We are on the design phase again. Everyone, except my new team and perhaps the framework team, is doing design. I would commend some designers while I question (on a personal confidence note) some. And due to my years of stint manning the framework team, I have been consulted by my friends and traditional “internal clients” on how they should go about things that they intend to design… I would say some don’t come to me nor to anybody else to consult. Come on guys, what you churn out will not be perfect. At least, try to share your thoughts and see the problem upfront.

This is the finest and most fun time to correct some architectural and design mistakes we’ve been into. But nay, we’re still on it. A next round of design and development would have been a good time to rectify flaws even on its most minute amount. Good luck to everyone…

But wait! Design, design, design… endless tons of work… at snail pace iterations. And in the end, these designs will not be followed to the T. Why? Because of a flawed design. I am not saying that they are flawed from the beginning. What I mean is that these designs will miss something and would be tantamount to a redesign or development deliverable delay.

But wait, again… my general observations: anti-patterns are everywhere and there is a lack of attention to these. Hopefully, for the long duration of the design phase, at least a panel of experts try to identify the antipatterns while the application is being designed and not at the end when everyone is already wading through deep sh*t. A dedicated team of analysts should counter check the deliverables of designers and at the general design perspective. An advise to these people:

  1. Scrutinize a design and identify any problem (hope, you’ll be good at this… it’s like your QAing the product before it is even built)
  2. For problem cases, identify whether they establish a general trend (might be an antipattern)
  3. Redesign, as necessary
  4. Cascade the solutions to macro and micro levels to all other components (built on not yet built)
  5. Educate the designers

Like anything else in the universe, patterns and best practices have their negative counterparts. So stay aware of antipatterns.