Every time you write code you have to/should: Define requirements for it, define tests for it, continually run regression tests, design it, implement it, debug

Every time you write code you have to/should: Define requirements for it, define tests for it, continually run regression tests, design it, implement it, debug it, peer review it, etc. All of this is done to solve some problem in a specific domain. That is a lot of work when all you want to do is add some small feature to your overall software solution. In software development communities, people are now able to pull from the works of others and build on it. Let's take the Rails community as an example. Many of the features I need in a software program have already been written and available for me. I need an SMS system? Done for me already. User authentication? Done. Persistence? Done. One way of becoming a good software developer is to become better at taking existing solutions and integrating them into your final software solution. This should involve as little source code as possible.