Developing sustainable software requires the knowledge to effectively apply best practices. Here are some of the best practices we believe are crucial to successfully developing software.
- Iterative and Incremental Processes
- Managing risk and planning for change is a critical enabler of a successful development plan. Iterative and incremental processes ensure code is integrated into the system as new requirements arise, a much safer way than the “big bang affect” when designing and building software applications.
- Object Oriented Development
- Object orientation helps increase reusability and extensibility by ensuring software is designed and developed in a robust, flexible, easily maintainable and reusable manner.
- Continuous Integration
- Continuously integrating code into the overall system ensures shorter integrations as well as incremental and manageable code. When software is slowly built upon the result is business applications that continually function.
- Architecture and Design Patterns
- Using proven architectural and design patterns offer proven solutions. The patterns also help improve communication and ease maintenance. Some of the more popular and widely used patterns we often see include Delegation, Interface, Proxy, Facade, Factory and Singleton.
- Refactoring
- Code that works isn’t always enough. Continuously improving software is critical. Changing code without changing results (i.e., refactoring) eases future maintenance, improve readability, simplicity and understanding, and create more sustainable software.
- Unit Testing
- Unit testing is a very important piece of building usable software. Individually providing correctness helps ease maintenance, improve code design structure, and ensure software is seamlessly integrated into the overall system.
- Test Driven Development and Design
- Test driven development is a technique where developers first write a test case then implement code. This practice provides rapid feedback to the developer and has proven to save time during development.
Test driven development and design makes working with objects easier and refactoring safer. Automated testing helps verify granular units of functionality and may also make significant contributions to the design of an application.