Why Stagnation Happens in Software Engineering

👻 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐨𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞? Imagine this: You build a software system under tight deadlines, and it works 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲. Your company saves money , and the project is hailed as a 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐧. Months later, the new team tasked with maintaining your system struggles to make even minor updates. 𝐁𝐮𝐠𝐬 pile up, 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 slip, and what once felt like a win now looks like a 𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧? Because software isn’t just code. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞. 🧠 Great software design isn’t just about delivering clean, functional code, it’s about 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦: 🎯 Why specific choices were made. 🗺️ How the system maps to real-world needs. 🤔 What changes it can handle and why. 🚧When this understanding is lost, teams face what Peter Naur calls the "death" of a program: the code runs, but no one knows how to adapt it intelligently. Fixes become guesses, and progress stalls. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲? Every 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, and 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 should build 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞. 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 should make it easier for future teams to understand the system, not just how it works, but why it exists in its current form. So next time you’re coding or designing, ask yourself: 💡 “𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦?” #SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareDesign #Knowledge #Teamwork #LegacyCode

You’ll never grow to the next level from SWE-I if you keep making these same mistakes and trap yourself in the same loop. In the last 12 years, I’ve mentored more than 200+, and I have also been a mentee myself. If you’re looking for a long career as a software engineer, then stop doing these ASAP. Keep ignoring feedback from code reviews → Only for it to come back and block you in every new project. Keep ignoring the “why” behind your code → Only for it to come back when you can’t explain your choices to a senior or manager. Keep ignoring basic debugging skills → Only for it to come back when production breaks at 2 AM and you’re the only one online. Keep ignoring your communication gaps → Only for it to come back when you’re up for promotion and suddenly, you can’t justify your work. Keep ignoring documentation → Only for it to come back when you’re stuck revisiting your own code after 6 months. Keep ignoring system design and architecture basics → Only for it to come back when you’re stuck on a project that needs scale, not hacks. Keep ignoring test coverage and automation → Only for it to come back as sleepless nights spent fixing bugs after every release. Keep ignoring your health, sleep, and fitness → Only for it to come back as burnout and missed deadlines when it matters most. Keep ignoring the need to ask questions early → Only for it to come back as wasted weeks because you “didn’t want to look dumb.” Keep ignoring new tools and tech trends → Only for it to come back as skill stagnation when everyone else moves ahead. If you want to grow, start fixing these today. The earlier you break these patterns, the faster you move from junior to the next level and above. 

I’ve met many tech executives frustrated that their software teams were failing to deliver. In each case they’ve been advised by their software engineers that the answer was to rewrite all their software with some awesome new approach, technology, language, library, platform or architecture. It’s not true. If you throw away your product and start again, you’re setting your business back months, maybe years, all whilst losing revenue and market leadership. And there’s no reason to believe that your team is going to do a better job this time around. It wasn’t the language, library, platform or architecture that was wrong – after all they managed to deliver something and you have customers getting value from the software – it was the people, processes or procedures that resulted in poor quality, late software. That will only be fixed by developing the team's skillset. Find someone who can lead, mentor or coach your team and have them work with the team to incrementally improve your software. They can identify those areas that need most immediate attention and prioritise the changes, processes and procedures you need to turn around the development and keep your business moving! Finally, be prepared to replace members of the team who are not able or willing to learn and adapt to deliver quality software. If your software engineering team is not delivering, a rewrite is not going the change that.

Many of us have heard of Hanlon's razor: "never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence". But I wonder if we need to take it a step further: never attribute to incompetence that which can be adequately explained by systems failure. When a system itself is broken, even the most honest, hard-working, intelligent - and yes, competent - people will still struggle to produce good outcomes. When we see these breakages, it's tempting to throw everything out and start again. But then we have to remember Chesterton's fence: if you find a fence in the middle of nowhere and want to remove it, first make sure you understand why it was built! Don't dismantle structures unless you're certain you don't need what they were protecting. This pattern repeats across many complex systems: political, organizational, and technological. A system survives for years. With each new requirement, it develops another workaround or exception. Over time, these accumulate. What was once clean and simple becomes sclerotic and unmanageable. At this point, you have three choices. ⁍ You can live with the system as-is, and risk failure; ⁍ You can throw everything away, or ⁍ You can evolve the system so that it is sustainable. If you accept the system as-is, you risk collapse. This happens to many businesses that, burdened with complicated processes and outmoded practices, just die. If you discard everything, you can lose the ability to meet organizational needs. This might be acceptable if those specific outcomes are no longer required, but you had better be pretty sure of that. You don't want to stop aid to refugees in Sudan or stop sending out Social Security checks. Software engineers who prioritize sustainability and maintainability choose the third path. Many of us liken it to 'changing the engine on a plane while it's in flight.' It's challenging and complex, requiring deep understanding of both the existing systems and their real shortcomings - not just their surface symptoms. Having lived through my share of experiences on the third path, I'm not surprised when people try to take one of the other paths instead. But I've found that the messy, difficult work of evolving systems while they're still running is often the most valuable contribution we can make. The real art is knowing when to preserve what works, what to discard, and how to transform the rest. It requires both humility to understand the system's history and the vision to articulate and bring about its future. What's your experience? Have you faced the challenge of evolving a complex system, or have you taken one of the other paths? I'd love to hear your stories.

Software Decay and Tech Debt: The Silent Killers Software isn’t static. It’s a living, breathing system that evolves over time. But without care, it slowly decays. Even great codebases degrade if left unmanaged. Software decay happens when: - Business needs shift - Quick fixes pile up - Technology moves forward - Original developers move on Tech debt is different. It’s the conscious decision to take shortcuts for speed today, knowing you’ll pay for it tomorrow. Sometimes, tech debt is strategic. But unmanaged tech debt becomes a ticking time bomb. Left unchecked, decay and debt cause: - Slower development - More bugs - Developer frustration - Systems that are too fragile to change Healthy teams don’t ignore this. They invest in code quality continuously, not just when it’s convenient. They refactor early, document clearly, and think long-term. Ignoring decay is like never changing your car’s oil because "it still drives." It works, until it doesn’t. When the crash comes, it's far more expensive than the regular maintenance would have been. Software that lasts is software that's cared for. Build with the future in mind. #softwareengineering #cleancode #tech