A simple trick to improve coding speed by 30%

Consider a component that needs to be developed. Below are the basic steps we need to follow before proceeding forward:

1. Understanding of the functionality
2. Error handling
3. Logical loopholes/missed use cases

It's always tough to come up with all the scenarios/use cases prior to development. Few of the scenarios pop-up while developing which might need a change in design as well. Being faced this issue for multiple years I finally able to found out the right trick.

I always develop twice.

Phase 1:

I started writing documentation for the functionality I am going to develop. This is a Low-level design of my code. I started dividing this into multiple subparts. 1st I will divide this into main components which I need to develop. Now I will start working on smaller parts for these components. So we are really thinking in terms of code during this phase.

Now once I complete the documentation, I will re-read it. If anything falls out of sync my code will take the same route. So I will re-write until it feels smooth. For code that takes around a couple of weeks, I am able to write documentation in 2–3 hours.

Phase 2:

This is actually the simplest part. I will just follow the document. Even if I need to assign any piece of code to others, I can just explain the basic functionality and ask them to follow the document as well.

End result: I am able to complete my code much faster. Started getting clarifications before coding which lead to better quality. Documentation is a positive bi-product that helped me with gaining more marks with higher management.

Different processes are practiced based on success. It's just that we don't know how to utilize such a process and we are also being misguided just for the sake of the process. The design document is something that is kept in place for better development. Learn, Improve, Repeat.