Working Solo On Small Projects: Cowboy Coding The Way To Go?

Question

I am a big advocate of agile methods when working on teams and/or large projects.

However, I find that for smaller projects, when working solo, I usually start the project writing unit tests, documenting extensively, refactoring. As time wears on, I stop because I feel like I'm wasting time. I find that cowboy coding with an agile spin (testing often, writing human readable code) often works extremely well for me on small, solo projects that I don't expect others to have to work with.

Do other people share my sentiment? Or do you think that one should never stick to their guns (get it? cowboys)?

So the real question: Are there any agile methodologies that are particularly tailored to a solo project? (other than my "agile cowboy" method above)

Answer 1

Cowboy coding and agile process are not the same.

As for small personal projects, of course there are many things that would be overkill. Agile development, short iterations, frequent code review and self-documenting code is the way to go.

Answer 2

Agile is a philosophy, not a prescription. You use the pieces that fit your development style, your project, and your business needs.

I think your "test often, write human-readable code" proposal is a perfectly suitable approach for making good software on a solo team for small projects.

Answer 3

You might want to look at c2.com's Solo Programming Xp Workarounds. Cardboard Programmer is one for some reason I found particularly amusing. You could perhaps code with a cardboard Jon Skeet next to you?

Answer 4

I'm currently working solo on an ASP.NET project (not a small one though). I use TDD quite a lot, and I find that it is not taking longer time to develop using TDD, in fact I save time.

This is primarily because having the suite of unit tests makes it very quick to both test and debug the system. E.g. when a feature is not working as intended, it is a lot quicker to attach the debugger to the NUnit process, than it is to start the web server in debug mode, navigating to the correct page (first passing the login screen), etc. So by not having the unit tests, I would spend a great deal longer testing and debugging.

And the unit tests also help me creating a well designed system, as it forces me to create a more loosely coupled design.

Answer 5

I would say the number of people working on the project isn't the only factor to consider. I think the reason you find the full Agile (documentation, refactoring, unit tests.......... these probably aren't really Agile though, they've been around for a long time) to be time-wasting is because solo projects tend to be small projects.

For larger projects that span across more than half a year, I would really expect proper process would really help yourself. You may visit some code you write 5 months earlier. Without documentation, it's the same as other people's work. Without tests, you are as scared to change it as changing other people's code.