Debugging before the bug

As a developer, one of your most important tasks is to foresee issues before they arise. This can save you a lot of time and frustration down the road, and it can also help you create better, more reliable software. In this blog post, we'll explore one of my favorite strategies for anticipating and preventing issues, and I’ll also provide some extra strategies that every modern developer should know.

Start with a plan

The first step in preventing issues is to start with a plan. Before you start writing any code, take the time to think through the project and identify potential areas of difficulty. Consider the user journey and think about all the possible paths they might take. What could go wrong at each step of the way? Are there any edge cases or unusual scenarios that you need to account for? By thinking ahead, you can identify potential issues before they become real problems.

Visualize the journey

To help anticipate future issues, something I often do is create a matrix that visualizes the user journey and all the possible things that can go wrong. This chart should have the user journey on the vertical axis, and all the potential pitfalls and edge cases on the horizontal axis. By mapping out the user journey and all the potential issues, you can identify areas of the application that may require additional attention and testing.

Here's an example of what a feature chart might look like:

In this example, we've mapped out the user journey for a simple login feature. The chart shows two main things:

• On the vertical axis is the order of the user journey from top to bottom
• On the horizontal axis is any possible thing that could go wrong from the user's perspective

By identifying these issues ahead of time, we can brainstorm what possible issues could go wrong for each scenario to happen.

For example, what if the user logs in, but isn’t able to view any of their data. Are we allowing them to input invalid data at some point in the process? Are we accepting data types that aren’t properly prepared to display in the UI? There can be a number of reasons this issue may occur, but by asking the hard questions and working backward we can take proactive steps to mitigate and prevent future bugs and errors. At the least, this is a great exercise to get you in the right headspace before you begin working on a new feature. Give it a shot next time you are planning a new feature or update and let me know how it goes.

Other ‘must know’ knowledge about preventing future bugs

1. Conduct thorough testing

Once you've written your code, it's important to conduct thorough testing to identify any issues that may have slipped through the cracks. This should include both automated and manual testing, and you should be prepared to test your code in a variety of scenarios. Consider using tools like unit testing, integration testing, and acceptance testing to catch issues early on.

1. Use data to define your decisions

Another way to anticipate issues is to use data to inform your decisions. This can include user feedback, analytics data, and other metrics that can help you identify areas of your application that are causing problems. By keeping a close eye on your data, you can identify patterns and trends that might be indicative of issues, and you can take proactive steps to address them before they become bigger problems.

In conclusion, as a developer, it's important to anticipate issues before you code them. By starting with a plan, conducting thorough testing, using data to inform your decisions, and visualizing the user journey, you can identify potential issues early on and take proactive steps to prevent them from becoming bigger problems. Remember, prevention is always better than a cure, so take the time to anticipate and prevent issues before they arise.