Guiding methodology and best practices

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Software enables us to configure computers to work as we desire.

However, software and its development by its nature comes with a seemingly limitless number of pitfalls. In order to conquer these difficulties, it is essential to come to recognize and understand them and to discover the best practices that mitigate the adversities.

A rather well-known guide has been published by Adam Wiggins (cofounder of Heroku) that details a set of general guidelines that resonate with those who've seen projects fail and succeed:

The twelve-factor approach to building cloud applications

I'm starting this thread to be a place to discuss the best practices around the development and deployment of this project.