❌ 1. Starting Without a Clear Plan
The Problem:
Diving into coding without a solid plan often has an impact on communication, feature completion, and project timelines.
How to Avoid It:
✔ Set clear goals and requirements before you start coding. ✔ Apply Agile or Scrum methods to manage your project better. ✔ Maintain detailed notes to refer to later.
💡 Example: Think about building a house without a blueprint. You’d face unforeseen issues the same thing happens when you develop software!
❌ 2. Writing Messy or Unstructured Code
The Problem:
Code that’s structured is tough to read debug, and keep up. This leads to technical debt that lasts a long time.
How to Avoid It:
✔ Stick to clean coding principles and best practices. ✔ Pick names for variables and functions that make sense. ✔ Build your code to be modular and reusable.
💡 Example: Good code structure is like a book that’s well-organized—it’s easy to read and get. Bad code though, is like a novel with missing pages!
❌ 3. Not Testing Properly
The Problem:
When you skip tests or rush through them, you run a higher risk of bugs, crashes, and weak spots in security.
How to Avoid It:
✔ Run automatic tests to find bugs . ✔ Do unit, integration, and functional tests. ✔ Check on various devices and browsers.
💡 Example: Picture launching an online store without checking the payment process. If it doesn’t work, you’ll lose customers!
❌ 4. Overlooking Security Steps
The Problem:
Poor security leaves your software open to hacking, data leaks, and virus attacks.
How to Avoid It:
✔ Set up safe login methods (like OAuth JWT). ✔ Encrypt important data to keep it safe. ✔ Update software often to fix weak spots.
💡 Example: One weak password in your system might cause a huge data breach—similar to what big companies experienced before!
❌ 5. Putting Sensitive Information Directly in Code
The Problem:
Writing API keys, passwords, or database login details straight into the code poses a big security threat.
How to Fix It:
✔ Store sensitive data in environment variables. ✔ Don’t upload secret information to public code repositories. ✔ Try tools like AWS Secrets Manager or Vault.
💡 Example: If a coder shares API keys on GitHub, hackers could get in and mess with the system.
❌ 6. Poor Database Design
The Problem:
A designed database can lead to slow performance, data duplication, and maintenance challenges.
How to Avoid It:
✔ Normalize the database to remove redundancy. ✔ Create indexes for queried data to speed up access. ✔ Pick SQL or NoSQL databases depending on what your project needs.
💡 Example: An online store with badly optimized queries might struggle to load product pages , which can upset customers.
❌ 7. Not Using Version Control
The Problem:
When developers don’t use version control , they risk losing work overwriting code, and creating conflicts.
How to Steer Clear:
✔ Rely on Git to keep tabs on changes. ✔ Stick to a branching strategy like GitFlow. ✔ Craft clear commit messages to make tracking a breeze.
💡 Example: Picture yourself on a project with several developers. Without version control, a single slip-up could wipe out days of hard work!
❌ 8. Making the Code Too Complex (Over-Engineering)
The Issue:
Creating intricate code makes finding bugs tough and slows the development process.
How to Steer Clear:
✔ Keep things easy to read and understand (KISS principle). ✔ Don’t add features you don’t need (YAGNI principle). ✔ Use design patterns to make the structure less complex.
💡 Here’s an example: If a basic function needs more than 10 nested loops, it’s too complicated. Keep things efficient and clear.
❌ 9. Not Paying Attention to Performance
The Problem:
Slow apps result in bad user experiences and make people leave .
How to Fix It:
✔ Use caching to make things load faster. ✔ Make images JavaScript, and CSS smaller and quicker. ✔ Use lazy loading to help pages work better.
💡 Example: A travel website that lacks optimization might need 20 seconds to load flight prices. This frustrates users and makes them leave.
❌ 10. Development Teams Fail to Communicate
The Problem:
When teams don’t talk, they miss deadlines, misunderstand what’s needed, and fight with each other.
How to Avoid It:
✔ Use tools like Slack, Trello, or Jira to work together. ✔ Hold quick meetings every day to stay on track. ✔ Write down changes and share updates with everyone.
💡 Example: A developer working on a login system needs to team up with the backend group to make sure everything fits together well. If they don’t talk, the system might break.
