alexduecode

[alexduecode]

How To Solve Technical Debt

Technical debt is one of the common challenges faced during software development, especially when dealing with a project with strict deadlines. While trying to deliver results faster, there are often trade-offs made, which may have bigger implications in the future. If you are keen to learn more about what the term technical debt means and how you can resolve it, this article is for you.

We shall discuss what technical debt means in detail, its causes, and how to resolve the technical debt.

What is technical debt?

In software development, technical debt refers to the trade-offs that you make today that may much more implications in the future than they have today. When you get a financial debt with interest, you are liable to pay more money in the future than what you borrowed.

This same metaphor applies in software development when developers take shortcuts intending to deliver results faster. In most cases, a software problem that is postponed always takes more resources (time and money) to fix than it would have taken if it is fixed immediately. Let's look at some of the common causes of technical debt.

Causes of technical debt

Lack of knowledge about technical debt. Not knowing what technical debt means and its implication is often one of the causes of technical debt.

Giving priority to meeting deadlines over quality work. When there is too much pressure from the client, developers may at times take some shortcuts to meet the deadline instead of focusing on delivering quality work.

Lack of proper code quality testing procedures

Working under a strict budget, which is very common for startups

Lack of proper collaborations within the team of developers

Now that we know what technical debt means and its common causes let's now get into how you can fix this problem.

How to resolve technical debt

1.Have a clear understanding of technical debt.

The first step to solving technical debt is ensuring that all stakeholders of the software development project have a clear understanding of what technical debt means and its implications. In this case, the stakeholders could be the software developers, their leaders, and sometimes the client.

When all these know what technical debt is and its implications, it is easier to prioritize allocated resources to fix this problem. One of the ways to make all stakeholders understand the implications of technical debt is by bringing it up during meetings and having a comprehensive discussion about it.

2.Adopt an agile approach

In software development, agility is when the project is executed in an incremental manner where different sections of code are delivered as soon as they are ready. This kind of approach helps to test code sooner when the project is still in the early stages. Agile development saves time compared to doing the tests when the project is more sophisticated.

When you discover that your project has technical debt, it is not too late to adopt this development strategy. By using the agile development methodology, you will prevent more technical debt from happening in the future.

3.Set coding standards ahead of time

Whether you are a single developer or a team leader, it is always necessary to set standards of how the result of the project should look like. These standards should be followed to fix any issues with the code that might be discovered along the way. When no standards are set, developers don't have a benchmark for measuring the quality of their code.

4.Having a separate team that reviews the code

If you have a big team, you can choose a few of the team members to play the quality assurance role. The quality assurance team should be tasked to review code at every stage of development to avoid having to deal with huge chunks of code when the project gets bigger. It is also important to ensure the team of developers and those doing quality assurance have effective communication all the time.

5.Doing automate tests

As technology is getting more advance, it is now possible to test the quality of code using automated software tools. Most of these tools can identify bugs and also recommend some changes that can be made to the code to improve its quality. These tools may not fully eliminate the technical debt, but they can help reduce it by a significant percentage.

6.Code refactoring

One of the ways you can deal with technical debt is through constantly editing your code to improve its quality even if it doesn't create an immediate effect on the side of the users. Code refactoring is a good practice in software development that can gradually reduce technical debt.

If you are a developer or a team leader, it will add more value to your final output if you incorporate this practice into your day-to-day software development tasks. Code refactoring may increase the amount of time you spend on a project, but it would eliminate errors and other code quality issues which would have taken much more time to fix in the future.

Closing thoughts

Taking shortcuts to deliver a project may bring you short-term joy, but the long-term implications of this practice are very costly. As a developer or team leader, you must address the issues of technical debt as soon as you can. But remember, fixing technical debt can only be achieved when you accept that it exists and sitting down as a team to find the way forward.

[alexduecode]

How To Reduce Technical Debt

In software development, technical debt occurs when some necessary aspects of code are not added or eliminated as a way of completing the project sooner. The downside of technical debt is that it will most likely take more time to fix the piece of code in the future than when it is fixed today.

A project that would have lasted you ten days may end up taking more extra days if you add the time you will spend trying to fix the lines of code you had ignored. So, as a developer, you always need to avoid technical debt as much as you can. In this article, I will share with you some of the practical ways you can reduce or even eliminate technical debt in your software development projects. Let's dive in

Acknowledging that it exists

The very first thing you need to acknowledge if you are to solve the issue of technical debt is the fact that it exists. When you and your team know that technical debt does exist, it is very easy to plan on how to deal with it ahead of time. It may not be possible to have code that is 100% perfect, but as a team, your target should be being as close to 100% as possible.

Routine code review

When working with a team, it is always important to share your code with some of your team members so that they review it to identify errors and any missing lines of code that would be necessary to improve the quality of code. I would recommend using tools to review code because it makes it easy to view all changes made by everyone and the time and when those changes were made.

Also, as you plan your software development project, always break it down into smaller milestones so that you do the reviewing after each milestone. It will take more time to point out the errors and missing parts of your work at the end of the project than doing it sequentially during the development process. From the practical point of view, reviewing 100 lines of code is way easier than reviewing 3000 lines.

Also, to ease the process of reviewing for your team, always have a guideline of how the code structure should look like. When there is a structure that everyone on your team is following, it becomes way too easier to point out any error because the person reviewing knows where to find what.

Better communication between the developers and designers

Before getting started to code any project, developers need to sit down with designers and agree on how the final product should look like. This will eliminate the possibility of eliminating any useful code that could impact the way the final product is used. At some stage of development, it is also necessary to have designers of the product to make reviews of the completed sections of code and verify whether they meet their expectations of the final product.

This kind of team collaboration will save you the hustle of having to go back deep into your code to make minor changes that could have been made resolved earlier. The mistake most developers do is undermining the impact of the design team, not knowing that their contribution is equally important as far as the quality of the final product is concerned.

Choose flexible software development tools

While developing a certain project, it is always necessary to use tools that will make it easy to make changes whenever you need to. The language and frameworks you choose to develop a project will have a huge impact on how flexible it will be for your team to detect any errors and fix them as soon as possible. When it is easier to fix errors by adding or removing some lines of code, you will likely reduce the amount of technical debt at the end of the project.

You may also have to use intelligent development tools that can detect any form of syntax or semantic errors in the code. Today, most text editors do have some level of intelligence to detect errors based on the language you are using to code. They will underline any section of your code with mistakes that may need your attention. For some editors, you may have to download extensions if you want to enable certain error detection features

Set realistic deadlines

While working on a project, it is very important to consider the deadlines you set for the different milestones. When you set a deadline that is not easily achievable, you will end up focusing more on completing the project without paying much attention to the quality of the work you are doing. Working under pressure will lead to lots of errors in the final product that will take you more time to fix in the future.

So, always have a clear understanding of the type of work you are about to do before you set deadlines. You may also have to discuss with your team and agree on the timeline for each deliverable. At the end of the day, it doesn't make sense to have a product finished on time yet it has lots of errors that need to be attended to.

Final thought

One of the major costs that software development teams have to deal with at some point is paying off technical debts. Just like in the financial world, the longer you take to pay off the debt, the more the costs you incur to pay it off. On the side of software development, this cost is paid in terms of time and sometimes money.

So, dealing with your technical debts in time will save you the time and money you will have to spend on them in the future. It is very important to plan ahead of time on how you will deal with technical debt. Automation and intelligent tools like duecode.io can help reduce your technical debt during the development process.

[alexduecode]

What Does Technical Debt Look Like?

Technical debt can be defined as the work that you delay today but have to do tomorrow. In software development, it refers to the idea that some important work is not implemented for a deliverable, but it has to be done in the future. Basically, prioritizing a speedy delivery over code quality.

How to Quantify Technical Debt?

Technical debt is an important aspect of software development. Having a lot of technical debt can lead to issues and incurring costs in the future. Quantifying it can help us understand a threshold and manage it in a more efficient manner.

Computing a number to reflect technical debt needs a lot of consideration. There are multiple variables that can play a role in code quality, including complexities, lines of code, inheritance, nesting depth and much more. Therefore, with so many factors to consider, it can be challenging to derive a number.

To ease the problem, technical debt is represented as a ratio of Remediation cost (cost to fix a system) and Development cost (cost of developing).

Technical debt ratio (TDR) = Remediation cost/development cost x 100%

How to Address Technical Debt?

Technical debt should stay under a certain limit to allow for easy management and development of the software. There are several techniques that can be employed to keep it in check:

✔️  Define technical debt and set a threshold

✔️  Prioritize the debt tasks

✔️ Use agile development

✔️  Have regular meetings with the engineers and owners

✔️  Set a standard for coding

✔️  Automated testing

✔️  Refactoring code

The first four techniques come under the prevention of technical debt, while the remaining three are for repaying the technical debt.

How much Technical Debt is Acceptable?

Technical debt is a pressing issue in the software development world. However, the phenomenon is inevitable, especially as the development projects get larger. Hypothetically, technical debt can be reduced to zero, however that is never the case in real life. There are always situations where you have to prioritize speed over quality.

Having a debt is not an issue as long as it is being properly managed and maintained. Your technical debt should not exceed a certain set threshold and your developers should be actively repaying it as well.

Ask your programmers to keep track of the dependencies in your code and the technical debt sections that can have an impact on other functionality of the system.  If you have a large amount of technical debt in one sub feature that is not used occasionally in the whole system, it is still relatively non-critical, as compared to a lesser technical debt in a more important sub system.

Therefore, set a benchmark for the amount of debt you can tolerate and ask your developers to adhere to it.

Technical Debt Iceberg

Your main goal is to see how much technical debt you have at any moment in time. Here is where Technical Debt Iceberg will help you:

You have to work your way up from the bottom to the top of that iceberg.

[alexduecode]

What is Technical Debt?

The software industry is a volatile world. Technologies trending today will be outdated in the near future. When the .NET Framework was released in the early 90s, developers were crazy about learning this new technology. But cut to 2010, no one was keen on learning this framework. It’s because its days of glory were long over. Objective C & Perl are also following the same roadmap & we won’t be surprised to see these languages completely out of production soon.

Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Blockchain, AR/VR right now are the hottest concepts in the market but we don’t know if 20 years down the road, we still will be working with these technologies or not.

In short, as time progresses and new technologies arrive in the market, the old programs are labelled outdated and their demand & support tremendously decreases. In this writeup, we will be discussing the concept of ‘Technical Debt’ & we will also have a look at how changing technologies have an impact on ‘Technical Debt’.

We all have taken loans from the banks, right? When you take a loan from the bank, the bank charges you a certain interest & you have to repay the sum of the original amount and the interest to the bank. Therefore, it can also be said that you are officially in ‘debt’ i.e. you owe money to someone. The longer it takes you to close your loan, the worse it gets.

The case is the same with ‘Technical Debt’ as well. Technical Debt is a programming concept that originated from making ‘Quick & Dirty’ development decisions. The overall result is that there is now an overhead cost involved in reworking the code, that is now not working up to the expectations, because of taking the shorter route. But, is debt a bad thing? It certainly depends upon the situation & how you use it. Stay tuned as we read more about ‘Technical Debt’.

Everything has a reason. Similarly, there is a reason behind Technical Debt as well. While Technical Debt now has become a recurring event in the life of Software Developers, it is important to know the reasons behind it.

The following are some of the main reasons behind this concept

1.Time Constraints:

Software Developers are always working with tight deadlines. Call it the overpromise by the management or the laziness on the part of the developers, it is a true thing that Software Developers are always under pressure to meet the deadlines. With such a scarcity of time, it's reasonable that developers are looking forward to making the code work than anything else. Therefore, they often forget to keep track of concepts like Time & Space Complexity, Code Quality, and Scalability. Therefore, at present, the code works perfectly fine but as time progresses, the client sees a lot of bugs in the program & might also notice that the speed is not what he/she expected. This leads to a situation of Technical Debt.

2.Miscommunication & Business Decisions without consulting the Development Team:

As surprising as this may sound, this is actually one of the major reasons behind the concept of Technical Debt. Most of the clients are non-technical in nature & while making the requirements, they cannot distinguish if the feature is implementable or not. Also, the question is whether the feature is really required or not. This often creates miscommunication between the development team, the managers & the clients. This leads to the random implementation of features & if the client is not satisfied, a redo is assigned in the case.

3.Lack of Future Planning:

Let us suppose a Software Team is building a SaaS Product. Initially, they thought that their servers would receive 1000 requests/hr. Therefore, they implemented the concepts in such a way that their server could handle 1000 requests + some overhead/hr. But, suddenly their product gained popularity & now there is an inflow of 100000 requests/hour. The software developers are therefore unable to manage the requests as they have not thought about the scalability factor. This would require them to rework their code again & hence a situation of technical debt arises.

4.Changing Programming Languages:

As mentioned in the first paragraph, changing programming languages also play an important role in the concept of ‘Technical Debt’. Though it is a long term effect, it surely contributes to this concept. A new software written in some very unpopular & old programming language would surely need to be reworked in the coming times.

5.Lack of Coding Standards & development by Junior Devs:

Big companies care a lot about coding standards. Startups, not so much. The end result, the code becomes messier and messier & at one point in time, it becomes problematic to debug & add new features in the code. Similarly, Junior Devs & recent graduates need to be trained on Coding Standards & Code Quality, otherwise, the code might be messy & it will become difficult for future devs to understand the code. In either way, a situation of technical debt is created.

Once, we have identified the reasons behind Technical Debt it is now important to understand how we can reduce the debt. We mentioned some of these, however, we won't be describing them in detail. Some of them are suggested below.

How We Can Reduce The Technical Debt

1.Recurring Code Reviews

2.Choosing a Flexible Architecture

3.Proper Testing (Automation Preferred)

4.Keeping a record of the changes

We hope you have now understood what technical debt is & why it is important for software teams to successfully negate it. We also hope you would follow the above-mentioned suggestions to reduce the technical debt.

[alexduecode]

Code Quality Dashboard

Why is code quality so important?

Code quality is essential to every developer, project, and product. If the quality of the code is smelly, it could lead to money losses or inefficient use of time due to maintenance, testability, or reusability. Statistics say:” ‘bad code’ costs companies $300 billion annually and 31,6% efficiency loss of developers.”

📷📷

Luckily, in 2021 we have a bunch of tools for writing high-quality code, so you can deliver better products, make updates as fast as possible, and decrease technical debt in your codebase. The only thing you have to do is to make the right choice.

In this article, I would like to introduce you to code quality dashboards that will help improve any software product or project. You will learn how Duecode helps to reduce complexity, stay tuned with your team, get valuable insights on each developer, find pain points and tackle them early on, ensure adequate code coverage, and measure the effectiveness of your engineering team.

By the end, you’ll have an in-depth Duecode guide you need to create cleaner code—and an understanding of the tool that will help you to audit, debug, run, and maintain.

Dashboards

With Duecode you get an in-depth analysis of every aspect in your codebase:

Daily code rating

Code metrics by developer

Code metrics by repository

High-impact violations by commit

High-impact violations by developer

Code output timeline

Fat commits

Comments size

Tickets mentioned

Code affected by developer

Developers

Commits

Violations

Overview

A brief description and a huge impact: code quality dashboards examples

Daily code rating📷

This dashboard shows Code Quality Rating for each commit, developer and overall value for a selected period. 4 bands, A+ is best, H is worst. Void are commits with no scannable code.

Code Metrics by developer📷

Aside from Code Quality Rating this chart provides 6 additional data points to understand each developer profile better. The lower the values the better it is. Thus a smaller chart area corresponds to a higher quality output.

Code Metrics by Repository📷

Aside from Code Quality Rating this chart provides 6 additional data points to understand each repository better. The lower the values the better it is. Thus a smaller chart area corresponds to a higher quality of the code.

High-impact violations by commit📷

This dashboard shows an amount of high-impact code issues in each commit. It's important to fix High-Impacts first and not have them in the codebase as they're code issues with highest risk to operational stability and security of your codebase.

High-impact violations by developer📷

Unlike previous code quality dashboards, these charts represent an amount of high-impact code issues existing in the code, split by each developer.

Code output timeline📷

These graphs display an amount of lines of code (LOC) added and deleted. Plus the overall value for each timepoint.

Fat commits📷

Fat commits are an amount of commits that are 8 times bigger than the median commit to the codebase.

Fat commits signal one of the following:

It's a 3-rd party code scanned that distorts the metrics;

It's a legacy code that distorts the metrics;

Some developers prefer to commit big portions of code which isn't the best practice.

Comments size📷

Amount of symbols in commentary to each commit. The chart provides a bird-eye-view on comments sizes. The rule of thumb is that the bigger the comment size the more careful the developer with communicating what he worked with. Consistency is also important.

Tickets mentioned📷

Percentage of tickets mentioned in the comment to each commit comparing to all amount of commits. 75%-100% is the target value, the lesser it is the worse.

Code affected by developer📷

Amount of code added, deleted and affected (touched) by each developer. It's an important chart to identify developers with high influence on the codebase. Developers with a high amount of affected lines of code (LOC) are ones who know the codebase better and are first to contact if something goes wrong.

Developers📷📷

Shows all active committers and their metrics related to repository/project for chosen period. Contains graphs per developer for chosen ratio or metric. Total graph shows overall developer progress and per day graph shows data by commit days only. Expanded developer details show all developer values per commit day.

Commits📷📷

Contains list of scanned commits and merges with metrics related to repository/project for chosen period. If a commit is linked to the Jira issue then it is possible to proceed to this issue in Jira via a link in the "Issue" column. Commits with only supported languages are scanned in a repository.

Supported languages: Python, Java, Java Script, C#, C++, Erlang, PHP, Puppet, Flex, PL/SQL, VB (.Net).

Violations📷📷

Contains a list of all violations related to repository/project for the “Overall” period. Allows to see a snippet of the code that contains violation, fixing recommendations and related standards. Possible to create a Jira issue for any violation.

Overview📷

The chart provides a bird-eye-view of your project

Conclusion

Code quality analysis and audits have become an essential process for every development project today. While it’s a priority for senior executives to increase the productivity of their developers, the average developer spends more than 17 hours a week dealing with maintenance issues, such as debugging and refactoring.

In addition, they spend approximately four hours a week on “bad code”. That is why it is important to use a code quality dashboard in full compliance with requirements of the manager and the project. Thus, Duecode Code quality Dashboards will surely come to your rescue when it comes to delivering quality software

[alexduecode]

SonarQube: How To Measure Your Code Quality in 5 Easy Steps

What is good quality code? Good quality code is a term that explains how software is developed. It is often associated with BETWEEN THE LINES (B UTF) and free-form design. The more lines of code a module has, generally signifies higher quality.

So, how do you determine if your code is good quality or not? Well, it is simple. You use your brain to do it. If you can logically think about the design and functions of the code, then you have a good idea of the quality of the code.

Think of user stories in terms of websites. A user story is a set of goals, actions, or responses that a user takes on the web. A web page or section can have one and only one story per unit. Stories are established by the emotions, thoughts, and experiences of the users who will be reading your content.

How to build a website with good quality code? It\'s easier than you think.

You want your website to be user friendly, reflective of your brand values, and effective. To achieve these goals, you will need to build a website with good quality code.

Here\'s a step-by-step guide on how to build a website with good quality code so that you can reflect your business in a modern, effective way.

Step 1: Define Your objectives

When you set out to build a website, there are many things you need to think about. You\'ll need your website to accomplish a few key tasks, such as:

Protect your business identity and brand reputation

Build your online presence

Survey potential customers

Step 2: Pick a platform

There are many different platforms you can choose from when building your website. These include:

Windows server

Linux server

Macintosh or Linux client

Step 3: Choose a design

There are many different designs you can choose for  your website. These include:

Scenario 1 -  Just want a URL to share?

If you just want a unique address for your website, you can use a service like Godaddy.com. This will give you a short list ofGood Web Hosts based in your area. You can then choose one that offers the features you need.

Scenario 2 - Want to make money from your website?

You can sell products or offers through your website. To do this, you\'ll need to set up a business page on Facebook. This will allow people to contact you directly through the site. Additionally, you\'ll want to set up a payment method for people to use.

Step 4: Analysis

Once you have set your goals for your website, you need to make sure that it\'s appropriate for your location. Take into account the estimated population for your area, the amount of traffic your website will receive, and how much time people will spend on your  website.

If you\'re located in the U.S., you could also look at data from Google or Bing to help you determine what type of website to build. For example, you could look at the top 10,000 websites in the U.S. and determine a few key points about your local population.

With all this information, you can build a website that will provide your business with the exposure it deserves. But be careful not to put too much importance on these numbers. People won\'t click on your website because it\'s not mobile friendly, even if the data suggests it should be.

[alexduecode]

How to Build a Website with Good Quality Code?

Guaranteeing code quality when your website is in the development stage is a colossal task. However, even with a steady number of programming designers, keeping up code quality can be daunting. Without code quality tools and a reliable framework, the entire task can amount to enormous technical debt, doing more harm than good in the long haul.

We've set up a comprehensive guide for you to improve programming through quality code, regardless of whether you work with an in-house team or a product redistributing organization. A few points of this guide may appear glaringly evident and redundant, yet the worth lies in how they interface and develop a working code quality confirmation system.

Let's get right to it!

1.Name your Identifiers Properly

When naming classes, factors, and techniques, it can be tempting to offer names to our strategies out of impulse, especially when they sound right in your mind. As you skim through this article, what stands out to you? By and large, the heading stands out the most. Indeed, in a program, key strategies resemble headings. Thus, when naming classes, variables, functions, etc. try to come up with names that precisely sum up the strategy's substance. If the strategy name turns out to be excessively long or ambiguous, it could convey many things that need to be broken up into different functions.

2.Use a Version Control Tool

A version control tool is the foundation of our framework. The most popular tool for version control is Git. It offers an expanding style guide named GitFlow that facilitates consistent, coordinated effort among colleagues and makes it simple to scale up the team's productivity. It provides a simple-to-follow framework that isolates live items from the less steady designer branch with unpublished highlights. When a designer from your group completes a component, they send a pull request on GitHub. This depicts the substance and the subtleties of the request. This framework ensures that no unreviewed code will be converged with the master branch. A code survey is significant, and you need the correct instruments for it.

3.Use Code Metrics or Linters

Code metrics are a bunch of programming methodologies that give designers better knowledge of their code. By exploiting code metrics, engineers can comprehend what strategies or potential techniques should be improved or completely changed. This way, the development team can identify possible dangers, understand the present status of a task, and track the progress during programming improvement. Similarly, a linter is essential for the style manual for any language. It's software that naturally checks if your code meets the predefined code show rules. You don't need to physically go through the codebase to check if your code matches the rules.

4.Perform Unit Tests

Unit tests pave the way for a bit of code to develop. Unit tests are one of the great coding tests that are often dismissed as they require a lot of time. But, if enough time is dedicated to composing these unit tests and focusing on the code quality, you will see extraordinary enhancements in code quality and power. These eventually convert into a better client experience and make it simpler to broaden the code, with negligible side-effects. A lot of organizations see the incentives of unit tests and consider it valuable.

Last Word

This is how you can make a work process for your group that ensures everybody's code follows a similar style of flow. Apart from testing code quality, it would help if you also screened what occurs with your website when clients begin using it.

Although we realize that composing a bug-free code is nearly impossible, following the measures mentioned above will improve your group's code's nature.

[alexduecode]

How to check code quality?

A variety of difficulties can be faced if the quality of the code is bad. Even the code with bad quality also becomes difficult for its own developer

The quality of the code tells whether the code is good or bad. The code quality matters for software quality. A software or an application with good quality of code will be easy to maintain. But on the other side, if the quality of the code is bad it will be difficult to maintain. Bad code quality can also lead to security risks.

Why should you care about code quality?

When you are writing a code, your aim is to gain a quality code as an output. For every function we perform on our job, keeping quality standards is the ultimate goal. But why should you spend extra hours and efforts when you actually can satisfy the supervisors with an average work?

You can find many compromised and less time consuming solutions for your project. To write a perfect code is a hard work. Most of the programmers use quality coding practices to avoid the accumulation of technical debt in the project. If you want to ensure the debt free code base, you need to produce an output that is fine enough to support the future sprints.

Quality coding is a practice that always pays off!

Consider Marlin, a programmer who is working on one of the components of a software project. The code he writes will be read and altered by many other programmers in the sprints later in the project. He may himself need to review the code in future. Therefore, he prefers to label the functions empirically and leave meaningful comments. This adds quality to his work in the form of increased readability. The code that is readable and well documented is always easy to maintain. These qualities help reduce the chances of creating technical debt.

A variety of difficulties can be faced if the quality of the code is bad. For example, the developer will face difficulty while adding a new feature to an application with bad code quality because it does not has comments or documentation. Even the code with bad quality also becomes difficult for its own developer.

A code with good quality has different characteristics. Below given diagram shows the characteristics of a code with good quality. The first way to check your code is its characteristics. If your code has these characteristics then it has good quality.

Reliability:

A code that is having good quality is reliable i.e. it has the ability to perform error-free operations whenever it runs. To make a code reliable it must be tested in every possible way by using the proper exception handling.

Maintainability:

One of the characteristics of a good code is that it is easy to maintain. The developer can add a new feature in less time with fewer efforts. Also adding a new feature does not affect the functionality of the existing code. This can be achieved by using the proper names for classes, methods, and variables and writing the comments with proper formatting of code.

Reusability:

Good quality code must be able to be reused. It means that the same code can be used for another function or software.

Portability:

Portability means the ability of code to be run in different environments. The code with good quality must be run in different environments without any error.

Testability:

The code also needs to be easy to be tested or verified. Less number of test cases should be required to verify it. The presentation and logic need to be separated.

Performs well on Code Metrics

Code metrics are another way to check the quality of your code. Code metrics are used to analyze the complexity of code and provide better insights to the developer.

To check the quality of your code, analyze it on atleast following three matrics: • WMFP (Weighted Micro Function Points) • Halstead Complexity Measures • Cyclomatic Complexity

If the code has more complexity then it has a bad quality otherwise the quality is good. Some of the metrics are given bellows with a detailed description that can be used to quantify the code quality.

WMFP (Weighted Micro Function Points)

This metric is an algorithm that breaks down your code into different micro functions. For each of these micro functions, it produces the complexity metric. In the end, it gives a single score based on these results. The complexity of code is measured automatically by WMFP.

Halstead Complexity Measures

In 1977, Maurice Howard Halstead introduced these measures. It includes different metrics such as the Program length, Program volume, Halstead vocabulary, Program level, Minimum potential volume, Program difficulty, Programming effort, Language level, Intelligence content, Programming time. Measuring computational complexity is its primary aim. A code with less complexity can easily be maintained.

Cyclomatic Complexity

The structural complexity of the code is measured by this metric. Total linearly independent paths are counted for this purpose. Methods having cyclomatic complexity of more than ten probably contains more defects. Cyclomatic complexity tells the developer about the difficulty of code for testing, maintaining, and troubleshooting.

Measuring Quality Through Quality Tools

Coding mistakes can be easily detected when you have a tool that performs the different checks on the spot. Different tools are available that can be used to ensure the code has good quality. These tools continuously check the source code to tell the developer about the code quality. Some of the tools are listed below that can be used by the developers.

Duecode

It tracks things like user-by-user code contributions over time, ticket activity, and how various team members handle things like pull requests in your team's code repositories on platforms like GitHub. Duecode collects historical git data to provide you with important insights into the workflow patterns of your engineering teams. You don't need to be a coder to understand code quality using Duecode.

Crucible

Atlassian's Crucible is a collaborative code review platform and is largely geared towards the enterprise, and certain capabilities that enable review of a code base.

SonarQube

An open-source platform built by SonarSource for continuous code quality inspection and static code analysis to find defects, code smells, and security vulnerabilities in code written in more than 20 programming languages.

Upsource

A source browser and adaptive review program that handles Git, Mercurial, Subversion, and Perforce. It provides static code analysis and code-aware mobility in a web UI for Java, PHP, JavaScript, and/or Kotlin applications.

Review Board

An open source, web-based code review tool that allows the demo on their website or download and instal the programme on your own server to test this code review tool.

Code Climate

It is an open source and expandable platform for assuring code health. Using the Teams feature of the program, you may improve your user experience by managing massive groups.

Phabricator

It’s also one of the popular code review tool, bug tracker, and the Phriction wiki are all part of the Phabricator suite of web-based software development collaboration tools. Git, Mercurial, and Subversion are all supported by Phabricator.

ESLint

In a nutshell, this is ESLint. Nicholas C. Zakas originally designed ESLint, an open source JavaScript linting software. Linting is commonly used to identify problematic patterns or code that does not follow specific style rules.

Klocwork

In C, C++, Java, and C# code, Klocwork is used to discover security, safety, and reliability concerns. Several desktop plug-ins for developers, as well as metrics and reporting, are included with the solution.

Codacy

Codacy conducts functional testing and analyzes code quality across every contribution and review query, reflecting upon that consequence of each change and pull request, as well as concerns such as code style, best practices, security, and more.

Pylint

This  tool detects software bugs, bugs, styling inadequacies, and questionable patterns in source code. Pylint is a Python program reviewing tool that looks for errors, tries to impose a coding standard, and analyzes software defects

JSHint

JSHint examines the raw data of your program and alerts you to common errors and probable issues. JSHint is a JavaScript-based static analysis tool that aids engineers in spotting inherent pitfalls in their JavaScript code and implementing their squad's JavaScript coding norms.

What Else We Can Do To Ensure Code Quality?

Stick to Proper Code Guidelines:

The code can be checked against the guidelines to check its quality. For example, there are different guidelines to write a good code. It includes proper indentation so that it should be easily readable, there should be proper comments about each method that will help the developer to know about the purpose of each method. It will help in making the changes. If the code follows the guidelines then it has good quality.

Excel in Code Style and Correctness:

Is your code composed effectively? Simply make sure to make the code style steady across the colleagues. Every engineer should utilize a similar code style definition. Recognize copied code and discover potential execution issues.  Coding style is comprised of various little choices dependent on the language. These include how and when to utilize remarks? How much number of spaces or tabs is there per code? How legitimately are the factors named?  And much more!

Test More Frequently:

Another way to check the quality of your code is by testing. The code can be executed against different inputs. If the code performs well against different inputs then it has good quality.

Keep Track of Test Coverage:

Lamentably, now and again you battle to convey another delivery on schedule. Therefore you may not compose appropriate tests that cover your code.

Or think of the last test you made that was not able to cover every potential stream. Thus, there is a need of few measurements to check if your code has been adequately tried or not.

Now you can have an ideal checklist to measure the code coverage before designing a test! Check it in parts for the following compulsions:

Coverage of Statement:

Number of articulations executed during a test isolated by all assertions

Coverage of Branch:

Number of executed conditions isolated by all conditions

Coverage of Capacity/Performance:

Number of executed capacities isolated by all capacities

Coverage of Lines:

Number of lines ran during a test isolated by all lines

An effective improvement work process helps a decent engineer become extraordinary and incredible designers uncommon. These days, CI/CD is the most noticeable strategy to make that progress. CI/CD represents Continuous

Integration/Continuous Deployment. Nonstop Integration is the act of testing each change done to your codebase naturally, as early as could really be expected, while, Continuous Deployment follows the testing that happens during Integration and pushes changes to an orchestrating or creation structure.

Review:

The code can be reviewed by the developer to find bugs that can be removed to make it a good quality code. One of the common ways is to ask for a review from different developers. If they found more bugs in the code then it has bad quality.

Employing Continuous Integration tools:

CI is the most quicker and viable method to ensure quality in your coding projects. Employing these tools, you can make certain that your framework is working!  It makes analysis easy, enabling you to realize new highlights as well as rapidly installing new updates.

You might be wondering, how can you achieve that? It’s made possible by mechanizing the structure, testing, and arrangement of uses. You choose what and when you need to test? And the rest is all automated! No need to tell, it makes things easier and less costly .

How To Monitor Code Quality in Real Life?

Here in duecode, we have a lot of charts that show the code quality of your code. Basically, all of them are based on violations that the developers make. If the developer fixes the violation, overall code quality will be improved.

We believe that our charts show an overall picture and help identify a problem, and then you should go to violations and check them.

For instance, go to the Analysis -> Code Quality tab. Here you'll find all your commits and code quality ratings.

We recommend checking all the commits with bad marks and check all the details of those commits. Especially pay attention to the violations.

Don't have a duecode account? Sign up now and give it a try. It's free.

Conclusion

Good quality of the code helps in developing a good application that can easily be maintained and extensible in the future according to the requirements. So the code should be properly checked for quality through metrics, various software mentioned above and through consistent reviews. This not only reduces future obligations but also makes the code easy to handle and maintain by other developers too.

[alexduecode]

What is Code Quality in Agile?

If your company is developing or planning to develop a software product, how much time are you spending on code quality control, and how much on other things like marketing?

As a CEO, COO, or other c-level managers, you are probably much more concerned about the business side of things, rather than the technical side like checking if the code is written and works properly. Instead, you leave that part to your developers, which is perfectly understandable.

You probably lack the knowledge or the time to deal with this.

But here’s the deal. Your company is tied to that software product inseparably. If the product is poor, it will reflect badly on the business as a whole and you won’t be able to achieve business success.

Code quality is especially important for young companies, especially agile ones. The reason for this is that as a, let’s say, emerging custom software development company, you are faced with much more uncertainty than an already established software development company.

If your business is to have a fighting chance in an uncertain and fluid arena-like, for example, custom software development, against already entrenched competitors, you need to start paying attention to code quality in agile more.

Why is Code Quality Important?

The code is what runs your software. If the code is poor, the software won’t function as you envisioned and this will reflect in the decreased satisfaction of your end-users, or customers.

On the other hand, if the code is of high quality, then this will inevitably result in better customer satisfaction.

But that’s not all. A good, clean code also makes things much easier for your development team.

If they have to deal with poorly organized and written code, they will, as a result, have to spend a lot of their time fixing that code, while not being able to actually improve it.

That means your product and, with it, your business will stagnate.

However, if the code is of high quality, things become much easier for the development team and it can save them a lot of time and energy, that they can then use to further improve the product.

How to Check and Maintain Code Quality in Agile?

Now, taking a look at Agile, the problem of poorly written code becomes even more pronounced. The reason behind this could be that the organization hasn’t truly embraced Agile principles, or it has but it has applied them poorly, or that the ideas of Agile or just not suitable for them (not everyone should be doing Agile).

The main ideas or concepts behind Agile is outlined in the Agile Manifesto:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

Working product over comprehensive documentation.

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.

Responding to change over following a plan.

The problem is that this was written in 2001 and has since shown some lacking. For example, You can’t dismiss planning or processes (though you should be ready to respond to change).

When it comes to software lifecycles, Agile Development typically looks like this:

1st Phase: Requirements

The first phase here is creating a list of requirements that include the end result and the supporting features.

2nd Phase: Design

In the 2nd phase the dev team is assembled and the requirements. The team then discusses how to approach these requirements and what tools to use.

3rd Phase: Coding and Development

Now we come to the most important part of the software lifecycle, which is coding and development. This is where Agile developers need to walk a fine line between writing code quickly, but also maintaining its quality.

In this stage, Agile devs shouldn’t be cutting corners, but every little bit like low-code development options such as Appian and Caspio or automating helps.

4th Phase: Integration and Testing

The next phase is all about ensuring that the code is clean and compatible with whatever developers have written before.

This phase can take frustratingly long and slow down the project as you try to hunt down every possible mistake and bug and that’s not something you have much time for in Agile.

Since time is often of the essence, software developers, but also executives, can quickly check how the software development goes using a code quality rating tool like Duecode.io. With this tool, you can better understand how your code performs based on a code quality rating from A+ to H.

For instance, this can help identify the poor link in the team that is underqualified and is slowing the rest down, or analyze the performance of the entire team.

Phase 5:Implementation and Deployment

Now the software is finally deployed and offered to the customer and we are just waiting for his input, like what features we are missing or if there are any bugs that we missed.

Phase 6:Review

Finally, the team gathers again and talks about the project and if they were able to complete the requirements for this stage. If they have, they move on to the next one.

Conclusion

Understanding code quality is important for the success of your software development project and with it the entire success of your business. As a c-level manager and non-tech executive, you may not have the background to understand it that well.

However, maintaining code quality in Agile poses a new challenge due to some misunderstandings about Agile Development that higher-ups often have.

Or, as the creator of the Agile Manifesto, Robert C. Martin pointed out:

“The Agile movement shifted dramatically towards the project management side”

The developers might not be always happy about it, but managers need to start better understanding Agile. If the two meet somewhere in the middle, they can accomplish great things.

The question of how to check and maintain code quality in Agile has a very different meaning and answer if you’re a manager or executive than if you’re a developer.

As a developer, your primary and often only concern would be to simply get it to work so you can release it and move on to other things.

But as a business owner or exec, you need to think about how your software is doing on the market. With poor quality code, it won’t do very well.

[alexduecode]

Code Quality Standards

With the boom of the internet in the late ’90s and the early 2000s, the IT industry saw a huge revolution. With companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon launching some exciting products and quickly gaining the customer base, we were quite sure that the next few years will be dominated by the IT Industry and more of the exciting products and stuff was yet to come. We were then introduced to some trending technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality.

While all of these technologies sound very cool and are interesting to work with as well, the base of all these trending technologies is a Programming Language.

Programmers or Developers are required to stick to certain standards when they are writing production-ready codes. These standards vary from company to company. This is the reason why companies spend a lot of money and resources while training fresh graduates. Therefore having knowledge of code quality standards is very important for any developer. In this article, we will be discussing ‘code quality standards’ and will also have a look at why it is essential to follow them.

Software is required to be safe, secure, portable, testable, maintainable, and reliable. Coding rules, standards, and guidelines help to ensure whether or not the end product satisfies all of the above requirements. Coding Standards also vary from one Programming Language to another. C Programming Language has a different coding standard whereas C++ has another set of rules to ensure the code quality. We will also discuss this at a later stage. As of now, we have listed below some coding standards that are common across all programming languages.

Naming Conventions for Local variables, Global variables, and Functions: It goes without saying that variables and functions should be named in such a way that it should convey the reason behind using the particular name. Also, local variables and functions should be written using Camel Case i.e. starting with small letters whereas Global variables names should start with Capital Letters.

Indentation: Code readability is quite an essential factor when writing production-ready codes. The nested blocks must be appropriately spaced and indented. The opening and closing of braces must be from a new line and it is also important to leave a space after comma while writing the arguments of a function.

Standard Headers for Different Modules: We have always mentioned the fact that a good code is a code that is well maintained. In order to achieve better maintainability of the code, it is important that the header of different modules should follow some standard format and information. It should contain the name of the module, author of the module, the date of creation, modification history, and a guide regarding different functions used in the module and the input and the output parameters.

DRY Principle: DRY stands for Don’t Repeat Yourself. Many times it happens that we are calculating/using the same thing again and again which increases the number of lines in the code. The longer the code gets, the more difficult it becomes to maintain it. Therefore this principle comes in very handy. It asks the developers to check if they can convert certain parts of code into functions and simply call them as and when required. Therefore, the code becomes more readable and maintainable.

Well Documented: A well-documented code is liked by one and all. Documentation helps the developers know the intention behind writing this piece of code and it gives them an insight about what to expect in further iterations. At the same time, it is very important to write comments in your code. It increases the understandability of the code and it becomes easier not only for you but your fellow developers as well, in case someone wants to make certain modifications in the code.

On researching more on this, we landed on the Microsoft Documentation Page that talks about Coding Style Conventions. They follow ‘Hungarian’ notation and they include variable prefix notation that gives variable names a suggestion of the type of the variable. For example, they use the prefix ‘a’ for an array, ‘b’ for boolean, ‘f’ for a flag, ‘i’ for integer, etc.

Talking about different coding standards for different programming languages, Embedded C has different coding standards like MISRA and CERT while Embedded C++ has standards like High-Intensity C++, JSF C++, and Autosar.

Without going into much detail, there are different external coding standards as well which include IEC 61508, ISO 26262, IEC 62061, etc.

However, Code Review is another part that plays a great role in the success of software. A proper Code Review is very essential before pushing a code into production.

We hope this article gave you valuable insights regarding the Code quality standards and we also hope you will sincerely follow the next time while coding anything.

Want to learn more about code quality? Take a look at the "Complete Code Quality Guide".

[alexduecode]

What is Code Quality Rank?

You need no technical qualification to understand what happens under the hood of your project. Based on analyzing 2.5 bln. lines of code and 172k repositories we found it possible to condense a code quality summary to the one letter rank.

Main Idea

Our product is based on the idea of simplicity. Any person who doesn’t even have a special technical background, will be able to understand immediately what is happening with the codebase by just looking at the results of our analysis: is it getting better, or, perhaps, it’s only getting worse; see who and when introduced low-quality code or vice versa—has cleaned the Augean stables.

As a result of negotiations, such a global high-level idea has transformed into the idea of ratings.

How Does Rating Work?

As we have already mentioned, the rating is a generalized assessment. So, it generalizes something and consists of multiple parts. Yes, it is true.

We use SonarQube as a “backend” for collecting quality indicators of source code. And, therefore, the process of obtaining a code quality rating is quite simple: Launch SonarQube; Obtain stats from SonarQube; Feed the resulting statistics to our algorithm; ??? PROFIT!!! The rating is calculated!

Several Technical Details

So, as we have already found out, each commit and repository differ by the number of code lines used by technology and language, as well as the number and type of violations. Our goal is to make sure that the resulting estimates are independent of these parameters, in other words, so that you can:

Compare the code written in one language but in different volumes;

Compare the code written in different languages;

Compare developers;

Compare repositories. How To Compare Repositories With Each Other?

Obviously, the repository containing no violations at all will always get the best rating. But what if, for example, there are ten violations in a repository? Is it a lot or not? It all depends on the number of code lines in your repository. If there are only ten of them, then this is not very comforting news for you! But if there are hundreds of thousands of lines of code, then this is already a fairly clean code. Is it possible to say that in this case, these two repositories are comparable in the code quality?

Our algorithm answers this question by setting an appropriate rating for the code quality depending on the number of lines, and number and types of violations encountered in this repository.

In other words, we compare the number of code lines in the newly analyzed repository against the already analyzed ones for a given language. Then, we find repositories similar in volume and look at the number of violations in the analyzed repository in comparison to those we already have analyzed. If it’s low, we mark the code as good, if there are a lot of violations, the mark is worse.

How to Compare Two Ratings For Different Languages?

It’s very easy! You simply compare the ratings with each other, without thinking about what language your repository is in, nor about how many lines of code are there in it! Our approach frees you from these worries! Repositories become comparable regardless of language and number of code lines!

Thus, our algorithm fully meets the goals.

Why Didn’t You Choose Another Approach?

We have experimented with different approaches.

The simplest approach was based on a simple comparison of violation density. But the key drawback of this approach was that it made it impossible to compare repositories using different programming languages. Such an approach, with all its simplicity, was limiting the possibility of its use by the framework of one language. Estimates became incomparable.

We have also experimented with well-known machine learning approaches—classification and clustering. But, as the practice has shown, and you saw it from the graphs above, there are no clusters in the distribution of the number of errors in the repositories.

With the classification, the problem was even more interesting. Since classification requires labeled data (there should have been indications of whether the code in the repository is good or bad), the problem turned out to be an Ouroboros. We need quality classes of program code, but to get them, we need to build a classification model. And to build a classification model, you need quality classes of program code.

Only the good old statistical approach was left, which we have used. Our approach is based on the construction of a multidimensional probability density function for errors in the source code, the level lines of which are our ratings. And this approach is working! Moreover, this approach fully satisfies our requirements for the rating system.

Pros And Cons of Our Rating System

Simplicity and clarity even for a software development newcomer;

The ability to compare developers writing in the same language;

The ability to compare developers using different languages;

The ability to compare repositories by code quality;

The honesty of the Rating System.

What Does Honesty Mean?

Here I would like to talk about one case.

We’ve built rating models for different languages ​​and launched them on in-house production servers. As we work and scan the repositories and commits inside the company, we have accumulated some data displayed on our dashboard.

And then, something unexpected happened! It turned out that the ratings of Java, JavaScript, and PHP developers were on average worse than those of Golang developers! And, of course, the blame was on the DS department, which was said to set up these rating models, strongly discriminating individual languages ​​and technologies!

The DS department just pointed out that we had just really great Golang developers, without going into details. Such excuses satisfied the unsatisfied group only for a short time. And finally, when the situation was already quite tense and the people began to demand answers, the DS department started an internal investigation, the result of which is this article. The purpose of this article is to add transparency and clarify the understanding of the principles of the constructed rating system. After all, no one likes when their work is evaluated by some mysterious model that works, as it seems, like a black box.

[alexduecode]

Code Quality Tools for Engineering Managers

As technology is advancing, computing and development industries are expanding drastically. Programming is becoming a major shareholder of the world’s job market. Software development, web development, and software engineering have become the fields of tomorrow. Not only do they guarantee high-end jobs but also provide great room for growth.

Code quality has always been a major issue amongst these communities. As the industry is booming, more and more people are inclined towards getting a degree in these fields. Hence, leading to a number of low-quality programmers making their way into the computing and development world.

To cater to the code quality issues, there are several online tools available today. To discuss some of the best options available in the market:

����

1.SonarQube

SonarQube is an online code reviewing tool that makes sure all your coding modules are analyzed for their quality. Packed with a range of features, it helps you write good quality code without much hassle.

SonarQube majorly deals with comments, bugs, coding rules, duplications, and complexity, ensuring that your code is always of the best quality. It runs the code against a default set of rules, improving the code written by new developers, making it error-free and more efficient.

Pros

Highlights the issues

Code analytics are available

Easily integrated with IDE

Easy to find bugs

Scalable

Cons

No support form for the JIRA plugin

Not all IDE support SonarQube

No live code coverage percentage

📷

2.Upsource

Upsource is another great tool that you can use for checking your code quality. It is specifically an excellent choice for ‘review and project analytics.’ It helps you optimize your overall workflow and track your progress. Further, it also finds design flaws in your system and easily detects project-wise issues. You can also integrate Upsource into your environment.

The platform is also relatively affordable as compared to some of its market alternatives. It also offers a free trial, so you are fully satisfied with the service before committing to anything. There is also ample documentation and demos available to help you through any issue you might face.

Pros

Watch git repositories

Track commits in a branch

JetBrains IDE integration

Ability to add comments

Cons

Not very efficient

A web-based interface is not very attractive

📷

3.Crucible

Similar to the above platforms, Crucible is also packed with a range of features to allow for effective and efficient code quality analysis. It lets you review code, share knowledge, discuss changes, and pinpoint errors across Git, CVS, Mercurial, SVN, and Perforce. You can also integrate it with Jira, Bamboo, Bitbucket, and hundreds of other development tools available today.

Crucible also allows for collaborative reviews and features an intuitive dashboard from where you can track your team’s progress and comments. It also has a time tracking feature that reports how much time each user spends reviewing the code – making it a perfect tool if you are a group leader who needs to keep eyes on all your team members!

Pros

Pre-commit preview

Post commit preview

Integration with JIRA

Linux version available

User friendly

Cons

Not completely integrated with the development workflow

📷

4.Duecode.io

Duecode.io is a standout code review tool that can serve as an analytics dashboard for all your coding projects. It tracks your team’s progress and code on online repositories like GitHub and helps you better understand the overall dynamics of your work.

It is capable of tracking user-by-user code, ticket activity, commits, and how the team members react to different activities. It aggregates the data and gives you insights into your team and its working, allowing you to help them get better.

Duecode.io can come in particularly handy for people in charge, for instance, business owners, technical leaders, delivery managers, and software developers. It can help improve the management and ensure efficient and effective work from the teams.

The platform also features a novel rating system known as Code Quality Rating, that rates code by comparing it with a database of over 2.5 billion lines of code. This helps compare the coding skills of developers even if they work with different programming languages.

Pros

Easy tracking of your team

Free 30-day trial

Live chat option

Perfect for people in charge

Analytics

Cons

Doesn't have IDE integrations

📷

5.Phabricator

Phabricator offers several high-quality features packed in a single platform. It lets you review, test, and discuss code and projects from one place.

It is a complete tool built for your development processes. It contains applications that can aid with your tasks and sprints. Further, it lets you review code and host SVN, Mercurial, or Git repositories.

You can also build with continuous integration, have conversations in internal chat channels, and review designs, allowing for effective collaboration between team members.

Phabricator is also scalable, open-source, and pretty efficient when it comes to code reviews. The dashboard is also very intuitive and can help you keep track of everything in the repositories without any hassle. The interface is user-friendly and easily understandable, so you can navigate through the platform effortlessly.

Pros

Task tracker

Pre-commit review

Post commit review

Chat channels

Graphic review tools

Cons

The time tracking tool is average

File management is not that great

Not very flexible

Might not be very budget-friendly

Conclusion

Code quality review tools can help manage the overall progress of your project and help write efficient and effective code. Choosing the best platform is entirely dependent on your requirements and budget. Overall, Duecode.io is a commonly used tool and has several positive reviews, making it an optimal choice for your code review processes.

[alexduecode]

Complete Code Quality Guide

Measuring the quality of code

Just like quality assurance is done in manufacturing, testing code quality is also done in software development. While developing software or if you're inspecting code written by your team, you need to make sure you verify its quality at every level of development before it gets more complex. In the world of software, the phrase code quality can be interpreted in different ways by different industries and teams.

However, there are some code quality measuring parameters that cut across all industries and teams. In this article, I am going to share with you everything you need to know about code quality, why it is necessary, and how it is measured.

The code quality assurance methods that I am going to share can be used to verify code quality on both your local machine or GitHub code quality.  Just make sure you read till the end.

What is code quality?

Code quality refers to the measure of how good code for executing a given task is written. So, code that is not written well enough can be referred to as bad quality code, whereas code that is written well can be referred to as good quality code.

The quality of code can be asses by either the programmer, CTO, or even the CEO in some cases.

Why you need to measure code quality

Just like Bill Gates said,

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

The progress of programming should be assessed by not only the quantity of code but by quality too. Here is why:

· It is necessary for continuity: If you are building any software, having poor quality code will make it hard for the next person or team to take on the project.

· To avoid having to make too many modifications in the future: If you don't measure code quality early enough, you will likely have to make modifications in the future that would likely lead to more financial costs and a waste of time.

· To build a good reputation as a brand: When you write poor quality code, the end program will not be as effective and efficient as it should be. Such work could damage your reputation as a brand in the long run. So, measuring code quality can help you avoid all this.

· It eases team collaboration: Doing a code quality check will ensure that the code written by every programmer on the team is easily understood by the rest of the team members. This is important for the project that requires collaborative efforts.

·Nurturing: code quality checking works best for junior developers. In that case, senior engineers can spend less time on code review and also less time to explain why it is worth writing this way and not otherwise. It will also be useful for more experienced workers who start to learn new technologies.

Why is it so important for business?

How to measure the quality of code

Here are some of the parameters used to measure the quality of code

Maintainability

It is almost impossible to write code that is free of bugs, especially if you are working on complex software projects that requires writing programs with several lines of code. That is why it is necessary to make it easy to fix any errors that could be in the code without taking a lot of time.

For instance, if fixing a few lines code takes hours or even days because it affects the major part of the program, it means that code is not easily maintainable and hence poor-quality code.

Good quality code should be efficient

Any software program runs using computing hardware resources. Efficient code uses the minimum possible hardware resources that it needs to get the intended task done. A program that uses more hardware resources that it requires is considered not efficient, which means its code is not of good quality.

Another way of measuring efficiency is the time it takes for the code to do the intended task. A program that takes less time to run is considered to be more efficient hence having code quality code than one that takes more time.

Readability and formatting

Good quality code should be easy to read for even beginner programmers. The formatting and spacing used while writing programs should also follow the standards of the programming language used to write the program.

Code that is properly formatted and easy to read is considered to be of good quality than code that is harder to read and not properly formatted.

Adding comments to the code also improves readability, which further boosts its quality. So, while doing code quality assurance, you need to take note of whether the comments are used wherever they are required.

A large codebase is hard to read and difficult to find the right part of the code in it, so this issue should be avoided.

Extensibility

Extensibility in coding refers to the level of flexibility of adding more features in your program. Good quality should make adding new features to the program easy and shouldn't require making a lot of modifications for the code to run properly.

Use of code quality analysis tools

There are several software programs out there that were designed to measure the quality of code. Here are some of the most commonly used ones that you can try out.

1. Reshift: This is a SaaS platform that developers can be used to check for any deficiencies in the code before going ahead to deploy it to production. It is used mainly for programs written in Java, .Net, and C#.

2. duecode.io: It is a SaaS platform that can be used by both top management and the real programmers to assess the quality of code. duecode.io will surely help you improve the quality of code – and the good news is it supports several programming languages. This tool can be used for up to 30 days for free and you don’t even have to give in your credit card details to get this trial period.

3. Embold: This is another code quality analysis tool that can is used to assess the robustness, maintainability, stability and security of your code. Embold supports over ten programming languages and can be integrated into GitHub, Azure, Bitbucket, and Git.

4. PVS-Studio:  It is a software quality analysis tool that is used to check for bugs and any security vulnerabilities in code written in languages like C#, C++, C, and Java. The good news is PVS-Studio can be used on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

5. SonarQube: It is an online code reviewing tool that makes sure all your coding modules are analyzed for their quality. Packed with a range of features, it helps you write good quality code without much hassle.

There are several other code quality analysis tools that you use to measure the quality of your code. All you need to do is look for one that suits the language used to write the program whose quality you intend to measure.

[alexduecode]

How to Improve Software Development Productivity?

Software development takes time and effort and requires patience, but if it’s taking too long it can hurt the business. That’s why it’s important to always consider what you can do to improve your software development productivity.

In this article, I am going to explore a couple of software development productivity killers and give you a few tips on how to improve your software development team’s productivity.

Software Development Productivity Pitfalls

First, let’s explore some of the most obvious software development productivity pitfalls there are. I feel that, without knowing these beforehand, it’s very hard to find what will increase productivity.

These “killers” are:

1.Not choosing the right methodology

Every software development methodology has its pros and cons and you should choose what works for your software and team and not what’s modern or what others are using.

For instance, while Agile is an excellent choice for software or applications that require frequent releases, it might not be the best choice where release cycles are longer than a few weeks and software is more complex and needs to be installed on the end-user side or servers instead of the cloud.

2.Using the wrong technology

There can be numerous reasons why software developers might be using the wrong technology. Perhaps it’s something they’ve been using before and are familiar with, perhaps it’s something new and popular, or there can be any number of reasons.

That’s all okay as long as the technology works for our context. If it doesn't, don't let your team get bogged down with it. If it’s not compatible or doesn’t have the necessary functionality you need, or doesn’t pass the test code quality, don’t use it.

If it’s not compatible or doesn’t have the necessary functionality you need, or doesn’t pass the test code quality, don’t use it3.You don’t have a long-term product strategy

What is your long-term product strategy? Do you even have one? Or did you once have it, but forgot it?

A software development process should take much more into account than a short-sighted “what the customer/user wants now” approach. Yes, you should still pay close attention to this, but start thinking more about how the software can help your business model and long-term growth.

How to Improve Software Development Productivity

Okay, now that we got a few SD productivity killers out of the way (there are many more) we can move on to actual ways to improve software dev productivity.

1.Go lean

If something doesn’t add value, but only wastes productivity, get rid of it. Go through your software development cycle step by step and eliminate anything that produces waste.

On the same note, if there’s a better and faster way to do something, don’t get stuck in the old ways. For instance, if you need to review code, start using automated code review tools instead of having your testers do it like pedestrians.

2.Be sure to fully support your devs

This one is for all of you managers that never leave your office to see how your developers are doing. I once had the pleasure of seeing how software development productivity suffers when the founder locks himself in the office and only concerns himself with “fun stuff” like marketing. Something like code quality testing just didn’t interest him that much.

Your software development team is more than a bunch of code writers, so don’t treat them as such. Every one of them has something they bring to the table and you should have a team that includes project managers, designers, developers, QA testers, etc.

3.Eliminate the sunk cost fallacy

I already mentioned that, if the methodology or technology you are using is not working for you, eliminate it. Don’t suffer a process, service, or a tool either that’s not working and is causing continuous problems.

Don’t be afraid to move on if it’s not working. Push your team to adapt instead of trying to drive through a wall over and over. And remember, developers are still humans and humans make mistakes from time to time.

4.Look for a 3rd-party service before you try to build something custom

Yes, you might have a team of developers that can build something in-house for you, but why do that if somebody else already made available a third-party service you could use?

you might have a team of developers that can build something in-house for you, but why do that if somebody else already made available a third-party service you could use?

It would be nice if your team are experts on everything, but not hold hopes for that. Instead of trying to do everything on their own, find good 3rd-party services that are proven and will work for you and take out at least some of the burden off your team.

Even if you don’t end up working with that service or tool, take that as an opportunity to learn.

5.Automate everything you can

Sure, there are some things that you won’t be able to automate (at least not fully), but when it comes to the Software Development Life Cycle, almost anything can be automated.

You should embrace automation whenever and wherever you can. For instance, testing code quality can take valuable time that developers might better use to improve the software with new features and functionalities.

A code quality analyzer like Duecode can speed this process and give business owners, software devs, delivery managers, and tech leaders a better view of whether the code meets the requirements or not.

Conclusion

As I said at the very beginning, software development takes time and effort. Custom software development, for example, can take anywhere from 3-4 to 9-10 months. It’s going to have its ups and downs, barriers, pitfalls, and other obstacles that you’re just going to have to cope with.

Different phases of the SDLC will take different times as well. For example, the design might take 2-4 weeks, development for up to 6 months, and testing at least 3 weeks. But within each of these phases, there will be numerous opportunities to improve your software development productivity.

I’ve given you here several tips on how you can improve that productivity. Now it’s up to you to implement these the best way it suits your software team and business.

[alexduecode]

7 Best Project Management Tools for Remote Teams

Project Management for a team is an important task at the best of times. Many processes make a project successful- scheduling, planning, executing, and other stages. However, project management can get trickier when your team is distributed across the world and working remotely. There are certain challenges with visibility, communication, and synchronous collaborations involved when a team works remotely. Hence, we must rethink and find alternatives to monitor their efforts and coordinate among themselves. There are certain challenges with visibility, communication, and synchronous collaborations involved when a team works remotely Fortunately, there are many tools and software available online that facilitate work remotely. Some tools can assist in processes like project scrutinization, task triage, and synchronizing and sketching the team’s development. While it is a long list of project management tools, some listed below allow a group to perform on a platform productively.

1. Productboard

Productboard is one of the conventional apparatus for filing, affiliating, and priority setting every task of the project. The features, including a board, can be utilized to maintain and trace various projects’ status. Also, you have the liberty to generate more than one board that you want to depict multiple models of the task. You can add user influence scores to analyze the product’s success and custom-design status classification to track work progress. The insights feature is an amazing component in this tool that helps a team to manage response, analysis, and appeals in one location for quick access. It assists in managing negative feedback, strategic planning, and KPI monitoring.

2. Airtable

Airtable is a versatile task management instrument utilized in various ways based on its structure and approach to the task. Airtable has its uses to make a development-related register to classify all management ideas, scoped features pitches, and various assignment pattern dates. It is also functional for individual projects that other groups are progressing on. Moreover, there are options to see the same content from various points of view to understand the product better. A feature like this allows the team to imagine and develop their task in their preferred way. This enhances creativity and efficiency among group members and enables them to see things from a new perspective.

3. DueFocus

The core aspect of project development is delivering the project before the due date. Hence, keeping track of the hour used on completing the assignment is important for handing over the project on time and within budget. DueFocus has an automated system that captures the time a group has utilized on the project, right down to divided tasks and stages. This helps in the accurate billing of the project. DueFocus is useful in tracking project budget spend, reviewing project activities, and pulling up quick, professional reports. It also has a unique feature that tracks overlooked bill hours, such as overrun conferences, away-from-work messages, traveling, and the real project development process. It is one of the reliable instruments to find an accurate idea of the project’s cost.

4. Duecode

Duecode is a code quality analysis instrument that accumulates historical git data to provide valuable insights into the engineering group’s workflow patterns. This code quality checker is an analytical dashboard for code projects. It analyzes code repositories on services like GitHub, tracking things like user-by-user code, commitments over time, and ticket activities, among other benefits. This code quality analyzer also helps understand the members’ activities and the way they tackle things like pull requests. With Duecode, one doesn’t need to hire code developers to understand the code quality. With Duecode, one doesn’t need to hire code developers to understand the code quality It helps c-level managers, VP of engineers, directors of engineers, others to understand the development of the code in their products. The best thing about this tool is it simplifies the code quality analysis and makes it more understandable for non-tech managers. You get evidence-based support and management for your task. These data points help in effective decision-making related to the assignment.

5. Basecamp

Basecamp is an amazing tool to gather all files, attachments, assets, etc. in one location. It is one of the most significant tasks in communication hubs, that one can find. Moreover, one can quickly catch-up with project-related discussions and progress that ensures that you don’t miss the project’s development. Moreover, features like ‘post’ help you write project pitches, background reports, and comprehensive analyses of the topic. The comment feature allows you to trace and gather weekly development and brainstorm through the problems. It is an indispensable instrument for sharing the project’s main points with other groups like sales, marketing, and consumer management groups.

6. SonarQube

SonarQube is another code quality analyzer to test code quality to ensure that the code files, code projects, folders, and modules are always top quality. It focuses on comments, coding rules, potential bugs, complexities, and duplications related to the projects. It helps connect team members when working on a task. It enhances the workflow through continuous code quality assurance.

7. Clubhouse

A Clubhouse is the most straightforward approach to start a venture. It's pre-arranged format spares a great deal of time. You need to simply make a story for any new assignment, task, or highlight. The Epics and Achievement following highlights make it simpler to follow the ground of the group overall. Also, it lets people track how their commitment is adding to the task’s advancement, therefore supporting group commitment. One may utilize it for specialized execution and real item assembling. It permits task planning, enabling engineers, content makers, and architects to work together and address explicit issues.

Last Word: Remote Management with Remote Tools

Undertaking remote management is fruitful only when you have proficient apparatuses to work with. A team needs to be in contact continually, to make a task productive. Code-testing instruments like Duecode helps in making great codes for an effective work process. Then again, tools like DueFocus assistance allow the group to monitor their time and spending plan, which is of imperative significance while executing a venture. Remote management is conceivable only when effective devices are available to assist the group with correspondence, proficiency, and profitability.

[alexduecode]

How To Control When The Team Is On Fire?

This world is highly unpredictable. No matter how well-managed and organized an event or process is, there are still chances that an unforeseen problem may occur. In the world of software development, these unforeseen events and problems are narrated as “being on fire”.

For example, if a C-level manager quotes that “his team is on fire” it means an unforeseen problem has occurred that can cause him and his team some serious consequences. Similarly, the process of allocating resources in order to tackle these unforeseen problems is called firefighting. The word fire is specifically used to orient such conditions in the software development world because fire reflects the unpredictable nature of these problematic events.

A software development team is on fire is clearly the most undesirable condition to face as a C-level manager. In the worst conditions, being on fire can result in not just a flopped project but it can also harm the reputation of the company as well. This emergency condition can occur in different forms depending on the project as well as circumstances.

For example, you are a COO of a company and you’ve reached the release date of a very important software development project. You and your team have invested a lot of resources on this project and suddenly you find that your team is on fire. You figured out that one of your newly joined team-member ignored a small bug in a module of the project that is now creating a negative impact on the end-results of the project output.

Any delay in the delivery may cost you a cancellation of this project you have been working on for the last month. This is surely a situation you do not want to be in as a COO. The condition gets even more complex when you are a non-coder COO. Though it is not a compulsion that you must be a coder to become a better C-level manager of a software development company, it can make things even worse under such firefighting situations.

In the modern business world, especially in the software development paradigm where budgets are fixed and deadlines are sharp, the margin of error is too small. It is better to adopt a proactive approach instead of reacting to such fire spread conditions.

in the software development paradigm where budgets are fixed and deadlines are sharp, the margin of error is too small

How Duecode can help C-level managers when a team is on fire?

Duecode with its highly accurate and multi-dimensional analytical abilities can help C-level managers. It can serve as a technical lens even for the C-level managers with non-coding backgrounds. With Duecode’s code tracking tools, you can get clear and accurate insights about what is happening with the code and the product anytime in the software development process.

Duecode with its technical insights can help C-level managers in firefighting conditions and can offer great control. For example, let's take the same scenario discussed earlier when the team is on fire near to the release date of a very important software development project. How Duecode can help C-level managers to a firefight in such emergency conditions?

Duecode offers COO with accurate analytical insights about activities, milestones, and individual performances ranked on the basis of multiple code quality ranking factors.

Duecode offers COO with accurate analytical insights about activities, milestones, and individual performances ranked on the basis of multiple code quality ranking factors

In such emergency conditions, one of the major concerns of any C-level manager is to immediately diagnose and figure out the actual cause of the problem. Diagnosis of the root cause of a problem is extremely important in firefighting as it saves a lot of time, effort, and resources.

Using Duecode COO can easily diagnose and identify the actual cause of a problem and without wasting any time he can allocate all the required resources to resolve the root cause of the problem. COO can easily track the lagging factor in the team and the project by using activity metrics and quality metrics on individual assignment level and the initiator of the bug can be easily spotted.

Code Quality Rank

The quality ratings and risk reports can easily point towards the weakest and the doubtful link of the project. After a timely and accurate diagnosis of the bug, the COO will now be able to move forward to the next step of the firefighting plan that is finding a solution.

COO can also predict the amount of effort and abilities needed to resolve the issue with assistance from Duecode’s code quality analysis tools. In fire spread conditions it is extremely important to make the right decisions immediately in order to prevent any further loss.

With the help of Duecode’s analysis and reports from activity metrics, the COO of the company or any other C-level manager can immediately assign the emergency and crashing tasks to the developers with the right abilities. In the worst cases, the COO can outsource the problematic activity or module to the developers outside the company as well.

With the unambiguous and accurate insights provided by Duecode’s code review service, things are much easier to control when a team is on fire. C-level managers feel more in control and aware of what is happening with code at any moment or phase of the project. This control and awareness offered by Duecode’s code quality analyzers prove to be even vital when a team is on fire.

Using Duecode, C-level managers can be on the proactive side as well and can use Duecode as a disaster management plan as well. Duecode can help C-level managers by giving them full access and control over their individual, team, and module-based activities.

Duecode offers special modules to ensure that the code your development team is writing meets the international development standards. This module uses some specially designed code quality assurance approaches like code quality analysis and code quality assurance.

Duecode offers Code Quality Ratings of specific activities as well as milestones based on your preferences. These code quality ratings are generated using a code quality analyzer after a comparison of a number of code quality factors with international standards. The code quality rating lets even the non-developer managers get a clear idea about the quality of the product. Alongside overall code quality rating, you as a manager can view separate code quality factors as well.

[alexduecode]

Bad Code Meme

What is it with bad code meme? I mean, come on, guys; it is nothing new, right? Sure, it is a kind of internet humor that can make you laugh or bring a tear to your eye. But the funny part is, there are people out there who take this stuff far too seriously. They go as far as to get offended at the minor things.

So, what is it with a bad code meme? If you have not heard of them yet, let me tell you in this article.

WHAT IS A BAD CODE MEME?

"Bad Code Meme" is a relatively recent term coined by someone with "bad code". The phrase was created when someone was asked what they thought the definition of "Bad" was.

The response they gave was, "A code that I will not code anymore".

This term has since taken off on various discussion boards throughout the web. While it is true that the phrase "Bad Code" has been around for quite some time, the term Bad Code Meme is relatively new.

WHAT IS MEANT BY A BAD CODE?

"Bad Code" is a funny phrase that programmers first introduced into the internet via 4chan. Someone posted a picture of themselves with a bunch of text superimposed over an image of what appeared to be a skateboard. The phrase began to go viral and spread from there.

With its fame came the term: "Bad Code Meme".

The term "Bad Code" refers to a type of internet message board that exists on several message boards. It is a place where you can go to say whatever you want. All you have to do is type in a subject, any topic, even a question. There are usually hundreds or thousands of people that will respond to your post. That's the beauty of it; no one will get offended or tell you what you are doing is wrong.

REASON WHY BAD CODE MEME IS POPULAR?

"Bad Code Meme" is used in the context of internet humor. The phrase describes cheesy, harmful, or funny pictures (often from a software or web browser) and texts. Some people may associate the term with the movie "Office Space". There are many sources of bad code Memes on the internet, including some of your favorite funny videos. If you want to add some of your bad code Memes, here are some easy steps:

WHAT IS “I WILL NOT WRITE ANY MORE BAD CODE MEME”?

There are many great examples of bad code memes, and they are all over the web. But let's talk about a couple of them here.

"I will not write any more bad code meme." I hear this a lot from those who have started a blog or are about to create one. The reason why they say that is because they have seen it all and done it all themselves. I have no problem with that, but the question is, “how can we stop writing that bad code?”

The answer is in two parts. In part one, I will explain why we bad code reviewers sometimes end up writing bad code. Then, I will explain why bad code reviewers sometimes want to stop us from writing bad code in part two. In short, we all write bad code, but we can learn from our mistakes and work to improve our coding skills.

The solution? Write less bad code. With minimal time, effort, and resources, you can write your way out of the writing bad code trap. I will not write any more bad code meme today! Happy coding!

WHAT IS BAD CODE DIPLOMA MEME?

Bad code is like a diploma. It proves you spent time in school just to learn how to program!

Although this meme is nothing more than a brief silhouette with the text “emoji” that has been frequently reproduced and regarded as a symbol or motto of a particular culture, group or individual. The internet is littered with countless examples, but these days there are countless memes for just about bad code. It’s very hard to explain a meme sometimes. Just like this one! Bad code is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s probably not that funny.

HOW BAD CODE MEME PROVE REAL?

Coding is easy, but writing good code requires practice. When you see your team member’s unholy mess of spaghetti code on the wall, hopefully, the context of this quote will bring a smile to your face! It’s friendly humor that helps put things into perspective!

When I was in the middle of a big refactor, I realized something. I was creating bad code, even though I knew what I was doing. I made invalid classes, null pointers, and memory leaks, even though I knew I was doing so right then. It wasn't until I read that article that I realized I was doing something wrong - but I didn't know what to do.

At that point, I decided to sit down and get serious about why I was writing bad code. It took me a few days, but I finally got it together. I felt a sense of relief after I was finally done.

The lesson was when you go through such a trauma; you need to relax by a fun meme about coding!

BOTTOM LINE:

No doubt, it’s a hilarious ‘me too’ moment for all coders, when they write code for 4 hours and it does nothing. You might know the feeling; you've been staring at the computer screen for hours, banging your head against the wall, not knowing what could possibly be wrong. And then it's gone...

You can even be a bad boy. All you need is a bad code meme, some free time, and a way to post that bad code diploma meme for free online.

Interestingly, the bad code meme have loyal followers and even have their slang! I'm sure there have been some really bad Memes on the net before, but this is different!