Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a few comments regarding rework. One of those comments was Julie Booth’s (@uxsuccess) comment on Twitter regarding rework,
“Do not fear rework!!”
That kicked me off with a response of,
“Do not fear rework!! /via @uxsuccess so true, plz plz don’t cower before rework!!! :). Listen to @uxsuccess!“
Then just recently I stumbled onto a book I’ve been meaning to read called Rework. This book is written by the crew at 37signals. This company is best known for SaaS Offerings Basecamp, Highrise, Campfire, and Backpack. All of them created with high quality, solid UX (User eXperience), probably great code quality, maintainability, and the list of goodness goes on. In addition, the other thing that 37signals is widely known for is their efforts around Ruby on Rails (created by DHH @dhh).
Rework is a fundamental requirement to actually getting an elegant solution. It might seem chaotic or disconnected at first, but it quickly becomes a vastly superior way of doing things instead of the “Do it once, do it right the first time” nonsense. Things need to change, doing things right the first time is almost impossible anyway. That is why you practice playing guitar before becoming a virtuoso, you learn to hammer before becoming a carpenter, you sketch and draw before becoming an architect, and the list goes on.
Don’t expect perfection, expect creation. That’s what I’d say. If you can’t tell, I agree with the Ruby on Rails mindset, with a lot of what DHH/@dhh writes, and I especially respect what 37signals has accomplished and the revolutionary business ideas in the book Rework.
These types of ideas – simple rework and the open minded approach to rework – makes a business faster, more agile, and responsive to their customers’ needs. These ideas, these mentalities are what have created great companies in the past and will build great companies in the future. The companies that suffer the traditional approaches and mindsets are at significant risk of being eliminated from the market altogether.
There are many others out there also, that push these types of ideas and mentalities around rework, refactoring, and agile practices. If you haven’t checked out who 37signals is, the book Rework, or Ruby on Rails you should stop whatever you’re doing and find out about this company and its products. Especially find out how their products were built with business agility in mind, with a strong dose of Agile ideals. With that I bid adieu for the day. Happy coding, and don’t fear the rework.
” That is why you practice playing guitar before becoming a virtuoso, you learn to hammer before becoming a carpenter, you sketch and draw before becoming an architect, and the list goes on”
I agree, rework is great advice for those still learning.
In other words, if you are doing lots of rework, you are still an amateur…
Actually, I’d argue that one is an amateur if they’re not doing rework. Even a master carpenter has rework to do on a house, they still measure twice and cut once. Even a guitar virtuoso still practices constantly. If one is so boastful as to say they don’t do rework, they’re doing something seriously wrong, or their software isn’t as elegant as they may think it is.
…needless to say, every level of developer should be doing some type of rework.