When I am working in a real project (paid for) I have a full project roadmap, I set deadlines and I work focused in the project. But when I start some hobby project it's never finished, I'm never satisfied by its quality, why?
So far I have detected the next problems:
- I focus only in the most appealing features to me, and not in getting something working
- I can rarely invest quality time or work more than a few hours in the project
- There's no external pressure
- I use my hobby projects to experiment with new technologies, so sometimes I write the same program with different languages and/or libraries.
What should I be doing?
- I should define a minimum set of features and focus on them before jumping to more fancy and funny stuff
- I should work on my projects only when I can really invest time (vacations, weekends)
- Put deadlines and give me a prize if I make it
- Experiments are great and needed, but I should do them one by one and not try to test multiple things at the same time
What do you think? What are your tips?
See you soon.
I think you've covered it quite well. I also work on a lot of hobby projects (think that is also something to put on the list, to many hobby projects).
ReplyDeleteAn my problem is that i focus more on the code then on the functionality, so i am constantly busy with refactoring parts.
For me a hobby project is also learning new technologies and frameworks which always result in doing a lot of refactoring, but this is to be expected, you base the design on earlier made experiences which may not be appropriate for the chosen technology.
And as a software developer, what is the most appealing for me? the code.. not using the software but just creating the software, so i always have a fealing that it should be perfect.
Hi Ronald,
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you like it.
And I'm in the same ship. I also love the code, but sadly there's people out there that wants to use the software to do something ;)
It's a good approach with a hobby project as well as a real work project to try to *always* have something that works -- never spend more than a day (for a hobby app... maybe more than 8 hours of working time) with a "broken" application.
ReplyDeleteIt might just open an empty window and stop there, it might just return a "hello world" webpage, but get it working ASAP, then focus on adding your features one small bit at a time.
Nice writeup. I think we are many in this camp, probably I finish only 5-10% of the stuff I start.
ReplyDeleteHowever I look at it a bit differently, the 90-95% is not exactly wasted time as 1) I usually improve on some skill or another and 2) It doesn't really seem more wasteful than some of the craft stuff my girlfriend likes and 3) I'm having fun.
Great post thaankyou
ReplyDelete