The novice developer often does not think about what the program is for and how it will be used in the future. For many, the focus is on meeting code quality standards rather than on how the code will be used in real life.

If the programmer is not skilled enough or doesn’t have time to delve into the business processes, a situation may arise when in the testing mode the program works correctly, but when moving to the productive version, it shows a lot of errors and defects. Let’s find out what a novice programmer should take into account to make the development useful for the end user.

Step 1: Trust but verify
Beginner developers often implement “good” algorithms which work fine with “correct” data. They don’t pay attention to the program’s behavior when the “wrong” data comes in as input. And this is, as a rule, the first thing that happens as soon as the program begins to work in a productive environment.

Of course, it is difficult for a programmer to take into account absolutely all possible situations, but it is necessary to work in this direction. The algorithm must have checks in every block of code and generate messages to the user indicating warnings or data errors.

Step 2: Put yourself in the user’s shoes
Another difficulty can be related to the users of the program. Any user, even with clear program instructions, can always press a combination of buttons or enter data that will break a “good” algorithm if it has no security.

Large projects often have testers or automated testing software for this purpose. The question arises what to do if this is not available.

The developer imagine himself in the shoes of a user is actually not as difficult as it may seem. Users are human too and are capable of making mistakes. You have to be lazy and click on all the navigation tools in a row, and enter incorrect data in all the possible fields.

Step 3: Comment on the logic of the code as you write it
It’s hard to train yourself to write program code and immediately explain its logic in comments. Explanation is necessary here: you don’t need to decipher every line and obvious things like initializing variable values, but the purpose of small blocks of code can easily be described in a single line of text.

In most cases, one explanation for every 10 to 20 lines of code will be sufficient, which will greatly simplify subsequent maintenance and modification of the application.

Step 4: Don’t put anything off
Developers can create implicit problems for themselves when working on a multi-day task when they deliberately leave out non-core blocks in the code. For example, advanced data checks before processing data, or logging where it is not necessary. This can later make it difficult to deal with errors that occur in the program.

These things do not seem too significant in comparison to other tasks. You feel like you can skip them and come back to them later. The hardest part is realizing that it may not come later. After testing and fixing defects, there is often simply no time left for rework. You don’t want to skip or put off anything in the implementation of the algorithm, especially if it takes more than a day to work on it.

Step 5: Stay calm and composed
Often we find ourselves in situations where we are short of time: everyone is in a hurry. Haste in development leads to the fact that the program in the output is able to run and perform some actions, but has serious gaps in the structure.

At best the code may contain a heap of “trash” left over from attempts to solve algorithmic problems. And at worst, the program may simply not be sufficiently debugged and tested to cope with the full range of business processes assigned to it.

This will surely lead to the need to frequently modify the program because of the incidents that constantly arise in a productive environment. It is necessary to soberly assess your capabilities and calmly implement without panic and fear of not having enough time to do something.