How to Use Governance to Reduce Software Coding Errors

Five methods to reduce errors

While malfunctions and glitches have many causes, establishing the best practices and policies to follow as the code is being developed can have a significant impact on the quality of the final software product. With this in mind, the following are five methods to reduce software coding errors:

Method No. 1: Get an aerial view of the infrastructure

You'll need to understand how your development project can potentially impact different parts of the organization.

Method No. 2: Establish and agree upon the design strategy

Resist the temptation to begin development efforts until the design strategy is aligned with the business goals that the technology is aimed at supporting.

Method No. 3: Enforce policies and encourage best practices

The guidance of agreed upon policies will keep development projects on track and on budget, regardless of where the development team is based. If you then add to this a set of best practices that may be unique to your organization, you will have a powerful combination that will ensure adherence to the processes, as well as inspire new approaches.

Method No. 4: Use governance as a guide

Governance will never fully replace human intellect, nor will it automatically develop the code for you. However, it can proactively identify potential issues, automatically make recommendations, and illustrate their impact on a company. Employed wisely and judiciously, governance can accelerate learning curves and eliminate the unnecessary fear of big brother overseeing every keystroke.

Method No. 5: Build transparency into your infrastructure

As you begin new development projects, make sure you have established policies and procedures in place. This will allow other developers and architects, if necessary, to easily step into a project and understand critical yet basic facts about how the code was written and where the services are located. This will help reduce redundant development efforts, eliminate the reuse of erroneous code and more easily track the cause of an issue.

While you can't always lead a horse to water when it comes to governance, you can prioritize it as part of the software development life cycle and not just part of a major initiative such as SOA or cloud computing. Along with cost savings gained from streamlined development efforts, governance can help improve customer satisfaction through the sheer ability to deliver products of higher quality.

John Favazza is Vice President of Research and Development at WebLayers. John has more than 20 years of IT industry experience in both public and private companies, with responsibilities spanning software development, research and engineering. He can be reached at john.favazza@weblayers.com.