While I'm technically proficient, over time I've gradually gotten to ship less - less feature work per given month.
This has correlated with how I favor quality over everything else.
But in recent times I've come to realise that shipping is everything - whether at a startup or a big corp, 9/10 times all what is really valued is feature delivery. Everthing else seems just fluff in comparison, and is rarely thanked for - if anything it only brings drama.
I'm also disenchanted with how things work at our industry, so by now I'd just do whatever is appreciated the most, investing the least effort that is responsibly viable, and then using my spare time doing the things I love.
So my question is: how to become the type of programmer that is recognised for her focus on delivery?
It's hard for me because it would seem that getting there would mean cutting a lot of corners. Most times 'shippers' in a given team don't include the best test coverage, for instance.
I also have the impression that there isn't that much popular knowledge (or literature) about getting to this mentality/habits. Most tech discussion revolves at stuff that while interesting, might go in the exact opposite direction of what I'm seeking.
I write software for my own companies. And there was a time where I wanted to "level up" my software skills.
I invested time into architecture, TDD, hexagonal, DDD... in the name of "quality".
After some times I came to two insights:
1. Domain decoupling is immensely valuable. That was worth the investment.
2. "Quality" is defined differently by the developers vs by the customer. Customer quality (and therefore shipping improvements to them) is everything.
I do understand that larger projects require more robust structure and processes. But it's still possible to over do it.
> investing the least effort that is responsibly viable
may be worth taking some extended time to think about things.
are you in the right job? company? field? career?
how do you feel about your discipline? do you multitask accidentally?
if you don’t want to have to decide to cut corners, you want someone deciding for you. that may be a different role hierarchy than you are in.
there are places that just want employees to crank tickets. it isn’t a viable tactic everywhere.