I started doing my own design and development projects this year. Since I had the freedom and time (after all I was the only one setting the expectations on how long it would take to bring the deliverables), I decided to make myself go through as rigorous a process of collecting and validating requirements as possible, and then actually designing the system – including trying to write complete specifications before doing any coding whatsoever. This helped me a lot – I think – in getting it right the first time around. Furthermore, the design documents served a useful purpose in helping me to understand the system after I had finished coding it. This was true even right away when I wanted to create some user documentation.