Importance of Code Quality and Coding Standard in Software Development

Work standardization has created a positive impact on any business. This implies to the IT industry, code standardization or code quality is needed to be implemented while you are developing any software or mobile application or web application. For many organizations, the standardized functionalities and seamless features of the software or application are essential for their growth.

It’s been observed that good-quality software and code is not as easy as we think. It takes a lot of hard work, consistency, and focus by IT companies to deliver standard quality software. This is an essential element for any software. And developers are always keeping it aside when they are trying to meet the deadline for delivery.

But before running too fast, we should give importance to its quality. Coding standards aren’t problems that you have to jump over. They are there to stop the headache down the road.

What Are The Coding Standards?

When you write code, there are multiple sets of procedures that you need to look for programming style, methods and some other attributes which need to be considered in the software development life cycle. The coding standard defines that all the developers are working on the project under the same guidelines and policies. The code has been developed in such a way that after its completion, it always looks like it has been created and written by a single developer in a single session.

This type of coding standard can be maintained through persistence and commitment to quality work. The coding consistency will create a huge impact on the quality of the program.

Why Are The Coding Standards So Important?

There are some guidelines and prototypes which developers need to follow for the coding standard procedure. Writing good quality code is the major task while developing any software. It’s an essential investment for your project rather than a time-consuming task. It’s an essential way to lower technical debt. When the code is neat and clean, it’s easy to understand, maintain and extend. Any good quality code which is readable and consistent is easier to review, which in turn leads to a low maintenance effort. This is one of the crucial activities of any software maintenance services.

1. Security Issues

Inconsistencies, bugs, and errors in logic are the main reasons for commonly exploited software vulnerabilities.

2. Website Performance Issues

Bad coding affects the overall performance of the website. It causes various performance issues such as:

• User Interaction
• Server Response
• Code Reusability

• Flow Issues

So, implementing and following the coding standards will not let you go through these types of problems. And you will get a secure website with minimal performance issues.

Things to Keep In Mind While Writing a Code

• The code you write should be easy to read and understand.
• Try to bifurcate various sections of the code into a certain regions, classes and files.
• Try to mark out the beginning and end of the code structures with a clear mentioning of where an exact code is between them.
• The consistency in the naming convention of the variables should be maintained throughout the developing process.
• Based on the performance, kindly give a name to them.
• Follow some specific methods for commenting on the work.
• You should avoid complex structures or which is difficult to understand.

Advantages of Maintaining Coding Standards

Enhanced Efficiency

As we can see, developers spend more of their time-solving issues rather than developing the original code. This time could have been saved in the first place if we had written a neat and clean code and applied some coding formats and standards. This helps the developer to save the time which was consumed in solving issues throughout the development process.

Easy to Maintain

If you follow the proper coding standard then the developed code would be more consistent and easy to maintain. Since we make it more easy to understand, we can modify it at any point in time by any developers.

Bug Rectification

If the code is developed in an appropriate manner, then it becomes easy for any developer to identify the bugs and fix them in the web application or software.

Cost-Effective

Clean code allows developers to reuse it whenever required. Eventually, this can reduce the cost and effort for the development that leads to complete the tasks very quickly.

Tools You Can Use To Achieve Good Code Quality

To maintain the proper standard of code, style and provide you the suggestions for refactoring code or methods, there are several tools and extensions available online that you can use.

Here are the four most commonly used tools:

1. SonarLint

• Bug detection
• Instant feedback

• Uncover old issues

2. SonarQube (Our React JS developers highly use this)

• Continuous inspection
• Detect tricky issues
• Centralize quality

• DevOps integration

3. StyleCop

• Documentation
• Layout
• Maintainability
• Naming
• Ordering
• Readability

• Spacing

4. ReSharper (Our team of asp.net programmers love to use this Visual Studio add-on)

• Quick fixes to solve problems
• Problem alert

Conclusion

So, no matter what development language or framework you are using while developing any software, Implementing code quality in your software development life cycle will get you good, robust, and seamless software or application. At The One Technologies, our developers are capable of reducing your cost of software ownership by providing good code quality. Our coding standard is easy to comprehend and enhance. Feel free to contact us for any coding or custom software development services.