At the Agile Goa conference, I ran a small workshop to help participants understand the core techniques one should master to effectively practice evolutionary design while solving real-world problems.

Key take aways:

1. Eliminate Noise – Distill down the crux of the problem
2. Divide and Conquer – Focus on one scenario at a time and incrementally build your solution
3. Add constraints to future simplify the problem
4. Simple Design – Find the simplest possible solution to solve the current scenario at hand
5. Refactor: Pause, look for a much simpler alternative
6. Be ready to throw away your solution and start again

A lot of people think, if they can write some code, they qualify as a software developer.

IMHO don’t call yourself a developer if you don’t take ownership and responsibility for solving the overall, real business/user problem.

A good developer

• understands the overall problem and its context.
• has good problem solving skills (we are in the business of creative problem solving)
• has empathy for the users and is a user and business advocate.
• takes ownership by being a part-of the team and having a sense of belonging.
• makes investment into continuous learning & improvement

[Agile and Software Craftsmanship movements has made great strives in this direction. However some Agile folks don’t get it. We can’t draw a line and say this side is business and that side is development. Its ONE team working towards a common goal. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of teams who end up creating artificial boundaries between people wanting the software and people building it.]

Anyway, having the ability to just writing some code does not qualify you to be a developer.

Almost a year ago, I wrote something more insightful: Programming in the 21st Century