Problem decomposition steps

1. Understand the problem
   1. Restate the problem in your own words
   2. Ask questions for clarification
2. Break the problem down into a few large pieces
3. Break complicated pieces down into smaller pieces
4. Code one small piece at a time
   1. Think about how to implement it
   2. Write the code/query
   3. Test it... on it's own
   4. Fix any problems

Thanks to Melanie Moses for providing her version of these steps from which this list is derived.