Are there any programming methodologies that take into account the concept that the first round of written code is likely to be not what you want to use? The most common thing I hear at the end of a project from a developer is ‘If I could do that again, I’d do it so differently.’ This is almost an exact mirror of the process a writer goes through after writing a first draft. The difference seems to be that writers then rewrite and rewrite again until they’re ready to move into the editing stage, whereas developers seem to write and then refine their first draft with testing and refactoring.
I’m certainly no fan of trying to use alternative analogies to define the development process, but I do think there’s value in recognising that your first draft is just to get ideas down, you need further rewrites in order to produce something worthwhile. I just don’t think I’ve ever encountered a programming process or project methodology that recognises that, so I was hoping that the vast collective concious of Stackoverflow might have an idea of where I might start exploring this possibility?
Prototyping seems to address the problem in some way. The wikipedia article on Prototyping names an approach called ‘Throwaway prototyping’ which seems inline with your way of thinking.