Development Environment standards

[DavidAM]

Its unheard of, and its standard practice for a dev to mirror the live.

I cannot test effciency of my code against data that isnt representative of the real thing.

how can i learn the structure of the database if some of the tables are missing from the dev environment.

i cannot analyse errors that occur on the live that are related to specific sql selects if i dont have that data myself to look at.

 

When you get ready to present this to somebody, leave the "I's" out of it. Sit back and read that list, it sure sounds ego-centric -- not saying you are, I don't believe you are, just saying that the "boss" will likely hear it that way and it takes you out of the team. Make sure the points all provide benefit to the company and/or the boss.

 

Make it a (personal) policy to improve every file you touch, in some way. Not be re-writing it, unless that's what needs to happen. When you figure out what a function or code block is doing, add a documentation block explaining it; at the very least, you won't spend another hour figuring it our three days later when you have to look at that file again. It will also keep you from having that "I didn't accomplish a damn thing today" feeling every day when you leave.

 

It sounds like you're saying every developer has their own database? It's been a while since I was in a team environment, but that just seems odd to me. Having one dev db automatically provides some "testing" against "bad data", since devs are always creating bogus records to test stuff. If there are separate databases, I'd see if someone else has a more recent schema. If not, I'd make friends pretty quickly with someone who could at least dump the create statements from production for me.