Businesses of any size, whether small or large, should follow best practices in software development. Quality code contributes to software performance and reduces its overall maintenance cost. The extent of the usage will vary depending on the use case and organization goals. We have compiled information in this blog to help service seekers understand different software coding standard and discuss various factors to minimize financial loss in software design.
Why should you follow software development coding standard? Is it costly?
Software development coding standards have numerous benefits for providers and service seekers. The key factor connecting providers with seekers is cost. Capers Jones found that development services that are cheap often turn out to be more expensive.
For example, let’s say a less experienced programmer starts to build a SaaS-based program for a client. The mistake made by the programmer isn’t discovered until testing. Important points to be aware of:
It is possible that bug removal will take several hours of development, which can delay the project.
A delay can impact the time-to-market (TTM), which may lead to a loss in competitive advantage.
Users who are the initial users of the product might experience a frustrating experience because of bugs.
Bad user experience (UX), could have a detrimental effect on brand value.
This list can go on and on. Poor coding standards are directly responsible for loss in business value. There are many ways that loss can be prevented, both for the client/service seeker and for the service provider.
Terms to Explain the Economic Loss of Software Quality
Software development practices can explain these standards. Service providers may follow many practices, but only a few quality-centric methods will be effective and reduce the overall cost. Before you share some common practices that might lower the cost for a software project, it is important that you understand what loss means. Here are three terms you should know:
Software quality: Economic loss
Technical Debt
Technical debt occurs when the focus is on speedy delivery of software solutions. Many bad practices can be committed unknowingly by doing this. Some of these bad practices are:
- Spending too much time on bugs.
- It is possible to use legacy code that will soon be obsolete.
- Not properly commenting and documenting.
Although the service provider may be able to provide the solution, clients may need to invest more in maintenance and enhancements. In the best case, bugs can be found within days or weeks after a product has been used.
Cost of Quality
The cost of quality emphasises savings potential through process improvements. There are three key components to COQ: internal failures, external failures, appraisal. Here’s a quick overview of the three major cost components.
Appraisal Costs
Not only is it important to follow good coding practices, but also quality control. Software that takes several months to build will need monitoring and measuring activities. Here is an activity-level breakdown for appraisal cost.
Regular involvement of an experienced business analyst in order to confirm that the software development practices are following the expectations of the client.
Programmer experience is required to conduct code audits (and subsequent audits) in order to detect potential bugs that may arise at a later stage.
Third-party applications quality and APIs that will be integrated into the developed software solution.
Internal Failure Costs
Most bugs are fixed in the testing phase. Sometimes flaws are found in the software design. Internal failure costs refer to the cost of rectifying such errors prior to the software solution being deployed. Below are some sub-activities which can be included in internal failure costs.
Software deployment delays caused by bugs or other errors
Because of a flaw in the software design, it was necessary to make major changes.
Time wasted on analysis of software bugs or errors.
External Failure Costs
External failure cost refers to any bugs or errors found in a software product after it has been delivered. These are just a few of the sub-activities that may be associated with external failure costs:
Communication between client and customer services team.
Time lost in understanding and removing bugs.
Total cost of ownership
Clients might spend more on software development than they do on actual software usage. Software needs to be used throughout its entire life cycle. This is why different resources are needed. These key areas are critical to the total cost ownership.
Acquisition of Hardware and Software
For the deployment of software, hardware as well software is required by the client. Take, for example, a client who recently purchased an online market place solution. The web hosting, domain, SSL certificate and SSL certificate are required to make it available.
Management and Support
You will need to be trained in order for any software to work. Backup and recovery, server downtime, and insurance all have a cost. Another cost is related to software maintenance. Software keeps being updated with new versions in order to improve security and add features.
Productivity decline
It is crucial to train users to use new software. But it is equally important that you acknowledge any productivity losses during training. Even after all the training is done, it is possible for a person to take longer to finish an operation.
Following coding guidelines in software development can have benefits
To improve security, algorithmic efficiency, code reusability and code scalability, software coding standards should be followed. It is possible to reduce software development costs by partnering with software developers that follow coding guidelines. This will help ensure that the user has a seamless experience.
1. Improved Security
Coding standards play a crucial role in adding additional security to prevent hackers from trying to steal information from a mobile or web app. It is important to use the latest version for any mobile or web app. A new version of a framework or programming language should have few obsolete functions. It is best to look at current stable versions and frameworks of programming languages and frameworks. This is an important aspect for software coding standard.
2. Supports change
Due to changes in business models or government regulations, custom software solutions can be modified at different times. The government of India introduced GST to tax. This meant that many retailers, ecommerce marketplaces, custom SaaS solution providers, etc. had to modify their tax calculation. This was possible when the code had been clearly written and was well documented.
3. Higher Quality
A code audit is an important activity in which experienced programmers review the code to identify areas that could be improved. The goal of this activity is to remove bugs or other errors.
4. Compliance
Software developers must use universal syntax to comply with the coding standards. It helps to improve the readability and reduce the code complexity. This will allow new members of your team to navigate through the code and begin developing if you have an in-house or external team.
5. Maintenance
After a piece of custom software is deployed, you might want to modify it within a few months or weeks. The programmer will need to review every feature and learn the code to do this. If custom software is developed using coding standards, it may include comments to aid a new programmer. These techniques reduce time it takes to understand the code and improve software maintenance efficiency.
Software Development Strategies that Prevent Economic Loss
Documentation for projects
While not exactly software development coding, this is an important part of the software development lifecycle. Documentation is an important part of software development. It helps the team meet all business requirements. Documentation allows the client and team to plan the next steps.
Different documents are created in the course of a project. The complete list below outlines the documents that are required for most software development projects.
1. Planning and Development Stage
Before you begin the development phase, gather the client’s requirements. The client’s requirements are collected in a document called the “high-level resource documentation” (or HRD). The HRD includes information on schedule, estimates, overall requirements, and more.
You may find information regarding sprint burndown tables, release burndown tables, and more in the documentation that is created during the development phase. API, sourcecode, coding standard and working papers are other documents. These documents record the thoughts of a software engineering team on how to solve a difficult technical problem.
The emphasis here is on experience. Documenting the different aspects that make up experience is important, such as user personas (style guide), user story maps, scenario maps, and so on. For UX designers, such documentation is essential.
2. Quality Assurance & Quality Control Stage
Many documents can be needed for the quality assurance and quality control stages. The majority of documentation revolves around strategy. Here’s a quick overview of different documents within QA/QC.
Product managers should be aware of the desired quality standards. This document, the quality management program, explains how these standards should be met. The document also provides information about the testing activities schedule. Although this document shows a high-level view on testing activity, it also contains detailed explanations in:
Strategy Document – This strategy document contains information about the team structure as well as the resources that are required to conduct testing.
Plan Document – Provides information about features, methods, timeframes, and roles.
Case Specification document – Details about each feature and functionality that must be tested.
Checklist Document – Information about the tests that were completed successfully or failed.
We understand the importance of meeting deadlines for delivering projects. We offer a unique value to our software development clients as an extra safeguard. If a bug is discovered, our clients get one year of free technical support.
3. Final Release
Different user types can use software’s features depending on how it is designed. These two user types are: the administrator (or admin) and the end user. Before the final release is released, documentation can still be created for admin as well as end users.
There is no single solution for user documentation. You can create a screencast video series or quick start guide in cases where the user needs to be guided through each step. Another educational resource is a section with frequently asked questions (FAQs), along with a support portal.
Common responsibilities for admins include troubleshooting, configuration and maintenance. There are two documents that can be created in the admin role: system administrator guide, and features list (also known as functional descriptions guide). The features guide contains information about the functionalities of the software.
Documentation is essential. To save money on small projects, you can avoid certain documents. However, proper documentation should be used for large projects. The method used for creating documents will also affect the creation of those documents. For instance, in agile documentation is given second priority.
Early Code Review
Software products usually go through three stages of testing after they are coded: functional, unit, field and post-release. The following are examples of use cases that illustrate the importance of code review before release:
Software testing stages & economic loss.
Use Case 1 — Most testing occurs during coding
The early code review case is the best of all three. It results in the smallest number of errors and bugs. This means that both the client or the service provider of software development services will suffer minimal to no financial loss.
Use Case 2 — Most testing time can be split equally between field, function, or unit testing
This is the case when bugs and errors are detected but not in significant quantities. The financial loss due to bugs is also slightly higher than that of the previous use case.
Use Case 3 — Most of the testing time spent is in field testing, and then post-release
This is easily the most serious case where errors and bugs are at their maximum. Because of the large number of bugs, financial losses are much higher than in other cases.
Software Testing
Testing is a process that varies from one software service provider to another. The test process includes the creation of a test plan, the execution phase, reporting or analysis to verify the results and explain why they failed.
1. Important Testing Concepts according to IEEE Standard for Software and System Test Documentation
Integrity
The distribution of different aspects in software testing according their importance.
Minimum number required testing tasks
After establishing integrity levels, the QA department must define the minimum number required to test each level. An additional set of tasks can be designed to meet additional requirements.
Intensity und rigor
This concept is best understood by knowing what software testing entails. The software testing process is intensified if there is greater testing coverage in all conditions. Rigor means the use more formal techniques, as well as recording methods. Ideally, high integrity levels need more intensity as well as rigor.
Tests must be passed by the minimum requirements
Each stage of the software development process should be monitored and measured. Each task can have its own pass criteria. It is best to set minimum requirements and outputs.
System
While testing may be the best time to test features and functionalities, it is also important to address system issues.
- Documentation to be used for testing
- It is important that you identify the topics that will be covered by the documentation.
- 2. Two components of the Testing Phase
Strategy phase
Software testing strategies can either be proactive or reactive. Simply put, a preventative software testing strategy is one that uses test cases to design the software before it is built. Reactive testing is where test cases are created after the software is built. A purpose-driven approach addresses multiple aspects related to testing. Some examples of such aspects are:
- What are the steps to take for testing?
- Each step should be clearly described.
- Identify the effort, time, or resources required.
Execution
The testing phase includes development of test case, creation of a development environment, actual execution, and closing of the test cycle. The quality assurance team (QA) must identify all test cases and generate test data to be used during testing. The test closing cycle is launched at the conclusion of the testing phase. This includes information on coverage and quality as well as cost, time, and others.
FATbit offers expertise in agile software design practices to increase client value. We’ve delivered mobile and web apps built using agile methods in frameworks like Node.js or Laravel. We have the ability to handle all types of uses, including live chat software which can handle thousands of requests daily and enterprise-grade solutions that add value for B2B companies.
Conclusion
No matter which language or framework you are using, coding standards can help to reduce economic loss. These practices enable you to produce code that’s ethical, flexible, and meets all performance criteria.