Develop with Clean Code

The Clean Code Principles We Live By

We’re engineers. We create software infrastructure. People depend on the things we build. We consider sloppy workmanship irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

We know that short cuts taken in the interest of speed can quickly lead to delays or disaster. Taking the time to do things right from the beginning actually increases team velocity over the life of the project. In the words of Robert C. Martin, whose 2008 book Clean Code is our touchstone, we “take the time to go fast.”

The professional software engineering standards we adhere to focus on keeping components small, simple, and testable. They include:

• Test Driven Development (TDD) – write automated tests before the code; retest after any change. Don’t leave testing until last.
• Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) – don’t duplicate a function all over the code; put it in one component and call that component when needed. Then, if the function needs to be changed, it only has to be changed in one place.
• Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) – a component should do only one thing and everything about that component should be in the service of doing that one thing. This helps keep the code simple and easy for others to understand.
• The “Boy Scout Rule” – incrementally improve inherited code, leaving it better than you found it.

Clean Code Developers

We’re professionals. We have degrees and years of experience in software engineering, and we continuously sharpen our skills by reading books, attending trainings, participating in user groups, and sharing our knowledge with each other.

We take pride in our work, but not for craftsmanship’s sake alone. The bottom line is, clean code works better and, in the long run, saves time.