What’s been on my mind this week?
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about rigor in software engineering.
I write software for Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, Central Banks and the largest financial institutions in the world.
For those who aren’t familiar with DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), it’s a new regulation that’s coming in to play in the EU to enforce certain guidelines to technology written for financial institutions.
This is to help ensure the safety of everyone’s money.
It’s pretty important.
Well, at the opposite end of that spectrum are the ship fast, ship often crew of small contributors and indie hackers.
I have admiration for them and I think they are amazing at what they do. They create things very very quickly, get feedback and get money.
I don’t for one second believe that they are intentionally putting out insecure or badly tested code either.
This is by no means a shot at those people, it’s an observation from someone who has had to build very large-scale, secure, and extensible systems over the years.
Speed comes at a price.
It’s the Iron Triangle. Pick two: Fast, good or cheap
Writing and shipping at speed is great to get initial customer feedback. It’s vital in fact. There’s no reason to pour your heart soul and energy into a project that no one will use or need.
However, once you have gained the initial market fit, you need to reconsider your code base.
The two general practices for gauging product, and market fit are:
- Ask people to sign up for your service before you even create anything. This shows positive intent
- Create an MVP that people can actually use. If they use it, build that out.
Once you have a solid understanding of if your product is wanted and people would pay for it, you need to take a step back and ask yourself:
“Is the code which I have shipped so far good enough to be the base of a larger project that people can rely on for safety and quality?”
If the answer is no, take a step back and assess.
You know people want it, you know people will pay for it. Put the time and effort in to building it properly.
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