Some teams post fortnightly updates on what they have done on our internal social media platform Microsoft’s Yammer (Now named Viva Engage). No matter what they post, managers seem to respond with positive comments.
So here is an example. On team stated they had completed:
3 user stories. 1 dev investigation. Improved code coverage.
Then attached was there code analysis report which stated:
- 0 Bugs
- 0 Code smells
- 100% coverage on 1 new lines to cover
- 0% duplications on 8 new lines
I never know how to make sense of these stats. The duplications mention 8 new lines, but yet the code coverage mentions 1 new line. It can’t mean it is still to cover when it states they have 100% coverage.
Their video demo stated it was “Sprint 8” which means it’s after 16 weeks of work. They logged into their application and there are 2 buttons (not functional).
My Work
I’ve been working on a game in Unity and have also reached the 16 week mark. I have only been working on it sporadically. Early on, I might have worked a few hours and many days per week, sometimes working several hours at a weekend. Other weeks, I have just worked on it for 3 hours or so in one afternoon only.
I have written loads of code for the AI state machine. Your units can automatically move in a formation, break away in certain conditions. Then the defending group of units have their own behaviours, and work together in their own way. Some behaviour is configurable so I have the logic and UI for the player to change it. There’s controls for the cameras, game speed, pausing, save and reloading. A few options for volume and a few graphical effects. There’s some miscellaneous aesthetics such as animations, particle effects.
I am a single developer working fewer hours, and I have to play-test it myself. Compared to a team with a few developers, a few testers and different managers assigned – all working a 9-5 day, 5 days a week; and all they have is a menu and a title banner.
Hackathon Progress
Another comparison is to compare the progress of developers during a “hackathon”, or “game jam”. Developers can often put together a prototype, or a fairly fun game within a few days…
Developers during hackathon: We built an entire application in just 3 days. Developers after hackathon: Adding that icon is going to take 3 weeks.
Mark Dalgleish
Conclusion
Recently, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I think if you start with no code, then any code you write has a much bigger impact. You also don’t have to work out how it works alongside other code.
So the more code there is already, then the longer it takes to write. So if the Hackathons are productive, then you can write something fast. Same situation with my Unity game, and since I am working on it myself, then I have no one slowing me down.
The other reason why working on my own is great is that I can set the process. Due to the 90/10 rule, I think it is best just to get it 90% done, then move on. If you change your mind of how something works, it isn’t as big of a time waste. If it turns out to be good, then you improve it later, alongside other features when you are changing code in that area.
So going back to this original team who did 16 weeks work and got nowhere – even though it’s a new software product, and should be able to code fast – I think they are slowed down by their insistence that everything has to be perfect and has all the extras like Unit Tests. So they could get a feature 90% complete quickly, but then they are told to spend several days perfecting it for that last 10% of quality. Then they are messing around with non-functional stuff like the Deployment Pipelines and miscellaneous processes. When you are months away from releasing, I don’t see the point in dedicating so much time to how you are going to deploy it, so I have been 100% focussed on features and gameplay.
I think this could illustrate how process can severely slow you down, and striving for perfection can also lead to inefficiencies. I think my idea of “90% quality is good enough” could be a winning approach, then you can always perfect the features if you are ahead of schedule. If I keep working on my game, I will worry about how to release it when it is close to a releasable state (ie how to get your game listed on Steam).
Stranger Coding Tings 