Consequences of doing “good enough” software

Question

Does doing \"good enough\" software take anything from you being a programmer?

Here are my thoughts on this:

Well Joel Spolsky from JoelOnSoftware says that

Answer 1

IMO there is a big difference between "good enough" and crappy code. For me "good enough" is all about satisfying the requirements (both functional and non functional). I think it is dangerous for people to assume that "good enough" means taking short cuts or not optimzing code. If the non functional requirements call for optimized code then that is part of my definition of "good enough".

Answer 2

As a programmer I want to write excellent software that's defect-free. I'm not particularly interested in gold-plating, the act of adding unnecessary features that "improve" the software, though we all do it to a certain extent. In that sense, I'm satisfied with "good enough" software, if by good enough you mean that I've done what the customer asked and, at the same time, crafted it well and ensured that it is high quality.

What bothers me is when I take short-cuts and write crappy, untested code. I hate writing code that is buggy or where I've failed to refactor it into a better design as I've gone along. when I let a lot of technical debt creep in -- getting too busy writing new features instead of consistently improving old features as I'm adding new ones -- then I know that eventually I'll have something that, while the customer may be happy with it, I won't be.

Fortunately, in my workplace, management knows the value of keeping the code clean and I know the value of not obsessing over the elusive goal of perfection. No code is ever perfect, but "good enough" has to mean that the code is well-crafted. I've learned, and am still learning, to be happy with code that meets the customer's requirements and that the best feature is the one that doesn't need to be implemented. Fortunately, I have enough work to do that dropping features because they're not needed is a good thing.

Answer 3

The key to your question is how one defines "good". To a business person, "good" software is software that solves the business need. In that case it is more about insuring that the specifications were well understood and properly implimented. The business person may very well not care if the program is not as fast or memory efficient as it could be.

Think about the commercial software you use, is it perfect? I really don't know anyone, including my friends at Microsoft, who would argue that the code in Windows is "perfect" or anything close to it. But it is undenyable that Windows is (and always has been) "good enough" to get millions of people to use it on a daily basis.

This issue goes back long before programming. I'm sure you have heard "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" or the original in French "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." It may have been Voltaire that wrote about the "good being the enemy of the great".

ANd consider what would happen if hiring managers decided to stop hiring "good" programmers and insisted that every applicant had a perfect 4.0 average in college, I for one would never have gotten a job as a programmer ;-)

So for me it is a case of do the best you can given the time and budget constraints. With more time and or more money I could always do better.

Answer 4

"Good enough" is in the eye of the beholder. Far too often, "good enough" is the refuge of incompetent people who write something which creates the impression of satisfying the requirements of a job. My "good enough" is unlikely to be the same as their "good enough".

Ultimately, everything we do must involve trade-offs. Some people will make the wrong trade-offs and deliver crappy software and some people will make the wrong trade-offs and fail to deliver. Rare are the ones who can make the right trade-offs and deliver software that really is good enough.

Answer 5

I actually consider good-enough programmers to be better than the blue-sky-make-sure-everything-is-perfect variety.

That's because, although I'm a coder, I'm also a businessman and realize that programs are not for the satisfaction of programmers, they're to meet a specific business need.

I actually had an argument in another question regarding the best way to detect a won tic-tac-toe/noughts-and-crosses game (an interview question).

The best solution that I'd received was from a candidate that simply checked all 8 possibilities with if statements. There were some that gave a generalized solution which, while workable, were totally unnecessary since the specs were quite clear it was for a 3x3 board only.

Many people thought I was being too restrictive and the "winning" solution was rubbish but my opinion is that it's not the job of a programmer to write perfect beautifully-extendable software. It's their job to meet a business need.

If that business need allows them the freedom to do more than necessary, that's fine, but most software and fixes are delivered under time and cost constraints. Programmers (or any profession) don't work in a vacuum.

Answer 6

In my experience, "good enough" always includes hacks, sloppiness, bad commenting, and spaghetti hell, thus leads to lack of scalability, bugs, lagginess, and prevents others from being able to build effectively on your work.

Pax, while I recognize your points about business needs and pragmatism, doing things "by the book" is for the business side. "Good enough for now" and "just get something working right quick" always leads to far more work-hours later on fixing everything, or downright redoing it when it comes to that, than would be spent doing it right the first time. "The book" was written for a reason.