What is question-driven development?

Wed Apr 14 2021

Question-driven development is a technique I use to manage context-switching and getting "unstuck" in software development tasks.

It consists of a list of questions I have about a task which I tick off when I find the answers to them.

Here is an example for a task I recently did:

- [x] How do Twitter handles get saved?
  - Also as a `Contact`, but with the `Twitter` type.
- [x] What other contact types are there?
  - youtube: 1
  - linkedin: 3
  - facebook: 4
- [x] Types to add:
	- [x] twitter
	- [x] facebook
	- [x] linkedin
- [x] Add `voice` to `cell` and `phone` numbers

Usually it ends up being a combination of a list of questions and a to do list.

It serves the purpose of:

1. Breaking a task down into manageable steps.
2. Identifying what uncertainties I have about a task.
3. Making progress with a task even when I don't have the full solution yet.
4. Keeping track of what I've investigated so far (especially useful when doing bug investigations!).
5. Reminding me where I was after context-switching.
6. Reminding me why I made certain decisions.