As workers in the tech industry, we all know that time is always a concern. Even seemingly small hiccups can end up pushing back release dates by days or even weeks. Sometimes a slight delay is unavoidable, but sometimes a client just absolutely needs the product on time. Depending on the situation this can result in a negative image towards the company.
So how do you minimize the risks of these delays? It starts off with set priorities and proper communication. In a previous post titled Programming – where to begin? We had talked about project plans and objectives. These take care of the set priorities aspect. What’s left is effective communication. Most developers will look at the same thing and come up with two different ways to approach the task. This is fine until these two programmers try to merge their code together only to realize that each other’s code is incompatible. Needless to say this causes a setback that could have easily been avoided if communication was clear between the developers. Management, leadership, and developers all need to be on the same page in order to make sure these easily preventable mistakes don’t occur.
So you’ve got your communication down, what else can you do? I’m reminded of a saying that goes “Work smart, not hard”. This saying is very true in software development. One thing that should be done if possible is creating your own libraries of commonly used code or any code that you feel can be effectively reused. This takes some time to get rolling, but once these libraries grow they can save countless hours of having to type the same code over and over again. Aside from creating your own libraries, also keep in mind that there are many third party libraries out there for any and all languages and technologies. There are many great open source ones, and also some exceptional paid versions. Depending on the type of application being developed, these libraries can prove to be invaluable.
You also have to keep the pyramid in mind. By that I mean Budget, Timeline, and Scope. If time is pressing, you have to be flexible in terms of the features you can actually develop and implement. Budget and timeline are both proportionate to the scope. More time or money to throw at a project means that you can accomplish more in a shorter time. Unfortunately, we rarely have infinite resources, so we have to keep in mind that each additional feature or function translates to more time.
Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Let it be known that developers can ask each other and management or leadership for help if needed. There are also many forums and programming-centric places online where people can get help such as Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange.
Saving time directly translates into saving money, and who doesn’t like to save money? Here at Palm Beach Software, we strive to minimize expenses where we can. This allows us to provide fair prices to our clients which combined with our high quality standards, allows us to not only deliver a software package, but deliver value as well.
