The Right Thing??

mitakadai

I've been using PHP, MySql for over a year now. I've read the forums and a couple of books. I've developed a project tracking system and am wortking on a knowledgebase. I've worked on these projects alone and the question I ask myself is am I doing this efficently or correctly. Does getting the job done mean I'm getting the job done well. How do I judge whether my work is good/bad/indifferent??? Any suggestions/ideas??

jeremuck

I'd say that if you have carefully thought out your requirements, and have designed your application so as to meet these requirements, then you are on the way to a job well done.
If a requirement changes in the future, will your design allow you to handle it?

The second part to it has to come from the users. If it's being used, what are the users' feedback? If it adds value to the user's life/work, then it's well done.

marianna

There is an entire science to what you're asking. It takes a lot of reading (and graduate classes in my case). What you're asking about is Database Design theory, Algorithmic Complexity and maybe even model checking. If you're really interested in the matter, I encourage you to read about it. start with Database design theory - it's the easiest. And good for you for caring!

mitakadai

Thanks for the replies. I think the point (jeremuck) about how how easy it is to change the requirements is a good measure of progress. My first PHP application was a nightmare to change, what I'm working on currently is better but still needs improvement. The amount of time I've put into design or the lack of it is definitley an area I need to work on. Just started reading "Web Application Development with PHP 4.0.pdf" by Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken. It's got some interesting suggestions for web site design, not sure about PHPLib usage. I'd be interested to know how long PHP developers spend on the design of new projects?