Pay Now or Pay Later

Your code will have bugs. 

Normal teams generate a bug for every 20 lines of code they write. “Better” teams can push that to maybe 100 lines of code. 

The question isn’t “if” you’ll find a bug. The question is “when.” And “when”makes all the difference in how much time, effort, and cost it will take to fix it.

You have a choice. You can push off looking for bugs till later. In fact, you can push it off to your customers. This is the easiest and cheapest up front. You don’t have to invest in the people, systems, or infrastructure to catch bugs. 

Or, you can invest in systems and people to start looking right away, as soon as the code is created. This is initially the most difficult. It requires investment. You must create a system that all developers agree to follow. It requires tooling and a commitment to development and upkeep on that tooling. 

Like most things, you’ll have to pay the price. You get to choose when and how much. 

If you catch a bug early, you can fix it simply and cheaply. But to catch bugs early, you need a larger initial investment. If you catch a bug later, you pay a much larger price. But your initial investment is almost zero. 

Your life will have bugs. 

You’ll have to pay the price to fix them. You get to choose when and how much.