People Driven Development

At every stage of the software development process, I like to put people first.

I’m deliberately using the generic word people instead of the more common users. In many cases the decision will indeed affect end-users, because designing a good user experience (UX) is fundamental to the production of quality software; however my point is to try to consider all the people who may be affected by a given decision.

For example, a choice you make might affect fellow developers in your team, testers, the person that will eventually write the manual for your software, co-founders who’ll have to present the project to prospective investors, or even the sales person that demos and sells the product.

Putting people first each step of the way, or taking a People Driven Development approach if you will, is in my experience a great way to ensure the quality of your product.

As developers it’s easy to be so bogged down in implementation details that the focus on what really matter is lost. What matters is people.