Its funny how, being devs, we often look at an application or piece of code and just look at it from a techincal perspective; whats wrong with it, how to fix it, how to improve it. But how often do you, as a dev, take the time to actually understand and appreciate what we do, and how it actually helps the end user, and how the work that you do impacts the business/client?

Not as often as we'd like, you can be sure...

I find that every day my understanding of the client and their business grows. To truly understand what your code does from a business perspective, and realising how what you have done is used is a very much a light-bulb moment in your head for each of these situations. I find that it helps me to suggest things to the client, improvements they might not think of because they dont have a 'techincal' mindset that a dev might have. The client always wants someone that both understands and appreciates what their business does, how it works and how it all fits together (the 'big picture').

So next time you are rushing through a random application you have been dumped with supporting, take a few seconds to try and truly understand what it is going from the business' perspective. You'd be suprised how much more effective you are when looking at the code...