Plan before coding (why software design is needed?)

Introduction

I’m quite often facing with the situation that developers are starting directly with coding when they are getting a new task. Beginners as well as developers with long years experience, even at well-known, famous companies. And to be honest it is pretty strange for me, I think it is very unprofessional and risky. Let’s see why!

Advantages of creating software design

I really like the parallelism between building a house and writing a software, because both of them is the result of a complex engineering work. At a house you need to take care about a lot of things: choosing the correct walls, the correct size of rooms the correct roof, correct electricity and water system etc. In case of a complex software you need to pay attention on several things as well: runtime, memory usage, ergonomy, security, scalability, modularity, compatibility etc.

It is physically possible to build a house without a planning phase, but only in simple cases and most likely it will have poor quality, it can collapse anytime. But I have never heard about any bigger building which has been built without planning. And in fact: would you like to live in such a house? I don’t think so.

Then why would you use such a software? Of course it is possible to implement a software without planning, but only in non-complex cases and for sure it will have a poor quality. Simple you won’t be able to take care about all the points without a design.

An other advantage is: during the design phase you can identify a lot of possible problems which can come up in the future. So you can avoid making code which will be never used and you can save a lot of time with that.

The other important point is the life cycle of the software: most of the programmes have multiple versions. That means: someone did something. Later on new needs came into the picture, so new implementation was done, quite often by different developers. Then bugs are appearing in the code, someone needs to fix them urgently. In practise that means if there is no design document and all the developers needs to figure out on their own how it is working and what was the concept of the previous developers they will loose a lot of time, they will repeat the same mistakes what the others already did and they will miss-interpret the concept, so they will follow an other way at the new implementations and after some iterations it will be a big chaos. So the number of bugs will be higher and the duration of fixing each of them is getting higher and higher as well.

That means: at the beginning you are saving some time by missing the design phase, but later you will loose much more time because of the lack of design.

What is the write level of design?

Of course it makes no sense to design every small function and small detail for each simple software. You need to find the write level of design to find the most effective way of working and you need to find the right toolset. And it is always up to the project. The following questions are always important: Is it a team-work or a one man show? Is it a software with long term support? Is the software part of a bigger framework or it is stand alone? Is the functionality safety relevant? Would we like to support multiple running environments? Do we have limited resources? Who will use the software? After answering these questions you can write choose the right method of design. If it is a small one-man project, only for internal usage a paper and a pen can be the right tool. But even in this case, do a design! Think about the architecture and main components, main interfaces, main functionality, corner cases etc. and draw some diagrams, write some notes. Of course if you are preparing a safety critical application for serial production then you need to create a really detailed design with static and dynamic software plan, diagrams, well-formulated requirements, use case analysis etc and you need to use some really proper tools. So this is really up to the situation. As you are getting more experience you can always figure out easier the right level of design. But what I think as the most important points: even in case of a minimal design specify your main components and the main interfaces between them. Assign main responsibilities to you components and describe the interfaces with some sentences. You should describe the main use cases with you own worlds in some sentences as well. I think this is the minimum level of design in case of a team work. And as your software getting more complex your design needs to get more detailed and more formular. You can use tools like UML as well.

Summary

So to not loose time with unnecessary rounds you need to create design, but the right level of design is always up to the situation. In the future I plan to write a post about “How is a good software architecture?” But in the meanwhile you can share with us your habits regarding software designs!

Best regards,
RelaxedProgrammer

9 websites you should know as a software developer

After showing you which books I really like I prepared several webpages which are good to know as a programmer. Here they are:

1. Tutorials point - https://www.tutorialspoint.com/
   You can find here tutorials for all programming language, technics, algorithmic topic and basicaly for everything what you can need. Next to programming topics there are several other topics as well (like marketing, communication etc.). This tutorials are usualy really good start points.
   
2. Code project - https://www.codeproject.com/
   A nice page, collection of articles in technical topics regarding programming. There are a lot of good articles, it’s having frequent updates.

3. Stack overflow - https://stackoverflow.com
   I think everyone know stack overflow. Any programming issue you have the chance is here the highest to find a solution.

4. DEV Community - https://dev.to/
   This is a quite cool developer community with a lot of interesting arcticles and a lot of good comments. You are free to write articles and pop up any topic.
5. Exercism - https://exercism.io/ On this page you can develop your coding skills by solving tasks. Your solutions will be reviewed by the mentor team and you are getting a lot of useful advices. If you feel yourself advanced enough you can join the mentor team as well for specific programming languages and you can support the learning period of others.

6. Simple Programmer - https://simpleprogrammer.com/ This is a nice blog with a lot of high quality posts. Technical topics, career development and soft skills are envolved as well.

7. The dev coach - https://www.thedevcoach.co.uk/
   An other blog focusing mainly on the necessary soft skill set of programmers.
8. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/
   This is the other page which is most likely known by everyone. This the best place for networking. The best place to start if you are searching for a new job, but you can get informed from here about conferences and other events as well. You can get good connections if you wanna start your own buisness. If you are filling your profile you will get a lot of relevant message quite soon.
9. Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/
   If it is not enough for you to build your connections online join the meetup.com, find the next events which are happening at your place and has an interesting topic, attend them for free and get familiar with other developers who are living and working in the nearby.

These were my suggestions, feel free to extend it in the comments section!

All the best,
Relaxed programmer

5 points to do and 5 points not to do if you are asking for a higher salary

It is always difficult to ensure your boss to increase your salary, for some people it means so much stress that they are rather not asking for that at all. I collected some points to do and some points to avoid at asking for a higher salary.

To do:

1. Find the right time slot

You need to find the best time and place for that. Always be between four eyes with your boss, don’t mention such needs at a party or in front of other colleagues. Only start to talk about that if your boss looks happy and relaxed, make sure that your boss has free time and is not in a hurry. The best strategy is to ask your boss for a feedback session or if you have a regular one mention your needs there. At some companies there’s a yearly feedback meeting, at such companies use that meeting for such reasons. Do not start your discussion with this topic, let your boss finish first all other topics, leave it to the end of your meeting.

2. Ask for a feedback and use the words of your boss

First figure out what is the opinion of your boss about your work. Don’t tell as reason that you are working well if his opinion is totally different, it won’t work. It is a good strategy to ask your boss to a feedback about your work. Most likely there will be positive and negative points as well. If there are only negative ones than sorry, you have a low chance for a higher salary. First always reflect on the negative ones, ensure your boss that you are trying to change them. After that you can tell something like this: “As you mentioned you satisfied with my work, because …, I’m glad to hear it, because I like to work here as well, I have only one problem, I’m not feeling comfortable with my current salary”. Your boss can not really give a negative answer for this sentence. The only thing how he can regret your request is to tell that “the company has a hard financial situation”, but that’s all. One more thing: ask for a feedback session even if you don’t wanna request for higher salary, because on long-term it is bad if your boss knows after your first question that it is all about your salary.

3. Mention all the success of your projects
   
   The most important counter for a team manager is the success of the projects in his team, that’s what is making all the benefits for the team. So if your project is running well (meeting the due dates, customer is satisfied etc.) then it is a good point to mention. Don’t mention your projects if they are not running well.
   
4. Mention all the extra efforts you did

Mention everything what you did in the previous period over your project work, like: you supported new colleagues, you wrote a good training material for the team, you developed a tool which is helping the daily work, you were representing the team at some events. These are always good points to mention. If you wanna reach a higher salary it is a good idea to do something like this before asking for a higher salary.

5. Mention all you responsibility you are having
   
   Next to the things what you have really done mention the points you are responsible for: you are taking responsibility over a software component, over functional tests, over a subproject, you are organizing a meeting session, you are responsible for a student at the company: mention it, even if you didn’t need to do anything with that. Do not mention it if something went wrong with the topic in the previous months.

Not to do:

1. Do no compare yourself to others
   
   It is never a good reason that “I’m working harder than XY”. Maybe you are mentioning the favorite team member of your boss and no one likes if someone is speaking against their favourites. Or if your boss is not satisfied with the one, then he will simply think: “it is not so difficult to be better than that guy”. Always concentrate only on yourself.
   
2. Do not mention concurrent companies (or use it only as your last weapon)
   
   I don’t see it as a good idea to tell that at the neighbour company your could have a higher salary, even if it is true. Your boss will think you are not loyal enough and won’t trust you anymore. Mention this point only as your last weapon before resigning.
   
3. Do not use your personal situation as a reason Do not mention things like, “I have a big family, it costs a lot” or “I need to pay back my bank credit”. First of all it is your private thing. On the other hand it makes the feeling that you are weak. You are paid after your performance and not after your private situation.

4. Do not mention your weaknesses It is good if you know what are your weaknesses, but it is not time to mention them. Here you need to show that you are the best employee ever, even if it’s not true.
5. Don't be impatient Most likely your boss won’t give you a direct answer, be always patient, don’t ask it again every day, let him have the time to make the decision!

Do you have any other idea?




All the best:

Relaxed Programmer

Why are companies not making more effort for keeping good developers?

This today article will be a bit different from the earlier ones. In the previous articles I always try to give some suggestions to solve some problems, but now I would like write about something what I never understood why? Of course I have some ideas how can you as a developer handle the situation but I will write about that an article later.

During my working years I understood a lot of mysterious things how they are working, even if I really did not understand them at the beginning, but there is something what I couldn’t understand and that is the following: why are companies letting to have such a big fluctuation in their teams?

There are many reasons for changing company: no more technical challenges, boring projects, bad working environment, bad connection with the team or with your boss, but there is one reason which is coming up almost always when someone is changing company: the salary. Most of the developers are changing their job to reach a higher salary, but of course in most of the cases it is not the official reason, but it is almost always in the background.

Nowadays there’s a high competition on the market of software developers. Most of the developers has already a salary above the average, but most of the developers are still not satisfied with their salary. At most of the companies you can reach around 4-8% increment per year up to country and company. But if you are changing company you can reach much more. When I left my first company I got more than 50% more at second one. I think no one would tell no for this opportunity. In my view that’s one of the biggest reason for developers are changing companies often.

On the other hand I can see that loosing a developer is a big loose for the company even from financial point of view. The developer will need a replacement, who has similar skills and knowledge. That means normally months of recruitment and interviews with multiple candidates. After finding the right candidate it takes weeks/months to do a rump up for the projects. At this phase support of other colleagues will be needed for sure and sometimes external trainings are necessary as well. And after several months they have a developer who has still less knowledge/experience with the project, but already can work on that.

Let’s make an example:

George is Java developer, with 3 years experience of bank security, he is working since two years on the project and has already a good knowledge base. George is asking his boss to increase his salary by 20%. Based on the salary rules of the company his boss can only give him 8% in that year. After this decision Georg is deciding to change to an other company where he will work on a similar project for a higher salary and resigns from his current company.

The company needs a replacement of George, so they start to recruit someone with similar skills and for the same salary as George had. They are paying the amount of 2 months salary for the recruitment company and George boss himself is taking part on 3 interviews to find the right person. After 2 months they are finding John who is a Java developer with 2 years of experience, but he is having much less experience with bank security. He is joining the company for 10% more as George’s previous year salary was. Since John has a notice period at his earlier company he can start only 2 months later. During his first working months he needs to take part on a bank security training, it costs a half month salary. Additionally he need to do a ramp up for the project, it costs him time and the senior developers who are working on the project needs to support him. John is doing well, after one month he can overtake tasks from the project, but of course he has still less experience than George had, so he needs frequent support from the others.

Let’s see the numbers:

To get a replacement for George, who can overtake his tasks took 5 months (2 month of recruiting, 2 month of waiting for his notice period, 1 months ramp up). That’s causing a late delivery of the project.

The costs during these 5 months where the following:

• 2 months salary for the recruitment company
• 0,5 month salary for the bank security training
• 1,1 month salary: John’s salary for the ramp up month (he’s salary is 10% more than George’s last year salary)
• Ca. 0,5 month salary: The time of the boss to take part on the 3 interviews and to deal with the recruiting company, the time of the senior developers on the project to support John’s ramp up, time of the HR department for administration, time of the IT for installing John’s new computer with the working environment

That’s altogether costs: 4,1 month salary and the company is getting no added value from that (no work on the project).

The costs for John for his first project year is (12*1,1+4,1)= 17,3 times George’s last year salary.

If George would get his requested 20% of salary increment there would have been no need for John, for the next one year it would have cost (12*1,2)=14,4 times George’s last year salary.

That means with the decision of not increasing George’s salary by 20% the company paid 2,9 month salary more in that year. Did it really worth to the company? I don’t think so…

And now you could tell that it worth on long-term, but after one year John is requesting for a higher salary and the story is starting from the beginning... And I think it was still a lucky situation where the company found a correct replacement quite fast. And it could be even worse: the new colleague is leaving the company after 2 month, because it’s not meeting with his expectations, our simply he can not take over the tasks.

I know, some parts of the example is simplified, but I think it is representing the situation well. Why are companies doing it? I don’t understand. Do you have any idea?

Next week I’m collecting you some tips how to make sure your boss about increasing your salary!

All the best!

RelaxedProgrammer