Show me how you play with LEGO, I will tell you how to code!

I must confess that I am a crazy fan of LEGO bricks and love to play with these building blocks. While discussing about development with my team, I often compare software development with creation of LEGO structures. If you seriously think about it, you would realize that I’m not exaggerating.

Today, the risk with software development is that though you know when you will start, you don’t know when (exactly) you will finish, even if your path is robust enough in the long term, in addition to other things.

Otherwise, developing software (just like building with LEGO blocks) is not a complex job; you only need to keep the following points in mind:

Be Agile: Your house will evolve constantly, so you need to be ready for changes at all times. You cannot control it, but you can adapt yourself to the changes, quickly and efficiently.

 

Produce innovation: You are the master of your building, so you need to see the bigger picture and think outside the standard boundaries.

 

 

Don’t forget the requirements: If you want to create a POC, you can proceed randomly, but if you want to play with a team you need to focus on the requirements and the organization.

 

 

Don’t ignore the look & feel: Always be pragmatic, but don’t forget that how you present something always matters. Your code should be nice to read and comprehensible to your colleagues. The cliché: “…but it works…” is not enough.

 

 

Be compatible & flexible: You should be able to change anything at any time with minimum effort possible. Respect the standard and keep in mind that you can bypass the rules, only when you really control them.

 

 

Be passionate: Engineering and science are the roots, but without passion you will only manage to create something that will not have a strong and deep impact. In fact, in every recipe of success… “Love” is the secret ingredient.

 

 

…but more than anything…

Have fun: As Developers, we have the ability to build things by simply writing lines of codes. This is a huge power that comes with tremendous fun. No amount of money is enough to pay for the joy of compiling a bunch of code lines, executing them and…finding out: “Wow…it works!”

 

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