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Our industry is addicted to speed; and it's killing us. As we leap out of the starting gate on a new project, if we focus on speed over quality, we sew the cause of our eventual defeat. As an industry, as a profession, we need to seriously re-think the way we do software. In software, speed kills.
The way to go fast, is to go well. Going well means taking time to keep the code clean, to write tests, to refactor, to take care of the code. Going well means taking a deliberate and caring attitude for the code, and the system. Going well means working as a team, communicating frequently, reviewing and inspecting code and designs. Going well means never checking in code that fails unit tests or acceptance tests. Going well means integrating frequently, at least once per day. Going well means staying rested.
There is always time to write tests. There is always time to refactor and keep the code clean. There is always time to review and inspect and pair. There is always time to integrate frequently. Indeed, there is no time not to do these things, because these are the things that keep us going fast. These are the things that keep the weight back over the wheels rather than over the shoe. These are the things that keep our productivity high, and our code flexible and malleable.
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