Lessons from the Pragmatic Programmer

Introduction

This post will be short and sweet. I personally enjoyed The Pragmatic Programmer and would recomend to any software developer looking to improve how they work.  

Lessons

1. I don't know the answer but I will find out
2. Project psychology - Don't let broken windows go unrepaired - It will reinforce the patterns throughout the team and start the decline
3. Remember the big picture
4. Make quality a requirements issue
5. Invest regularly in knowledge portfolio. Technical books, Non tech / soft skills, communicating with people. Stay current, read blogs, learn 1 new programming language per year.
6. Use the reoccuring why's to drill down into problems
7. Communicate via documentation, Embrace docs, Know what you want to say, Choose your moment, Make it look good, Involve audience, Get back to people, Keep code and docs together.
8. Emails are forever give them attention and care.
9. Check the pragmatic programmer site for extra resources.
10. Etc means easier to change. Use Etc principle to guide decisions.
11. Document decisions I choose to make this decision because x and y.
12. Make it easier to reuse.
13. We want orthogonal systems, eliminate effects between unrelated things.
14. Assess orthogonality during bugs and determine how localized the issue is.
15. Prototype to learn.
16. Decoupling is good Single responsibility principle.