What’s the most important thing we get from designing and writing code? It’s a question we don’t ask often enough. Mostly because it’s easy to assume the answer is obvious.
Revenue?
The business you are working for will often suggest that revenue is the most important thing about code. But, that doesn’t explain why some of the most widely used code on the planet is open source. The author of that code got something from it, that probably wasn’t revenue. Internal code also doesn’t generate revenue, despite the fact that is valuable to those who use it.
Customers?
Once again, the business may find customers are a major benefit of the code. But, once again, open source code doesn’t necessarily have customers. The software may have users, but not necessarily customers. But, that doesn’t explain software that someone writes for their own use. No revenue, and no customers.
Software?
The software itself has value in the moment. But is it the most valuable result of writing software? What is the long-term value of the software itself?
In my experience, it isn’t the most valuable result of writing software though. If the only thing you had from writing some software was the software itself, any changes you will need to make will require study of the current software to figure out how it does what it does in order to change it.
Knowledge
The most valuable part of design and writing code is the knowledge you gain. Many people might disagree, because you can run the code and have something happen. The knowledge you gained means you can re-write the code again if it was lost. What you learned writing it will inform every system you work on going forward.