Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules

Code-and-Fix

The code-and-fix model is a model that is seldom useful, but it is nonetheless common, so I'd like to discuss it. If you haven't explicitly chosen another lifecycle model, you're probably using code-and-fix by default. If you haven't done much project planning, you're undoubtedly using code-and-fix. Combined with a short schedule, code-and-fix gives rise to the code-like-hell approach described earlier.

CROSS-REFERENCE

Code-and-fix is commonly combined with commitment-based development approaches. For details, see An Alternative Rapid-Development Strategy, An Alternative Rapid-Development Strategy.

When you use the code-and-fix model, you start with a general idea of what you want to build. You might have a formal specification, or you ...