

You’re seeing a strange error message and you have no idea what it means.You’re trying to do a very specific thing and you can’t get some piece of it to behave as expected.Note that when I talk about a software development problem, I mean a problem of any size and scope:

Programming instructors and anyone who mentors new programmers should make sure their students or mentees have a firm grasp of this process along with any specific technical skills they may need.

While I’m writing these steps with students and less experienced developers in mind, I hope everyone who works in software will find them a useful reflection on our development process. In general, I believe the process of solving a software development problem can be divided into four steps: I’d like to articulate those steps here, both for software newbies who are overwhelmed by this whole “coding” thing, and to see how it compares to the process other experienced developers use. That’s why, whenever I’m helping beginners learn to code, I try to walk them through the process of solving problems in the same way I would at my job. Get a free trial today and find answers on the fly, or master something new and useful. Join the O'Reilly online learning platform.
