Tips For Programmers To Build Quality Software

To build excellent software products it is not enough to be great at coding. Developers also need to look at the larger picture of whether the software is aligned to solve the original problem statement.
Ganesh Gupta, a technical architect at Ness Technologies, at a TechGig webinar (http://www.techgig.com/expert-speak/Code-Quality-Metrics-728 ) gave a lowdown on the things developers must not lose focus of while building software to ensure that the end-product is of the highest possible quality.
It is important for developers to take a step back and look at what they are creating and analyse the larger view every now and then, Ganesh said. Often, it happens that in resolving the nitty-gritty at the micro-level, the software being built loses its core purpose, he said.
To aid developers in getting a bird’s eye view of their software development, Ganesh shared this check list:

1. Focus on the purpose: Keep a tab on the fact that the software being developed is meeting functional goals and end customer needs at every stage.
2. Low defect/bug detection ration: This is a single measurement that shows how well the requirements were turned into codes by software engineers.
3. Build high code quality: Great code quality involves ease in later modification of code and product maintenance. This is the most fragile aspect of the quality of software. Features of a good code:
   
   • The code does what it is was originally intended to do
   • Easy to understand and highly readable
   • Easy to change and can be iterated faster based on user feedback
4. Scalability, performance and high availability of software
5. Keep a constant close tab on code quality
   • It helps detect technical debt early in the development cycle
   • Present measurable indicators to point out probable areas of improvements
   • To keep track of quality of the source code in terms of highly maintainable code which is easy to understand and is changeable
6. Follow these software metrics to ensure high quality software
   • Product metrics: Measures the quantifiable attributes of a software system such as the size, the complexity and the amount of reuse.
   • Process metrics: Measures the process of creating software product such as the time spent, defects found and the stability of the requirements.