The software development community experiences fad after fad. Consultants and thought leaders dream up new methodologies; old practices are relabelled and promoted as the next big thing; flame wars are fought over names, tabs and brace position.
One of the few practices that has stood the test of time is that of “eating your own dog food”, which essentially means that you’ll be the first user of any software that you’re developing. In more polite (and optimistic) circles this is also known as “drinking your own champagne”. When it comes to development practices, I think we need to adopt the same approach.
If you’re going to make dogmatic statements about how software should be developed, then you as a developer should be prepared to stick to them yourself. No more “do as I say, not as I do”. It’s time to eat your own dogma food.
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