

Remember what we said about the fight to focus our attention? Every time we context twitch by leaving the codebase to concentrate on something else, we lose focus. What is the biggest problem with tickets? They mean you have to step out of the IDE, and that's a bad idea. If you haven’t updated your backlog in a while – backlog grooming is here to help. Those of you working freelance for multiple clients will know this pain as well as I do… What can you delete or reassign?įeel like you're drowning? Ok, it's time to reassess your tasks and look at your backlog.įirst things first, is there anything you've committed to that no longer needs work? Like editing a codebase that's already been updated? Cross that shit off your list. As one commenter notes, “One more app is one more thing I have to find, learn, remember to check, and eventually delete because I don't like how it works.” I think the golden key is consistency and efficacy. Whiteboard (have you ever tried to transcribe whiteboard scrawl? It's not fun).Sticky notes (they’re gonna get stuck on the cat or end up the floor under someone’s shoe).Some examples, some of which are better than others: What else do developers use to organise their tasks?ĭevelopers have loads of different work styles and suggestions for how they organize their tasks and workflow.

#Readwrite cate lawrence code#
You could have a lot of tasks that you thought were someone else's problem.įurther, it's hard to check TODOs as the codebase changes over time - code refactoring is painful enough but made much harder with unclear, or obsolete TODOs. This means they make it easy to leave that person to assume responsibility - usually without the ability check if the problem is actually dealt with. If we think of the typical TODO as a small piece of text, how do other people know what the original note is meant to indicate? That's if the person who wrote it can even remember in the first place.Īs Alex notes, tools like GitLens or git-blame (great name hehe) show the owner of a snippet of code or the person who has last modified it. But, as the makers of Taco say: "Most of us don't need another way to create tasks. Ok, they offer an alternative to a typical product or tasks management tool. But do they actually improve codebase communication? Many devs create TODOs to note down unfinished work or things that need fixing in the codebase. But these might not be working for you or your team in their current state. Ok, you're probably familiar with a combination of creating TODOs or tickets. How do we record and track the rest of our tasks? So, let's find ways to get through the TODOs that have been nagging, niggling, and keeping us awake at night.
