When Proof of Concepts Become Production Code
Often when embarking on the implementation of a new piece of functionality or a new product entirely a common first step is to build a proof of concept (POC). Proof of concepts are a valuable tool in software development and provide various benefits. These benefits include the ability to test out new technology, validate ideas, gain stakeholder buy-in, and fail quickly. There is a reason that they are so widely used. For all their benefits they do come with their own risks. Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced development environment, there can be a push to take your POC code and push it to production. To help avoid falling into this trap let’s consider some of the reasons it may happen.
Often POCs are developed to present to others. Many times you are testing out a product idea and then presenting it to stakeholders. When others see these seemingly working solutions they may think the works is almost done and may push for it to quickly finish. This leads to tight deadlines where there isn’t time to carefully review the code and make it production ready. Thus developers can fall into the trap of simply shipping the POC as a shortcut. Another way a POC can make its way into production is that the POC is developed by one person and handed to a different person or group to implement for real with insufficient documentation. The implementing developer may not understand…
