I am going to go out on a limb and say that most developers, not all mind you, have a tendency to jump directly into coding when ever they are handed a new project. These are the go-getters. They’re energetic. Ready to get the project rolling and get something out the door. This is a good trait to have but like everything else only in moderation.

With as tough as software development can be, you would think that a lot of developers would have learned their lessons and decided not to jump directly into code. You would think they would sit down and say, “Let’s think about the best way to solve this problem”. I will be the first to admit that I have, many times, jumped head first into coding a project without thinking about what is going to be involved. This style can be a good thing. Look at agile software development, agile breaks a project down into smaller portions and these smaller portions are worked on with minimal planning. A lot of companies have been successful using the agile approach, and I am sure there are an equal amount of companies who haven’t had much success with agile.

When a new project is given to a developer, or a team of developers, one of the first things that should happen is a brain storming session. This meeting is just for the development team. No managers. No business owners. No one except the ones slinging code. This meeting is just to flesh out the entire application from beginning to end. This gives the developer(s) a chance to see the application from a 50,000ft. vantage point. This vantage point allows them to identify areas that may need some special attention. They may find that they need a specific technology, but no one on the teams knows this technology, so they will need to get training.

These meetings do not need to last 8-12 hours. They certainly do not need to go into minute detail. What they need to do is give a thorough overview of what the application entails. It places everyone at the same starting place and gives everyone the same goal to reach. So do not look at planning as a boring, long drawn out process, but as a way to see the overall picture. Try it. It ain’t that bad.