Diagram-driven development

You've heard of README-driven development, where you start by writing a README and documenting what you're going to code you start coding.

I've recently been doing diagram-driven development, where I start with a diagram and build a flow chart of the functionality, what pieces I'll need and what the information flow or user journey looks like.

I've been using Mermaid, so the diagrams are easy and quick to create, are version-controlled and a stored in the same code repository.

You can see an example in the Build Configs repository, which is now public and open-source.

Similar to writing the README first, creating a diagram upfront helps me clarify what I'm going to build and how I'm going to do it.

And using Mermaid means I can create it and push a temporary branch or create a pull or merge request to share it with colleagues to review before I start.