---
title: Make it work, then make it good
date: 2024-08-31
permalink: daily/2024/08/31/make-it-work-then-make-it-good
tags:
  - software-development
  - automated-testing
  - test-driven-development
  - clean-code
  - drupal-planet
cta: d7eol
snippet: |
  The main objective when writing software is to make it work.
---

Your first objective when writing software is to make it work by - any means necessary.

If you're doing test-driven development, you want to get a failing test to pass as quickly as possible.

You want to get your application into a working state, whether that's hard-coding some values, focusing on the happy path implementation, holding off on implementing design patterns, or something else - you just want the code to work, even if it's a "bad" solution.

Once it's working, you can refactor it into a good solution.