i tend to give this part of the process a lot of attention, so for a guy with many programs/windows/things going on in the pc i like to get away from the computer and sit quietly to plan my programs, usually grab a pen and a clean page and start thinking/taking notes going from global to more detailed stuff, making relation charts, thinking my tables etc, that works for me. I think Village Idiot put down the order nicely, i would only add to create a to-do list from all of that just to keep track of everything and be sure i dont leave nothing behind. On the other hand, I never reached as far as creating an UML diagram, but i do consider it as a great practice, i hope to have time soon to give a deeper look on that subject and hopefully incorporate it to my workflow.

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