Consequences of Badly Planned (or unplanned) Software and Not Writing Clean Code

We all made small personal projects without making any kind of planning or documentation.

But when we get involved in big-scale projects, we need to have a solid plan. This article written by Lyal Avery in 2018, demonstrates the result of an investigation to understand the importance of good planning and documenting every detail of projects, using models and design documentation, using a good architectural structure before starting a new software project.

There are very heavy consequences of unplanned software and the importance of having good, clean coding practices and solid documentation before starting a software project is crucial.

When I spoke to them [software engineers] about the need for documentation and good planning, they didn’t want to understand me or they just didn’t care.

According to research, 20% of software projects fail due to bad code.

Our work is mainly divided into two parts:

1. Programming.
2. Designing.

Many give a lot of importance to programming but few give importance to good planning and making a solid design with solid structures that perhaps lasts months to do without writing any code.

Doing projects with bad design results in having badly done projects, or perhaps being thrown away without even finishing.

Believe me, I have met software engineers who have more experience than me, who had plans for software that in their dreams is worth thousands of dollars and explaining their wonderful ideas on a single sheet of note paper… And when I spoke to them about the need for documentation and good planning, they didn’t want to understand me or they just didn’t care, all they wanted was code and code.

Everything ended without finishing their wonderful ideas because they had never devised a perfectly documented software plan.

If you’re doing serious work, you have to start seriously.

For this reason, it is very important to do good preparation. Badly written and unplanned code can save you an hour of time but maybe it can cause you 20 hours of searching and fixing later when the bugs come out. Have you ever had any good or bad experiences with SDLC? It would be a good idea to share your experience and thoughts. Maybe you can help others with your comments.

– Goktug Erol