{"id":5281,"date":"2013-01-08T07:48:52","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T13:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/?p=5281"},"modified":"2022-11-22T10:55:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T16:55:58","slug":"4-simple-ways-to-improve-developer-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/4-simple-ways-to-improve-developer-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"4 simple ways to improve developer productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-731\" alt=\"Productivity\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Productivity-e1291070228913.jpg\" width=\"76\" height=\"100\" \/>Let me tell you a quick story about two similar development projects at two very different companies. Both companies were building extranets\/portals&#8211;applications that let their customers log in, view their data, and place orders online.<\/p>\n<p>Both had similar requirements. Both were nearly equally complex. The big differences between the two projects: One required 3 years, while the other required 3 months.<\/p>\n<p>What caused this huge disparity?<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, the first company made a number of mistakes that killed their developer\u2019s productivity. What were they? I&#8217;ve pulled out the most important lessons to learn from this story, and listed them below. With that in mind, if you want to maximize your developer\u2019s productivity&#8230;<a name=\"20120107\"><\/a><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>1. Don\u2019t try to reinvent the wheel<\/h3>\n<p>The first company tried to build their application from scratch, when they were probably better off using a development tool or code from another project. The fact is, building new applications from scratch is often unnecessary. Why is that? Rather than explain it myself, I recently ran across a great quote that explains the issue beautifully:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"quora-content-embed\" data-name=\"What-are-the-best-ways-to-increase-productivity-as-a-web-developer-programmer\/answer\/Franz-Maruna\/quote\/218985\">Read Quote of Franz Maruna&#8217;s answer to What are the best ways to increase productivity as a web developer\/programmer? on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\">Quora<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/widgets\/content\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<h3>2. Use the right tools<\/h3>\n<p>Do you want to know the biggest difference between the two companies in the story above? One company used a development tool, and the other one did not. I don\u2019t have to tell you which is which.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll find all sorts of software that can shave precious time off of your development projects. How do you know which one to choose? What features should you look for in development software? This article outlines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/7-things-to-look-for-in-a-web-application-development-tool-or-ide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: red;font-weight: bold\">7 different areas you should consider<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Minimize distractions<\/h3>\n<p>A growing number of research studies have focused on the effects distractions have on our minds. The results: We can\u2019t shift our attention from task to task as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/the-power-prime\/201103\/technology-myth-multitasking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: red;font-weight: bold\">seamlessly as we thought<\/span><\/a>. One study found that it takes 15 minutes to get our minds back on track even after a simple distraction, like checking email.<\/p>\n<p>So, what types of things distract developers? Besides the regular culprits like phone calls and emails, developers face other distractions, like end user reporting, solving unforseen tech problems, attending useless meetings, etc&#8230; These are tasks technically defined as \u201cwork\u201d that pull the developer away from the development project, thus derailing their focus.<\/p>\n<p>In the story above, meetings were a big problem for the first company. They had meetings for everything. They had meetings to plan for meetings. How can developers stay focused on their project if they\u2019re constantly attending meetings?<\/p>\n<p>Of course, meetings certainly aren\u2019t the only cause of distractions. If you want to improve developer productivity in your company, you must determine which tasks regularly pull developers away from their projects&#8230;and then work to minimize those distractions.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Build it right the first time<\/h3>\n<p>One of the biggest lessons I\u2019ve learned in my 30+ years in application development: Take the time to do the job right the first time. This requires a good amount of planning and a heavy focus on architecture. It means you build applications with the future in mind.<\/p>\n<p>I know what you\u2019re thinking. This doesn\u2019t sound very productive. The fact is, developing an application with the future in mind does require more time upfront. But, it saves all sorts of time down the road. For instance, in the example above, the first company\u2019s project was plagued with poor planning. As a result, they were constantly going back to fix problems. Which is more productive: Taking the time to plan correctly, or going back to fix problems?<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s another example of what proper planning and good architecture can do for a development project: When we built m-Power, we obsessed over architecture. We wanted flexible architecture built on open frameworks that let m-Power constantly adapt to changing tech trends. As such, when the big mobile app trend rolled around, that open architecture let us quickly build mobile capabilities into m-Power. I can\u2019t imagine how much effort mobile would\u2019ve required had we not focused so intensely on architecture at the beginning.<\/p>\n<h3>Wrap up<\/h3>\n<p>Do you development projects take too long? Are they regularly late and over-budget? If so, following the steps listed above may very well be the key to success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me tell you a quick story about two similar development projects at two very different companies. Both companies were building extranets\/portals&#8211;applications that let their customers log in, view their data, and place orders online. Both had similar requirements. Both were nearly equally complex. The big differences between the two projects: One required 3 years, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/4-simple-ways-to-improve-developer-productivity\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">4 simple ways to improve developer productivity<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","slim_seo":{"title":"4 simple ways to improve developer productivity - mrc&#039;s Cup of Joe Blog","description":"Let me tell you a quick story about two similar development projects at two very different companies. Both companies were building extranets\/portals--applicatio"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-5281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-productivity","tag-application-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5281"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13830,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281\/revisions\/13830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}