Web development rules don't work
I'm constantly working with different web development companies who have different rules about how I should build my websites. Some are very strict and others are very lenient and allow me to build them whatever way I want. The companies that are strict have many different rules which I need to abide by or they will not use my services. But how important are these rules?
Developing for these companies makes my job more difficult and increases the time to complete the work. Instead of using my built up libraries and best practices, I end up rewriting a lot of code and using practices which I would never use in my own work.
Over time web development practices change very quickly, HTML 5 is becoming more prevalent, Javascript libraries have completely changed how we do things and browsers are constantly bringing out more CSS features. Therefore whatever libraries you create now and whatever rules you think you need, they will be obsolete very soon. With each passing year, best standards change and your rules die.
Therefore if rules change and web development practices change constantly, what should our goal be? By defining rules and thinking that it causes consistency is a fallacy. Our rules constantly need to change to keep up with standards, websites change consistently with time. In a year or two the websites you create will be a lot different, therefore consistency is an illusion that lasts for only groups of websites made at a certain time.
The end goal of web development isn't about rules and regulations. It is about simplicity. If your company is trying to create too many rules, it will be a waste of time. Any rule you create will be irrelevant or will have changed in a year or two. Therefore just build websites the best way you can using the most simplest methods you can. Don't worry if they aren't all built the same because in a short amount of time, it won't matter.
Employees and staff change, and every company you work at will require you to update old websites. These old websites are easier to update if they were made in a simple way, not because they followed company rules at the time of creation.
You may be thinking isn't creating websites in a simple way a rule? Well this is partly true but in the end rules tend to create complications. For example if your company uses a massive CSS framework, this will make your website harder to update in the future than if you made the website with as few simple CSS declarations as possible. Less is always better.
