Surely, you have been aware about the habits that can facilitate your life as well as about those that complicate it. Today we at WebSailors shall talk about the most useful habits in the world of software development.
1. Clarify goals and details
Develop the habit to clarify the goals and tasks. The human brain is arranged in such a way that it resists doing every incomprehensible work.
Therefore, before starting, ask yourself every time: do I understand exactly why I am doing this and what result I am waiting for? How well do I understand the task itself and the process of solving it? If the answer is not like “It is 100 percent clear what and when and what for to do” then clarify the situation: specify details with the team leader, client, and teammates.
Here the principle works: if you do not understand the question asked then put it to yourself.
2. Remember the business sense of tasks
Another good habit, partly related to the previous one, is to always find out what final benefits your actions will bring. In other words, if a web-developer does not understand who exactly he will make happier by developing this table or writing that function, then most likely he is screwing around.
Don't write code for the sake of code: try to find out how your actions will help the business and its target audience. Even if the strategic goals are not spelled out in your requirements list.
This approach is to create clear and useful user stories. Each such story begins with the user's need to do something and ends with some result that partially or fully satisfies his needs. The set of stories should fully cover all the possible interests of users in this niche. Only in such a situation, the project itself make sense.
3. Don't reinvent the wheel
A tip, especially useful for beginners: make a habit to use well-known approaches and templates, canonical solutions and software libraries for solving problems. To do this, you need to actively seek, study and process, experience in real projects. Doing this you solve several problems at once: save time and your own strengths, solve problems in proven ways and study the experience gained by other developers for you.
Of course, you should not include a whole framework in the project for the sake of a single function, but you should not invent, for example, your own array sorting algorithm as well, if this is not the aim of the project.
4. Keep abreast of IT events
Another good habit associated with the previous one. You should use templates to perform tasks, you need to find them, and for this - constantly monitor everything that happens in your web-development area.
Make a habit of reading useful articles, books, channels on social networks at least for half an hour a day. Every day you need to “discover” at least one new technology or useful news. It is also considered good practice to go out at least once a month: to attend meetings, speeches of famous specialists, hackathons, and conferences.
Well, or at least just spend the evening in a friendly atmosphere with colleagues. In addition to relaxing in all these cases, you will have a great opportunity to make new acquaintances and exchange experiences.
5. Develop an emotional intelligence
The habit of not condemning, but entering into the position of another person, regardless of the adequacy of his appeal to you, can often do a good job. “To understand a criminal, think like a criminal,” investigators say among themselves, and this is the right advice for absolutely all people. The ability to listen, understand and adapt to the emotional state of another person is a useful skill that needs to be regularly trained.
Try to do this consciously at first - for example, once a day to observe your own behavior in a conversation as if from the outside and adjust it in accordance with the emotional level of the interlocutor. Perhaps it makes sense to periodically read psychology literature for this (not to the detriment of work tasks, of course).
6. Develop algorithms
No matter how good and detailed the technical assignment may seem to you, before you start writing code, you should compile and work out all the algorithms that solve its individual parts. Indeed, most often all questions arise not when reading the assignment, but already in the process of completing the task or, even worse, when the project is delivered to the customer.
Often, it is at the end of the work that differences arise in understanding the tasks between the customer and the contractor, and this rarely adds optimism. At a minimum, this forces us to devote much more time to our work than it seemed at first, more often than not, this happens “at our own expense”.
7. Upgrade your English skills regularly
The important skill, the development of which is also worth turning into a habit. In the world of web development, it won\t go anywhere far without English. We hope that you probably understand that. The vast majority of new books, technical documentation, articles, notes, and even comments in code are written in English.
Therefore, it is useful to accustom yourself to learn at least five new words a day, start at least one conversation in English with a client/colleague (if possible). Watching TV shows with English voice acting or singing songs in English will also help. And try to take courses to improve the level of the language at least once a year - such certificates will definitely not be redundant for you.
8. Work with someone else's code
We at WebSailors believe that exploring the code of other developers and learning how to read it is an extremely useful skill for any developer. With the study of such sources of knowledge, you solve at least two problems: learn how to write beautiful and maintainable code, or learn how not to do it.
Parsing someone else's project will also help you train your code debugging skill. All these skills and competencies will definitely come in handy to improve the quality of your own work.
9. Test all your programs
If you are often accompanied by criticism of the customer or colleagues on the topic “yes this code of yours doesn’t work at all”, then do not rush to consider yourself an incomprehensible genius or strive to turn everything into “crutches” to make it work.
It is much better to train yourself to test your own programs before they reach the customer. The important questions are: What testing methods can the customer use? What could be the weak points of your code? It is better to find out in advance than to spend time debugging and reworking after the release of the work done.
10. Sleep at night
Which of us did not sit on a sleepless night at work, sincerely convinced that when the deadlines are on, there is no other way but to work without sleep? Coffee, energy drinks and as a result - autopilot next day as the smallest of consequences.
The truth is that at night without sleep, brain productivity decreases several times: that is, in eight sleepless hours you will do exactly as much work as in two or three hours on a fresh head. So does it make sense not to sleep, if there is a chance to do everything productively in the morning?
We hope that you accept all these tips and be as healthy and productive as possible.
Source - WebSailors
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