Thinking Ahead
Posted by Sheldon on July 13th, 2004.Print This Post | Email to a friend | Leave a Comment
Sometimes taking a few minutes to look think 3 months and 3 years ahead before working on something can prevent 300 hours of needless work.
Planning for the future is something that most of us don’t do. Usually it is due to the overwhelming amount of work that we have to do today. Yet I can’t help but question how much of today’s work has been caused by yesterday’s failure to plan.
I travel between Abbotsford and Squamish to visit my parents every so often and I am reminded of how a failure to plan will cost millions of dollars for absolutely no reason. Two overpasses have been constructed in the last year that for reasons unknown to me, were built without thinking beyond today.
The first is the 200th Street interchange. It does not allow for the Trans-Canada highway to be widened to three lanes in each direction, much less four lanes as the current Provincial government has been talking about for the last five years.
The second is an overpass for a housing development between Horseshoe Bay and Lions Bay on the Sea to Sky Highway. Even though it has been known for years that the whole highway needs to be widened, they just completed an overpass allowing only two lanes of traffic underneath. I shake my head everytime I drive underneath it.
Developing websites is the same way. Everything we create today will still be around in a few years. Have we taken the time to plan so that we don’t waste time and money to come up with a solution that will only work for a few months?
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July 13th, 2004 at 1:40 pm
All true, but if you’re the government, it’s not like you’re going to be around when the bill comes. Re: the overpass on Sea to Sky, I wonder if anyone mentioned to them a little gathering we’ve got planned for 2010?
July 13th, 2004 at 1:44 pm
Gathering for 2010? Ahh, all the grad re-unions from 2000. Silly me.
July 13th, 2004 at 1:55 pm
good point there sheldon…or several points. i enjoy going over the 200th street interchange, but it is slow to drive under…i hadnt really thought about the Squamish one, i drive that alot too…
July 13th, 2004 at 2:16 pm
sometimes there is even the greater issue of trying to cast a vision that will incorporate future plans/abilities…even when we cast a good vision, it is probably not always able to anticipate future difficulties. Websites are a growing thing so we need to plan but also be flexible enough to grow with the changes in many ways…
July 13th, 2004 at 2:30 pm
An often repeated sentiment … that can never be repeated too much. Even more than the web pages/sites themselves, the structure and supporting data need to be well planned out and very flexible. If every extra minute put into planning can save 5 or 10 minutes of re-doing in the future - let’s take our time!