Code quality is an important and popular term among software developers. Mostly software quality is attributed to an intuitive user interface, detailed testing and security. But the main aspect is code quality which is mostly neglected. This raises a question that- what is code quality, how to measure it and how to maintain throughout the software?
So, here we’ll discuss answers to all these, but before that, you must know that bad code quality can create issues in software that may restrict you to do some improvements that clients would like to see. For instance, your current application is working well but you want to add more features. When developers observed the app code, they reported that the code can’t be refactored. If a developer still goes ahead with adding features in the same code, it will create issues in your existing software application. Then, you have to make changes in the plan of feature improvement or start the development from scratch. If you want avoid all this, improve the code quality and maintain it throughout the software development. Let’s have a look at what is code quality and how to improve it?
Code quality refers to the usefulness and maintainability of code in the long term. It covers both great and bad quality code. Basically, it provides insights to the project managers about the coding practices and style followed by developers. Different teams might use different definitions according the context.
Good quality code ensures that the codes are written in a way that makes them highly readable. Some of the factors are using proper comments, indentation, clear notations and simplicity. Code editing is more comfortable with high-quality code because they are easy to read and implement changes.
Software is supposed to be sustainable when it can survive over the long run with insignificant changes. Average software life is accounted to be around six years, but poor software quality doesn’t last even half of this time duration. This is because, with the consistent development of operating programs and hardware, change in software raises. It is challenging and sometimes impossible to perform transformations on the poor code quality.
A high quality code is easy to edit and has high readability. Another importance is that the code quality practices make the straight software translation across platforms easier. With lots of available platforms, it is necessary to have direct transferability with minimal changes required.
There’s no single way to measure the code quality. What you measure may be different from what other development team measures. Here are some of the code quality aspects to measure-
It measures the probability that a system will run without failure over a particular period of operation. This relates to the number of defects and availability of software. Numerous fo defects can be measured by running a static analysis tool. You can measure software availability using mean time between failures (MTBF). Low defect counts are important to develop a reliable codebase.
It is a measure of how easily software can be maintained. It relates to the size, structure, consistency and complexity of the codebase. Ensuring maintainable source code depends on various factors like testability and understandability. You can’t use a single metric to ensure maintainability. Number of stylistic warnings and halstead complexity measures are Some metrics you may consider to improve maintainability. Both automation and human reviewers are important to develop maintainable codebases.
It measures whether existing assets like code can be used again. If assets have characteristics like modularity or loose coupling, it can be easily reused. Reusability can be measured by lots of interdependencies. Running a static analyzer can help developer to identify these interdependencies.
It estimates how well the software supports testing efforts. It depends on how effectively you can control, observe and automate testing. One can measure testability based on how many test cases you need to find potential faults in the system. Complexity and size of software can impact testability. Hence, applying methods at the code level- like cyclomatic complexity- can help to improve the testability of component.
Most of the people say that they do things very rapidly as they don’t have time to think about architecture. But due to this, 99% of them face a big issue. Writing code withing keeping architecture in mind is a vain. So before you start, you should have complete understanding of what your code will be doing, its uses, how modules and services work with each other, what structure will it have, how will it be tested and debugged, how will it be updated and so on.
Use of a coding standard is one of the best way to ensure high quality code. It ensures that everyone is using the right style or not. This improves readability and consistency of the codebase. It is a key for lower complexity and higher quality.
How to Do It-
Using a static code analyzer, you can do this.
Quality must be a priority from the beginning of development. You must analyze the code before code reviews begin. It is better to analyze code as soon as it’s written.
In case of DevOps, code analysis takes place during the development phase. Static analyzers can be run over code as soon as it’s written. This creates an automated feedback loop, hence developers can improve code before it enters the code review phase. All things considered, if you find errors very early, you can solve them rapidly and in an easier way.
One of the best way to improve quality is by analyzing code automatically. By running a static analyzer over code in early stage, you’ll ensure the code that gets to the code review phase is the highest quality possible. Also you can use static analyzers like Helix QAC and Klocwork to monitor key quality metrics.
Code review is vital for maintaining code quality and growth of the team. The code of software must be reviewed early and in small parts. Review a 1000 lines of code which would be spanning several subsystems. This is the quickest way to get people either blindy approve or to discourage them from taking the time to review. Smaller changes make it easy to justify taking few minutes to look at code and make constructive suggestions. Also it eases the developers work fo writing the code to implement the suggestions.
Code quality is the most important factor for the success of a software. Try to use better coding standards across your team and company. If you are thinking to develop a successful software, consult with solace experts. We are here to help through consultation and development. You can hire php developers, android developers, ios developers, flutter developers of Solace Infotech for an effective software development. Connect with Solace and get a free quote for software development. We will be happy to help you.