[mpetrovich]

My goodness, this describes me perfectly as well. The countless choices of a blank slate brings anxiety to a recovering perfectionist like me. Do I choose A or B or Z?

I prefer improving things rather than creating them from nothing. I’ve come to a similar conclusion as the author as far as how to get out of the fog of greenfield: Satisfice instead of optimize.

In this context, optimizing refers to choosing the best among N options. In contrast, satisficing means choosing the first option that’s good enough. Often, the opportunity cost saved from satisficing is greater than the marginal value gained from optimizing.

[linuxdude314]

Unfortunately not very much engineering goes into software these days.

What you describe is a very common pitfall that is completely avoidable using well established frameworks.

In systems engineering one of the key principles is that you build a system to meet requirements. This means that prior to making architecture diagrams or picking your database, you instead meet with all of the stakeholders and enumerate a list of what is required of the system or service you are building.

Once you have requirements, you simply look at the normal trade offs (operational ease of use, cost, license model, performance, etc…) and make decisions accordingly.

There is still some room for decision making, but if you apply a tried and true framework it’s helps cut down on the decision making a lot.