I tend to try to figure out what the most difficult task is going to be, and solve that, then try to figure out the next most difficult task, etc. In this way, if I run into any show stoppers, I know about them quickly, and have more time to figure out how to get around those problems.

As the difficult stuff is accomplished, the easy stuff is usually stolen from were ever I can find something that gets me close to what I want, and modified as needed. (not that this is any different for the difficult parts, but the easy stuff is generally more readily available and/or easily found; Perl & CPAN certainly make the difficult stuff a whole lot easier to find and/or accomplish :-)

I've been told I've a better than average ability to see both the big picture and the details at the same time, but I've always shrugged it off. I can't understand how anyone could be good at programming if they couldn't do both. But, maybe that's part of the reason why the really good programmers are relatively rare?

-Scott