Fried and Heinemeier Hansson in Rework suggest the following questions to ensure you don’t ‘throw good time after bad work’:
‘Why are you doing this?
What problem are you solving? – ensure it’s not an imaginary problem
Is this actually useful? – don’t confuse enthusiasm with usefulness
Are you adding value? – sometimes things you think are adding value actually subtract from it
Will this change behaviour? Is it really going to change anything?
Is there an easier way? – Problems are usually pretty simple. We just imagine they require hard solutions
What could you be doing instead? – what can’t you do because you’re doing this?
Is it really worth it? – can you determine the real value of what you’re about to do before you take the plunge’
