It Is Always The Little Things That Get You

I've been around software development for 20 years now (man that just made me feel old) and there has always been an ongoing joke about the first thing that gets thrown out when you are pressed for time is the testing. Well, the testing is probably the most important thing. You are either going to spend your time in testing or you will spend your time troubleshooting after go live and trying to fix what you didn't realize was broken. Most developers prefer writing code over testing their code. It seems like it is a secondary task, or a little thing, compared to the main focus of development.

The separation between those that are successful and those that are average is in the little things. The best software developers are really good at testing. Whatever the secondary tasks are for you, if you can be really good at those you can stand out.

If your main task is building a product, secondary tasks are marketing, on-time delivery and return policies.

If your main task is fixing cars, secondary tasks are customer service and cleanliness of your shop.

If your main task is teaching, secondary tasks are involving parents and teaching life skills beyond what is on a standardized tests.

The list goes on and on. If you want to be successful, figure out what the little things are. Chances are most people aren't doing them, those that are though I am willing to bet are leading the race.




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