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Archive for October, 2007

Ninety Ninety Rule of Programming

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.

In short that’s the tongue in cheek ninety ninety rule of programming. Its doesn’t take a genius to realise the rule accounts for 180% of the project and this could be in many ways apportioned to the failure on our part to fully appreciate the harder parts of the project.

What I also take away from the ninety ninety rule is that preparation and research are integral early components of successful technical design – whether its a web site, an application or a mobile gaming midlet. It becomes very difficult to foresee what you never attempted to understand. In web design this is particularly noticable at the lower end of the market where there’s no budget allowed for generating technical specification and design reports. Its also a noticable flaw as a part of the newbie process of reading the design brief and then instantly opening Photoshop or a code editor and jumping right in. While lack of process works for a few I’d suggest it doesn’t for the many.

Rule of all rules – it is often more expensive to fix a problem if you discover it in the later stages of a project.

Its important to be aware of the ninety ninety rule so we make every effort to keep our project on track, in time and in budget.

The ninety ninety rule displayed as a line continuum diagram

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About the Author

Steven Clark Steven Clark - the stand up guy on this site

My name is Steven Clark (aka nortypig) and my passions are business, web development, photography and writing. My current CV [PDF 619KB] is available for download. I have an MBA (Journalism and Media Studies) and a Bachelor of Computing from the University of Tasmania.

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My photography is at Steven Clark Studio and my regular photo blog presents an ongoing stream of latest images at Walk a Mile in my Shoes and I'm working on a long-term photography project called the King Island Project.

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Currently Reading

Ansel Adams: The Camera

As the first of three parts of Ansel Adams Photography Series, Ansel Adams: The Camera begins by discussing the idea of visualisation in relation to photography. Ansel Adams is a master of his craft; this series has sat on my backburner for some time. Book 2 in this series is The Negative and it's followed up by The Print. In them Ansel outlines his philosophy of photography rather than trying to lay down a set of rules. This first instalment is a technical book that explains the good old fashion film camera.