Who achually sits down and plans?

[LiamProductions]

Hey.

 

Before anyone achually starts off coding who achually sits down with a pen or pencil with a piece of paper and start planning out what there going to code?

 

Some people do some people don't, what do you do?

[hcdarkmage]

I am a little of both.  On my last project I went through and did it in pencil, so I could understand my steps and what I wanted accomplished.

[akitchin]

i'm sure every person on here will tell you that it mostly depends on the size of the project.  for the record, it's spelled "actually" (achually isn't actually a word).  yes, i know i've used actually three times in that sentence, and i actually don't care.  actually.

[jcombs_31]

They only thing I ever write by hand is an ER diagram when I'm planning a database.

[LiamProductions]

i'm sure every person on here will tell you that it mostly depends on the size of the project.  for the record, it's spelled "actually" (achually isn't actually a word).  yes, i know i've used actually three times in that sentence, and i actually don't care.  actually.

 

I actually don't care! actually.

[Liquid Fire]

It all depends on the size of the project.  For instance I am going to build a small website and for that project i am just going to sit down and design as i code.  However i am also working on a project project which i am designing first.  Ofcoarse even on the bigger project i am still coded and designed at the same time when it come to the backend class coding.  I file is it a waste of time to write down all the classes and the members and method when i am just going to have to type them out again.  I am however drawing out the design on the application to see what i like best and then will start coding the XHTML/CSS when the layout design is done.

[fert]

i never plan, no matter how big of a project it is.

[bilis_money]

Yeah, it depends the size of the project.

when it is small or medium size i do my planning while i'm coding. how?

 

I do this way.

 

I write the pseudo code flow along the code.

pseudo code flow first then later the codes.

 

but when it is big then that's the time you need the pencil and paper.

 

 

[neylitalo]

My "team leader" (that translates to "boss") would say, and I would agree, that there is a specific process that you go through whenever you take on a task of any proportion.

 

• Design and plan
  
• Implement
  
• Test
  
• Start again if necessary
  
• Deploy

 

Now, for smaller projects, it may not require a pen and paper, ERDs (Entity Relationship Diagrams), or interface mockups. Step 1 could be as simple as envisioning something and figuring out what you want, and testing could be as simple as asking a friend for their opinion. In the largest of projects, step 1 may be handled by entire committees of people, or even contracted out to a firm or consultant, and may require months of work and a budget of its own.

 

Personally, I like to have something written down or planned out before I go to work. I find that design flaws are more easily found and fixed when you plan something out, instead of just diving right in, and it helps absent-minded individuals such as myself to keep on track with the original idea.

[Stopofeger]

I personally use the most effective pen and paper one could have; My mind. I always think about the program at night when I'm trying (!) to sleep. I also use the class designer feature of visual studio sometimes. but never with a paper. I have a bad handwriting.

[Aureole]

I don't sit down and plan anything with PHP 'cause I'm new to it at the moment I just take people's open-source scripts or tutorials then play around with them and change things around see what I can achieve.

 

But when I designed the layout of my Website and what not I planned it out yeah.

[zq29]

As a professional, I tend to have some form of planning done for me, in the form of a specification - So I know what I'm actually going to be building, feature-set wise. I know what it is supposed to look like too as our design team have mocked everything up in Photoshop, I just have to slice it up and code the CSS/XHTML.

 

Before I start building databases, unless it's going to be very simple, I almost always plan it out on paper to figure out the tables I'll need, the fields within those tables, the relationships between the tables and, of course, to normalise the whole thing. It's a pain in the arse going back and messing with the database structure when you've figured out that you have forgotten something whist you are writing code...

 

Planning is great for not forgetting things and finding that you have to go back and work on bits you have forgotten, it's a lot easier and efficient to write it all at the same time I find.

 

I also plan my coding day, I'll throw up a list of features/modules that I want to have finished coding that day, and generally won't finish until I have cleared the list.

 

So, I guess, I'm a planner...