Skip to main content

Command Palette

Search for a command to run...

Fail Fast Principle

Updated
•1 min read•View as Markdown
Fail Fast Principle
M

I am a highly competent IT professional with a proven track record in designing web services and managing databases. I have strong technical skills as well as excellent interpersonal skills, enabling me to interact with a wide range of clients. I am eager to be challenged in order to grow and further improve my IT skills. My greatest passion is in life is using my technical know-how to benefit other people and organizations.

'Fail fast' suggests that if an error or problem is going to occur, it's best to detect it as early as possible. Improper or invalid inputs to a system or to individual methods, are a common source of problems in software applications. Sometimes, these problems are persisted, resulting in corrupt or invalid data that can be difficult to isolate and correct. Sometimes, the problems leave the system in an unresponsive state, consuming resources and possibly denying other users access to it.

The principle of fail fast helps reduce the feedback loop when problematic inputs enter a system. The sooner a user or another system is notified there is a problem with processing its input, the better. The system will be more responsive and will consume fewer resources dealing with inputs that will ultimately result in errors or system failure.

Practices like defensive programming and patterns like guard clauses are frequently applied in order to follow the fail fast principle.

Fail fast doesn't just apply to low level coding. It is also often applied to product development and marketing experiments. Rather than committing a large amount of resources to a product or campaign that is destined for failure, fail fast suggests running experiments as quickly as possible that can determine whether the product, campaign, or idea has merit before committing full resources to it.

Principle

Part 1 of 1

Consistently following good principles is important to good code. This means applying coding principles whether or not a project is rapidly approaching an important deadline.

More from this blog

D

Dev Tips and Tricks

15 posts

I am a highly competent IT professional with a proven track record in designing web services and managing databases. I have strong technical skills as well as excellent interpersonal skills