Often times, The Starter and The Debugger are the same person - the person who approaches programming challenges like affronts to their ability. Once the hard problems are solved, it's just a bit of tidying up and you're set.
I find it very difficult to be a Finisher, and I think many programmers do. Finishing isn't fun, it's not glamorous, and it's not why we do the work, but it's a skill that we need to develop.
I've noticed a trend in my own development. When I first start a project or I'm working on a hard problem, I'm working 10-12 hour days figuring out the interfaces, making the object model pristine (or as pristine as it can be in the language I'm using), making the error messages helpful and the exception handling consistent.
And then, as I'm closing out the project, I start to lose focus. I start watching the clock. I'm out of work as fast as I can. I'm doing, for lack of a better word, the bitch work, but the bitch work is what makes the system.
I've tried to get better at it, but I think there is a fundamental issue with the project lifecycle that makes human beings phone it in in the last bits of a project. Whether it's building a house or writing an application, those last bits of the project seem the most arduous.
I find it very difficult to be a Finisher, and I think many programmers do. Finishing isn't fun, it's not glamorous, and it's not why we do the work, but it's a skill that we need to develop.
I've noticed a trend in my own development. When I first start a project or I'm working on a hard problem, I'm working 10-12 hour days figuring out the interfaces, making the object model pristine (or as pristine as it can be in the language I'm using), making the error messages helpful and the exception handling consistent.
And then, as I'm closing out the project, I start to lose focus. I start watching the clock. I'm out of work as fast as I can. I'm doing, for lack of a better word, the bitch work, but the bitch work is what makes the system.
I've tried to get better at it, but I think there is a fundamental issue with the project lifecycle that makes human beings phone it in in the last bits of a project. Whether it's building a house or writing an application, those last bits of the project seem the most arduous.