Dynamics of Software Development, Second Edition

You Gotta Be Able to Mark Your Progress

The following section, more than any other in this book, describes the nitty-gritty details of the development process I have variously followed, created, stolen, adopted, or begged for. Many brilliant minds and numerous huge mistakes have been invested in getting it this far. The core is Rule #33, above, “Get to a known state and stay there.” The consistent application of frequent milestones and all of the attendant learning and progress stem from that basic idea.

You want to get somewhere with your software, you want to make progress, so you need to set markers up along the chronological way and try to reach them. We call these markers “milestones.”

A milestone without a mechanism to track progress is ...