Source code and lullabies - (Infant Driven Development)

I am a brand new dad, so in these days I have very little time to spend in programming on side projects. However (strange but true) I have been able to start again the development of one new version of Jirino, my bugtracking and project management tool.

How I have been able to find the time for this project ? Finding out practices, tips and techniques that helped me in this state of emergency !

What tips ? Here is a small list:

Be Portable – all the development environment you need must be installed in a notebook (or some similar portable device). If you need servers, install them also on the development PC. Use the local server when you can’t be connected to the network. Use wireless network, not cables ! Your network will be accessible from every place within the signal range. So you can work, say, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in bed ..

Fast Start – Everything needed to develop must start and be available within 30 seconds from the power up of your notebook. There should not be manual confirmation or manual tool selection.

Forget The Big Thing – the target for each working session must be resized to very small goals – don’t even think to complete a feature during a session. Try to complete only that 10 lines of code. Test Driven Development helps ! It allows you to focus on very small targets (the single test has to run with success) that -luckily- most of the times coincide with real features.

Forget Time Management – Be prepared to work every time you can. Try to make plans on target results (eg. ‘complete the text search feature’), not on daily tasks. Forget time management practices, from tdP to time tracking. If you still want to track working time, use a small timer that can count seconds or minutes, not hours. Make sure that it is possible to start and stop it automatically or with just a click: if it takes too much time to manage, forget to use the timer. Use your precious time to write code !

Shortcuts Help ! – Prepare keyboard shortcuts for everything you need. The shortcuts should be selected with a single hand… and tools like Launchy or Colibri help a LOT !

Your Tools Help ! - Every single tool that can be used to avoid manual work is important. Try to write your own tools or macros when you see that you spend too much time in repeating tasks.

Every Moment Is Good For Development or Design – Even moments that usually are not. Depending on your concentration capabilities, you can develop during breakfast or plan / design during driving. In the latter case, you can try to record voice notes instead of writing / drawing .. but be careful !

Choose The Simplest Technology (If You Can Choose) – Sometimes there is no requirement for a particular technology or language. In this case, choose the simpler one. Prefer Ruby over java. Prefer Rails over ASP.NET. Prefer small IDEs over huge-with-every-feature-you-can-think behemoths. Prefer ASCII readable formats.
If you are in doubt, however, choose the technology you know better: complex technologies in which you are expert are easier and take less time than easy technologies you still don’t understand completely.

Keep yourself disconnected – Surfing the web, reading blogs and feeds, instant messaging and socializing on the network takes a lot of time. If you want to take maximum advantage of your programming time you should consider to keep yourself disconnected from the Internet or at least force yourself to close all the Internet tools not strictly related to software development. If you want to keep some time for this kind of activities, be sure to connect the Internet only after you have completed the development tasks.

Motivation – Love you project ! No best practice or agile technique can help to succeed as simple motivation. Be organized, be methodic and you will fail if you don’t like what you do. Be motivated, care about the project on which you are working, and you will probably have success no matter if you are very well organized and disciplined or not.

Conclusions

Take it as it is. This post is just a list of small tips that worked for me, my project and my family. Please don’t get it too seriously and –please- don’t flame: I guarantee that I’m not going to create a new methodology or to sell you management books on IDD !!