One technique that improved my process a lot, particularly for system-level problems, is swim lane diagrams. I worked with someone that created them for _everyt

One technique that improved my process a lot, particularly for system-level problems, is swim lane diagrams. I worked with someone that created them for _everything_, and at first it irritated the crap out of me because for some things I felt it took longer to write the diagram than to write the code. But, when things are complicated it is so helpful to see a process overview with minimal path ambiguity.