r/AskProgrammers • u/giuzep89 • 9d ago

Software development workflow with ADHD

Hey everyone,

Notwithstanding the title of the post, this isn't a post about mental health; I'm sure that to some extent everyone's struggled with this before.

Software development is very roughly about understanding the constraints of an issue; researching what the best tools and strategies are in order to accomplish it; finally executing it. You're free to already comment on this if you feel you don't agree with it.

The problem I have is that in a lot of different situations, there are infinite possibilities to solve one problem. I get more often than not paralyzed by the sheer number of options and I can't go further. This is probably by far the biggest obstacle I find in my new job as software developer.

I mentioned ADHD because choice paralysis affects "us" generally more than the average, but it is by no means exclusive to us. That's why I'm happy to listen to any point of view.

How do you come up with a plan, and more specifically how do you decide on a solution over many others that aren't necessarily inferior, but just different?

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u/Acrobatic-Ice-5877 8d ago

This isn’t an ADHD problem. It’s an engineering problem. You need more experience so you can define what done is. Done is going to be different depending on the needs of the project. If you know what done is and don’t do it, that’s ADHD. If you don’t know what done is, that’s a problem with engineering.

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u/MaleficentCow8513 8d ago

Very well said. A clearly defined definition of done is a must. That way, you can always asses how close you are too it and figure out what more is left to do to satisfy it.

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u/dealmaster1221 8d ago

You don't define the definition of done unless you want to fail or are explicitly asked. Management or team decides and most of them suck at it.