Repetition in youth.
That song was awesome! Play it again. Rewind-stop-play-rewind-stop-play-forward-play, call the radio station for a request, press repeat. These actions are all part of my memory as a youth. Back in the days when I spent a fair amount of my income on cassette tapes and CDs. It was that song. It was my favorite song. It was our special song. It represented something of value in mood, a feeling, a lyric, or a sound. Whatever the case when I found it, I wanted to do it again. Play it again and again.
Repetition in business.
The year has changed. My daily routines have changed. My friends have changed. But one thing that is still there is an attraction to repeat what works in business. Play it again! When a project or implementation goes well we talk about “lessons learned”. Sure we record the bad, but we also record what went right. Then we try to do it again. We want to replicate the secret formula for the same good results.
But software projects are all different. The requirements change. The people may change. The customer may change. Repeating success is not as easy as hitting rewind-stop-play. We could different results holding all but one of those variables the same.
Magic in the interpretation.
Two musicians will play the same song differently. It’s their interpretation, their emphasis, and their feeling. Software programming can be the same way. Two different programmers will create distinctly different programs that accomplish the same goal. The results may be visible in the UI or noticed by different workflows and program speed. It’s all part of their interpretation and skill.
Programmers “play it again” when they establish repeatable processes and procedures. It’s the software development life cycle (SDLC). Strictness to process is encouraged, but the real magic happens when the programmer is allowed to interpret , feel, and create on the edges.
So yes, play it again in business and software development. But play with feeling. Play from the heart. Find that unique rhythm. Create a one of a kind. Stop-rewind-play.