Practices for Software Developers

Harjit Singh

September 9 , 2014

There is a seminar conducted by Macwill on 06/08/2014 (Saturday). I (Harjit Singh) delivered a lecture to software Developers. Following points were discussed during the seminar. Let’s discuss them briefly.

Practice

What is practice?

Practice is habit, a routine, doesn’t need to remember and need dedication and commitments.
When practice makes a person perfect in driving, swimming, singing etc similarly practice makes a software developer to legend.

What practices a developer should do?

Read software code

Every Developer should read Source code written by other experienced Developers. It will improve writing skills of code as well as remove the mistakes. By reading source code of others, one will know which source code is the best one.
There are many attributes of software codes i.e. Indentation, Commenting, History Headers, function structure etc. these attributes makes your code the beautiful.

Complete documents before start coding

There are some essential documents in software development. These are Software Requirement Specifications (SRS), Impact Analysis Document, Design Document Specifications (DDS), Assumptions and limitation Lists etc.
Do not jump to direct coding. Work out for the above mentioned documents before start coding it will enhance your performance of software development

Create and follow coding standard

Every organization should have a set of defined coding standards.
File Naming Conventions, Function and Module Naming Conventions, Variable Naming Conventions, History , Commenting etc are few area for which we should create and follow coding standards.

Code should be written to be revised

While writing your source code keep in mind that someone will review your code.
Bad Coding, Not following coding standards, Not keeping performance in mind, readability is poor etc are some points for which you can be criticized.
Every developer should review his code at least once; it will remove 90% mistakes.

Testing to be followed like religion

Do not trust yourself while developing, no matter how small the change or how senior you are.You have to perform testing If you have tight schedule or change is very small then even No compromise.

Celebrate every bug you find

Bugs are your enemies so you have killed one. Now your software have one bug less.
Do not criticize any developer in case of bug arises, there is no programmer who can write bug free source code. That is why in SDLC there is a phase called Testing.

Keep your code and documents safe

Make a habit to take Back up on daily basis. Otherwise when a machine crash it will also crash you.
Method to take backup should be clear and files or folder names should written with date and time as multiple files may confuse.

Sharp your axe frequently

We always learn from Books or internet but it IT sector we learn lot of things from our colleagues. Urge your peer friends to give you a lesson and be thankful to him after getting the lesson.
Follow technical forum, magazines, bulletin boards, conferences, training workshops to get knowledge for latest technologies.

Stress management

As you grow in organization so will your responsibilities and also your stress. Open communication is the effective weapon to kill stress at some extent.
There may be many reasons for stress but take it professional way. Just make aware your manager about your issues he will definitely give you a solution.
Create a list of your pending works and then prioritize them. This will definitely reduce your stress.
Stress is a part of job so keep moving on. Just do a little more extra overtime to finish your delivery.
Exercise, Morning Walk, Yoga or meditation, spend good time with friends or family are some more remedies to reduce stress.

Managing manager

Do agree with the saying that ‘Boss is always right.” Try to give fast deliveries it does not matter to put some extra overtime.
Reduce your demands in terms of salary, promotions etc.
Be neutral as much as possible, do not criticize any other peer in front of your manager.
As managers always need great resources so things will come automatically just have patience. Just realize your manager that you are the important and brightest resource for project then your manager never like to lose you.