Costs of systems grow exponentially after the initial development project!

Cost of enhancement & maintenance 2X over new development.

• When development teams take shortcuts on quality
  • Readability & coding standards
  • Automated tests
  • Refactoring
  • Domain Modeling

Economic life of product gets extended.

[//]: # (---

title: Some Basic Software Engineering Practices...

Software Engineering takes a lifetime to learn, but here are a few practices you can apply now.

)

• While solving a problem, it's ok to temporarily disregard code quality & design.
• After problem is solved, don't go on to the next one until you clean up your code.

Boy Scout Principle

"Leave the campsite cleaner than you found it."

• Refactoring is safe only with comprehensive unit tests.
• If programmers don't write their tests first, they will neglect to write their tests after.
• Code is likely difficult to test in test-after.
  • TDD guides design.
• Managers & team leaders should not accept code unless proven to work through unit tests.

Uncle Bob's 3 Rules of TDD

1. You are not allowed to write any production code unless it is to make a failing unit test pass.
2. You are not allowed to write any more of a unit test than is sufficient to fail.
3. You are not allowed to write any more production code than is sufficient to pass the one failing unit test.

• The 3-Second Rule

  If your teammate cannot understand your code in 3 seconds, rewrite it.

Recommended Reading:

Clean Code

by Robert C. Martin ("Uncle Bob")

• Your code should reflect the domain!
• Use a "Ubiquitus Language" with your stakeholders.
• Your code is the repository of the team's understanding of the domain.
• Domain Model should hold all business logic.
  
  • Not "Anemic Domain Model".

• Read every book and article you can get your hands on regarding coding practices and design.
  • Read Martin Fowler's books, blog posts, and books he's edited or endorses.
• Knowledgeable developers write 1/10 - 1/100 of the code of ordinary developers, & their code is easy to change and maintain.

1. Refactor Mercilessly

2. Practice Test-Driven Development

3. Obsess on Readability

4. Practice Domain-Driven Design

5. Be a Scholar of Coding Practices & Design