

Ask HN: Is it reasonable to cut corners when developing? - it_learnses

Can we discuss this question here?  Here&#x27;s the original: 
http:&#x2F;&#x2F;programmers.stackexchange.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;204944&#x2F;is-it-sometimes-reasonable-to-cut-corners-and-expect-to-re-write-software-in-a-c.
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frankcaron
In my experience, this really and truly depends on the amount of technical
debt your organization is willing to take on. I believe the key to cutting
corners is to fully and openly acknowledge that you are doing so, and to
justify the reasons for it and the short-hand version of how it should be done
without limitations to time/cost/quality.

There's been many times in my career where making a drop date or getting a
demo working has been vital to the life of the project, product, or business.
In those instances, cutting corners and shipping the minimum viably-functional
product was done consciously, and we made clear note of how to come back and
remedy the temporary design/architecture/implementation.

tl;dr: Do what's right for the project given the time, cost, and quality
requirements but document the decisions and justify them.

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dylanhassinger
yes. knowing WHEN is the trick

