Thought Patterns

I know how I work.  How a think about, visualize a problem and go about mentally design a solution and implement it in code.  My thought pattern works pretty well for me on most occasions, but not always.

There are times when I have a force myself to change my thought pattern because of the problem I'm solving requires a different mindset.  Anyway, this posting is about how I work most of the time.  Here is goes.

I quickly break down a feature into operations that are required to exists and tackle that code first.  My thinking is that, if I can solve the primary issues first, then secondary features will fall into "known knowns" and I can address those at anytime (and sometimes at my leisure) and this allows me to meet my internal timeline.

If I addressed features and operations that are not primary first, then I feel I risk my (and the projects) timeline without addressing issues that allow the feature to operate.  You may have seen this occur where small features consume allotted time with the primary issues not being addressed.

My exception to this pattern is design, mostly UI/UX design.  It could be though of as a secondary part of a feature, but it's really chock full of decisions that choices that need to be address first and really though about and should not be left to late in a project.  Worse yet, if the UI/UX design is cons tally changed during development.  Not a great pattern to be in.

A variation of a thought anti-pattern is to work on a number of parts of a solution without first getting any of the parts completely done and operational.  This will slow down the project on a whole, lead to missed timelines and leave you in a state where you are never sure what is complete or not.

I stated that I have an internal timeline when I work.  This is what I feel I can complete a section of work, with my current understanding of what is required.  This is NOT what I plan for or schedule for.  The reason for this is : 1) interruptions, 2) requirement changes, 3) waiting for others (decisions mostly) and 4) my mind is not perfect and I'm bound to forget something.  So my external timeline is about double.  This gives me time to make sure it's complete.