90–90

Being new to the world of software development, I’m use to running into terms that are new vocab for my early storage of speaking Developer.

It was recently that I was being my usual impression of a rubber duck with a fellow developer. As usual, the specific bug was something quite simple and maybe just needed fresh eyes. So remember, be kind to yourself, since you may already be there.

From my perspective, the project seemed almost done but I was hit with “ well, this might be the first 90 percent and I probably still have 90 percent to go”. Of course, my mind did the math and was like that’s 180 %, what exactly are you building? XD

This general rule is based on a quote by Tom Cargill

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

— Tom Cargill, Bell Labs

This specific day, I got a quick crash intro about the 90/90 rule. Essentially building the core functionality of any application hits you with this wave and vision of the finish line for your app. But the trick is, that core stuff can be misleading. There is plenty of little things that add up that eventually take up a good chunk of time, thus more work must be done in order to reach completion, thus the remaining 10 percent of a project becomes another 90 percent of development time.

The little items can be anything ranging from the edge cases or refactoring code, which can introduce you to a host of new bugs and application errors. This can make the timeline much longer. Why does this come up?

The general idea is to be aware that the secondary 90 percent is always around the corner. However, don’t be discouraged by it. It’s completely normal and is something you expect to handle as you gain more experience as a developer.

In terms of keeping this rule in mind. It’s important to cushion your timeline for the last 90 percent. It will find you or you will find it. But nothing we can’t handle, just be sure to find it before it finds you.

till next time