Things That You Can Do to Improve Code Quality in custom software development

Why do you need to check the code quality? Let’s hear this true story first.

In 1990, an America-based telecom giant, AT&T had a severe crisis that shook the re. They released a sophisticated software upgrade to ramp up long-distance conversations. But because of this mission’s failure, their long-distance network was offline for more than nine hours.

This outage is believed to have caused damage totaling sixty million dollars in protracted fees, 200,000 canceled and delayed flights, and almost 78 million missed phone conversations.

Later, they discovered that the software fix had one line of flawed code that caused cascade switch failures, which eventually became a significant issue.

Your projects may fail due to poorly designed code because it only takes one line to destroy an entire business. You must raise the quality of your code for better custom software development solutions.

Why is code quality important?

Code quality is a subjective term, but specific metrics help determine the fundamental structure of code. Code quality metrics define excellent code and bad code.

The concepts of quality, good, and terrible are all arbitrary. Depending on the situation, many teams may employ various meanings. High-quality code means only one thing to an automotive developer. And for a custom software development team, it can mean something else.

The entire software quality is directly proportional to the code quality. One little bug can ruin months of hard work. Code that is poorly written can go wrong. Your code’s complexity increases along with the time it takes to upkeep. The project will eventually end if the coding structure has fallen into pieces.

You should pay attention to the code quality to keep this from happening. Spend some time improving the caliber of your code. Good programming pays for itself over time.

Everyone must work toward quality. Whether you’re the management, a developer, or a designer, it makes no difference. Throughout the entire development process, the objective should be to produce high code that is, of course, functional.

Ways to Improve Code Quality in custom software development

Now that you know how good vital code is, you should learn how to improve code quality. We have curated strategies and ways to ensure code quality every time, approved by IT experts. Some of these techniques work best in a team, and some can be implemented individually. Have a look

The Four-Eyes Rule

The four-eyes rule is a simple rule to comprehend and apply. It denotes that the code is reviewed by at least two individuals, including the author. The pull request approach is one of the most widely used techniques today.

Several considerations should be made during a code review. One of them is determining whether the code violates the standards of the coding convention. Although a pipeline with a linter can automate this procedure, this check is occasionally done by hand.

The perfective maintenance of the program and error detection are additional aspects that can be looked for but cannot be automatically generated. The code must be examined for accuracy.
Does this code fulfill the purpose it was made for?

Continuous Integration

Sometimes the coder says that the code was working fine on their system but failed afterward. To prevent such mishaps, CI or Continuous Integrations help.CI is a custom software development
practice in which each software team member integrates their side of the work daily. This allows developers to get constant feedback.
But to make the best of Continuous Integrations, make sure you are following these two fundamental rules:
Keep the pacing quick. Anything that requires longer than an hour to construct is demoralizing.
Fix faulty files right away. CI is all about creating continuously on a proven stable foundation.

Continuous integration enhances the quality of code by providing programmers with real-time feedback. The compilation will crash if a test fails, and the programmer will be alerted. Additionally, it is advised to include a linter in your design phase that verifies coding norms. Naturally, this improves code quality as well.

Coding Conventions

Software development is not a one-person job. A team of developers, software engineers, testers, and such work day and night to bring a superior quality product. When it comes to coding conventions, everybody has their preferred options. To ensure everybody is on the same page, get them together and brainstorm ideas.

Produce a list of code norms and conventions that details things like the proper way to define parameters, mappings, etc. There is no limit to how many rules are added to the collection, and the number of guidelines is subject to change.

Follow your team’s best practices if the group feels like it, and do not hesitate to add new guidelines to the existing list. The same is true when a convention is crossed off the list.

Stick to your list of coding norms once you’ve established it. By abiding by these practices, you will soon become the Best software development company and a force to be reckoned with.

Testing

The best measure to calculate code quality is by looking at the number of bugs it has. The fewer bugs the code has, the better its quality. Testing is a rigorous phase but should never be avoided.

The more tests you conduct, the better the quality will get. Thorough testing reveals serious flaws and guarantees that the code functions as intended.

Testing is a crucial step in increasing the software’s efficiency. This includes having a defined test approach planned. Your code should be unit-tested. It would be best if you used additional testing techniques, such as regression or integration testing.

The test tower states that unit tests should make up the majority of the checks in a system design. They are quick and inexpensive, which explains why. You may create these assessments and coverage reports of codes used with various tools.
In case you are, Outsourcing software development makes sure they are doing rigorous unit tests.

Constructive comments

Comments and remarks should always be meaningful and precise. There is no need to write paragraphs when a single line would suffice. Being precise with your comments will help the entire team make appropriate corrections.

Sometimes comments made by developers are superfluous and only help people. This only wastes the time of the entire team. On the other hand, some developers comment or write only what is necessary, forcing programmers to speculate what they’re reviewing, which leads to poor-quality code.

Your objective should be to strike a balance. Only add comments when you believe they are worthwhile and will benefit the codebase.

Final Thoughts

You must understand the significance of coding with absolute clarity. Developing well-functioning code is crucial to ensure your software project is effective and valuable.

Its capacity to provide a fuss-free environment to developers, users, and businesses makes it even more significant. We hope you are now aware of the importance of Code Quality in custom software development.