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Ask HN: How can I consistently deliver high-quality work with minimal issues?

25 points llll_lllllll_l | 1 comments | 21 Nov 24 14:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source

TL;DR: What are your checklists, tips, and tricks to ensure you're delivering a high-quality piece of work (whether it's a Pull Request or something equivalent in your field)?

As a full-stack developer, I've often found myself in situations where a sprint goes wrong, and a lot of bugs are flagged by QA. It's a tough spot to be in because I genuinely put in my best effort when coding, but sometimes things just don't go as planned. It could be due to a new feature, an old legacy system, or simply a rough week—it happens from time to time (not so often, I remember like 4 moments in my 5 years of experience). What advice do you have for maintaining consistent deliveries with minimal bugs (or equivalent failures in your area)?

1. Pfhortune ◴[21 Nov 24 17:53 UTC] No.42206797[source]▶
You will continually get better at not just writing the right code, but at interpreting requirements into the right code. You will learn the edges and corners where bugs will hide. And sometimes you'll write them anyways, because that's life. You'll fix it in the future.

In this trade, a lot of orgs put a lot of emphasis on "sprints" and "deliverables", but you really have to look at software development as a continuum. Optimizations and bug fixes are a part of this continuum, and any good team has space for these things in planning.

Not all teams recognize this, however, and I would recommend discussing with the other engineers on your team how you can work together to advocate for this. No sprint can be 100% features. Software requires upkeep. Bugs are a natural part of this.