What is ‘Best Practices’?

• —  Method or process followed to deliver results successfully and effectively

• —  The process differs from organization to organization.

• —  In software programming it could used for gathering requirement, maintaining code, debugging code, or delivering the end product.

Common Problems of Software Development

• —  Lack of understanding in system requirements on the part of customers and designers
• —  Large gaps between time estimates with actual delivery time.
• —  Lack of Experience leading to either over Estimating or under estimating.
• —  Difficulty in monitoring progress in a software projects
• —  Poor communication among groups working on the same project
• —  Newly trained and  under skilled programmers
• —  Dependence of software on hardware
• —  Lack of inventories of reusable software components to aid in the building of new programs
• —  Too many Change of Requests

Best Practices in Development

1. REQUIREMENT GATHERING
2. PROJECT GOAL
3. CODING
   a) NAMING CONVENTIONS
   b) COMMENTING
4. DEBUGGING
5. TESTING
6. DEPLOYMENT
7. MANAGEMENT

1)      Requirement Gathering

• —  Challenges in Requirement Gathering
  • Scope and Vision not clearly defined
  • All requirements are critical, no priority is defined
  • Signed-off requirements keep changing
  • New requirements get added in the middle of the project
  • Users/customers are busy and not available to specify requirements / Review

• —  Organize a demo meeting to understand Client’s Requirements
• —  Present a Understanding Document(UD)
• —  Present HLD or LLD, if needed
• —  Finalize the Scope of work

2)      Project Goal

• —  Never begin coding without understanding why the code Is being written and what is it being written for.
• —  Always document the project goal in the code, so that a new programmer in future, doesn’t find it difficult to understand ‘what the code does’ and ‘why is it there’.

3)      Coding

• —  Building the code is really just a small part of the total project effort even though it’s what most people equate with the whole process since it’s the most visible.
• —  Best coding evolves from following proper coding standards and guidelines.
  • Naming Conventions for forms, units, variables, functions/ procedures, and components.
  • Appropriate Comments for each and every line of code makes code maintainability much easier.
• —  A best code should have reusable components

a) Naming Conventions

• Instead of using Form1 for forms or Unit1 for Units
  • Use login_frm, home_frm, or formula_unit

• Instead of using temp1, temp2, newtemp, x1, text1
  • Use _ prefix for local temporary variables
  • Use survey_num or stationlst for Tstringlist.

•  Instead of using Button1, Label1, Combobox1
  • Use btnSave, lblUsername, cbCountry

• Instead of using Calc1, Add1 function
  • Use XYaxisToLonLat_Calc, Concate_StationGear

b)      Commenting

• Name of the module.
• Purpose of the Module.
• Description of the Module (In brief).
• Original Author
• Modifications
• Authors who modified code with a description on why it was modified.

4)      Debugging

• —  Programmers usually tend to write the complete code and then begin debugging and checking for errors
• —  Tips
  • Know your IDE’s debugger limitations and features
  • Obvious places may not be the culprits
  • Check for Memory Leak
  • Output  messages
  • Last working code

5)      Testing

• —  Analyze your test results
• —  Think positive
• —  Writing test cases
• —  Performance testing is the critical part
• —  Programmers should not test their own code
• —  Keep developers away from test environment
• —  Involve testers right from software requirement and design phase till deployment

6)      Deployment

• —  “The Project always has last minute problems or bugs during deployment”
• —  Never test the Delivery on programmers computer
• —  Never assume what not tested
• —  Try testing in real time environments
• —  Engage the Client or the user during the Testing(UAT) phase

7)      Management

• —  Discuss Understanding, Assumptions and risks during requirement gathering even during change of request
• —  Prototyping Requirements
• —  Create internal deadlines much ahead of the Delivery
• —  Document Analysis at every stage
• —  Brainstorming sessions
• —  Monitor  status with Review meetings
• —  Client Interaction and Reviews
• —  Timely Delivery