Different Software - Different Quality

Different software requires different quality.

Hobby projects, experiments and exploration projects simply need to work. Everything else is a plus.

When it comes to your professional work it may be hard to find the balance.

You are operating on company time. Your goal should be to bring as much business value as possible.

Should you spend the same amount of time refining and polishing your developer or internal tooling as you do the core of the solution ?

Many people may say yes: "If you don't trust your tools why have them in the first place" Yes. The code must work. It must be consistent. But it must not be perfect.

The point is that you won't add business value if your tools are ultra well designed or optimized. It will cost you more time. Time spent polishing tools can be used to bring more value to your business.

You should design just enough so that the tools are usable and easy to replace (if integrated).

Use your time wisely - there are always tests to write, techdebt to pay and documentation to write.