Official Checklist for Developers

OCD

The Official Checklist for Developers or OCD for short, inspired by The Checklist Manifesto.

In the Checklist Manifesto it talks about how using simple checklists has revolutionized the medical industry. By forcing doctors and nurses to follow checklists when performing standard procedures mind bending amounts of mistakes have been prevented and lives have been saved.

I have implemented a checklist that I follow while developing logic for any application that I am working on. I call it the Official Checklist for Developers, currently it is in alpha and will be added to over time.

The checklist looks like this:

  1. Create new Git branch for the feature
  2. Write failing test for feature then commit code
  3. Write function/method to pass the test then commit code
  4. Add documentation to the function/method then commit code
  5. If needed refactor and update documentation then commit code
  6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 until feature is complete
  7. Pull the development branch and ensure nothing is broken
  8. Merge feature into development branch

Following these steps will create beautiful code in your project over time.