Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Artistic Cycles


Some software components have nothing to do with business requirements per se, but are rather reactionary coding after the fact to handle the daily, monthly, and seasonal cycles of production, or to accommodate the processing of one item at certain times against others. These timing interactions can rarely be foreseen during the design stage of a project.

Hence, make sure all processes can be safely paused or scheduled. Make table entries when a process passes though various stages, so other processes may be aware of its status. Plan for processes to be stopped, rolled back, and then restarted. Finally, allow for priorities so that specific components of work can move through production at different speeds.

A design artist knows it rather makes good sense to allow leeway for controls of production cycles even without soliciting their requirement.