Each one of us get an idea to innovate something new in life every time we try and get back to sleep in the night, but very few chase it down the moment they get up the next morning (or might not have slept as “Dreams don’t let you sleep”). There is a process that is defined to take the dream ahead and many steps are involved in the process, some of them are a necessity and some starts becoming a burden by the time we come to the completion stage because we as humans believe the last step takes most of the time and when you get a message to get back to check the process again that is where the mind gets completely blown off.
If we come to a conclusion that we need to make an application for a user that can order a food sitting back at home, we need to define a process and follow it as done by millions of people chasing such dreams. What we do basically is develop a prototype may be on a piece of paper or in mind before we start implementing it that may look like:
This is something that we will have an image of when we are dreaming. If it does not let you sleep, then it’s actually something that should turn into a reality and given a chance to be implemented. During our learning days we learn and mug up so many test books of our respective fields. The dream that I am talking about will come to people who are into coding and development stuff (Not a necessity bus yes 90% will be developers). We rewind our engineering days to check which book needs to be taken out to have an idea about the right approach. The first thing that comes to mind is the SDLC cycle (Software Development Life Cycle) that professors made us mug up during our studying days.
Professor: All prepared for the Software Engineering Paper?
Student: Yes sir! All done!
Professor: Did you study the SDLC cycle? It’s definitely coming for 10marks.
Student: I have studied it in such a way that I won’t forget it in my entire life.
Professor: Great! All the best!!!
So this is how SDLC is still so fresh in the minds of software engineers. Even if it may have slipped out of the mind, then let me take you back to the days and show the SDLC life cycle (No irritations please):
Hope all gathered back?? So the basic purpose to show this was to make the process fresh that may have got rusted in any of the minds going across this. The dream that we dreamt to make the application needs to go through this, so gear up to start implementing your mind. The earth is round and so is the cycle. We start with putting our dreams into a piece of paper, then start transferring it into the system in the form of codes. The first code that comes to mind, even though we may not use it here is:
#include<iostream.h> #include<conio.h>—remembered C++–great (you did study in your days)
So, we come to a conclusion that OK, we need to do this and it will be done this way, the next step would be to develop a prototype as to how the application is going to communicate with each other and pass messages.
If the design is clear this is not as dark as it seems to be in the picture (Some things should look Dangerous). We dig our minds deeper and deeper and finally develop something and as the app starts communicating there is more and more happiness (oh yes it’s working!!!). We start using the functions or you can say we started implementing and everything seems fine (Cheers!!) after spending hours and days.
The next step that is actually where we might be taken, to the first line of the programming or to any of the thousand lines that we wrote, and then comes a question is this PROCESS A NECESSITY OR A BURDEN? As after spending so much time this process will take more time, even though the application is running. If we get this done this is going to take another some hours of work that we need to spend. But we forget that perfection is something that will give immense satisfaction. People using the app won’t reopen the next time if the food they ordered got replaced with some other food, which would not have happened had the last process was done. So an extra few hours added can make the app order a Chicken Curry or a Paneer Curry and deliver the same to the respective person and if not, then the opposite may happen that may blast you. So, we do this process and finally start making big bucks out if it. SDLC taught us everything but it has never shown us that any step is of less importance, so “Testing the Application” will give our app an extra advantage and people will remember the app maker each time they take the delicious food.
I so hope we have all come to a conclusion that Testing is a Necessity and not a Burden on the financial part to be specific. Go ahead and make the effort to spend a few extra hours and take your product or application to new heights. Start dreaming and start implementing. Life is too short to think twice.
