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Baby Steps

A software development discipline wherein practitioners make the smallest possible incremental change that moves toward a goal while keeping the system in a verifiable, working state. It is a foundational practice for maintaining control and managing complexity during development.

Rationale / Basis​

This approach is grounded in the cognitive science of working memory. Humans possess a limited capacity for holding and manipulating new information, often referred to as cognitive load. Attempting changes that introduce numerous variables simultaneously can exceed this capacity, leading to errors, confusion, and a loss of momentum.

By constraining the scope of each change, the baby steps discipline ensures that a developer's cognitive load remains at a manageable level. This allows for full comprehension of each modification and its implications, mitigating the risk of introducing unintended side-effects.

Implementation / Methodologies​

Effective implementation relies on techniques that enforce small increments and provide rapid feedback.

  • Test-Driven Development (TDD): The "Red-Green-Refactor" cycle is a natural framework for baby steps. Each cycle from a failing test (Red) to a passing test (Green) represents a single, verifiable step.
  • Time-Boxing: This technique imposes a strict time limit (typically 2-4 minutes) to complete one cycle. If the tests are not passing when the timer expires, all changes are automatically reverted to the last known-good state. This can be implemented via a test && commit || revert (TCR) script.
  • Micro-Commits: Each successful step (i.e., a "Green" state) is committed to version control. This creates a highly granular history of the development process, enabling precise reviews and simplifying rollbacks.

Context / Considerations​

Teams adopting this discipline typically progress through several stages of mastery.

  1. Initial Resistance: The constraints are often perceived as counter-intuitive and slowing, as developers are accustomed to making larger, unverified changes.
  2. Gradual Recognition: As the team experiences a reduction in defects, integration issues, and debugging time, the benefits of the approach become evident. The primary challenge shifts to consistently defining an appropriately sized "step."
  3. Intuitive Mastery: Practitioners develop an intuition for identifying logical increments within a problem. They can then execute a rapid sequence of small, controlled changes, achieving a state of high productivity and flow. Mentorship from experienced practitioners is highly effective in accelerating this process.