Developers write code for the customer first and their peers second. The first is obvious, but the second is also important. The devs on your team are maintaining the code you write. Don't do things that make their job harder.

Here are 4 great ways to slow your dev team down:

Always making decisions in isolation

Part of being a developer is generating consensus.

When you’re planning to make a change that could have a big effect, you should be talking to your team. Someone on the team could have insight into why the change is not a good idea. If you're making changes that your team doesn't agree to then you're signing them on for risk they didn't ask for.

If you think a decision warrants a conversation with your team, then have it.

Never sharing the things you learn

Solved a difficult problem?

Found a faster way to handle a common task?

Tell your team. If you're not sharing new information with your team, you're doing them a disservice. If you think something is valuable, there's a good chance someone on your team will as well.

Scaling your optimizations means more time saved for free.

Writing code “your” way instead of following established patterns

Every developer thinks their way of writing code is the better way.

You might be right, but probably not in the context of your team’s project. At the end of the day, you’re writing code for the next developer to maintain it. They should be able to jump in without having to worry about understanding why things are different.

Make it easier on them.

Writing code that isn’t clear

Bad variable names.

Page long functions.

Unnecessary abstractions.

Make sure the code you write is something you’ll understand a week from now. If it’s not then your team probably won’t understand it today.

Avoid these and save your dev team the headaches.