Over the past 27 years, I have delivered software systems across

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