Best practices when developing software

In this technological age, millions of people are interested in learning to program. And it is logical, more and more companies are looking for professionals in the technology area to develop their projects such as web applications, mobiles, web pages, among other digital solutions.

But, as a company, you must take into account a very important detail: it is essential that the engineer or partner you hire has good practices when developing software so that the final result of your project is the most optimal. This guarantees quality and a low margin of errors in the project, saving time and money for your company.

Best practices when developing software

These good software development practices are acquired by engineers over years of experience. We know first-hand that it is rare for a junior, who is learning a technology, to develop with good practices. Why? Very simple: because while he is applying this new technology, at the same time he is learning these good practices as he is experimenting.

At Rootstack, our team of engineers and developers focus on working on your projects applying the best practices, this being one of our hallmarks of quality. Therefore, we explain below what are the best practices when developing software that we apply.

Trial and error

The first way to apply good practices when developing software is through trial and error: that is, when the engineer has a long time developing, a lot of time writing code and knows how to make the code readable, that people can understand it. And this happens simply because the developer has a long experience working with the code and has learned the best way to do it.

Following the guidelines of the different technologies with which you work is essential. Point 1 is the empirical part of good software development practices, but at the moment of working with guidelines, one begins to enter into the matter of concepts, theory, how to use terms. Any tool or technology has its guidelines.

For example, React have a set of rules to follow. Another technology is Vuejs, which also has a defined way of working: creators establish how the code has to look, how things have to look after development.

So, we went from working empirically, that is, from 'I learned to do it this way' and now we are talking about following the guidelines established by the creator of a certain technology that we are applying. It is not about the developer following their "beliefs" when working, but rather following the steps and guidelines recommended by the creators of the technologies and tools in their particular guidelines.

Theory and books

Finally, another of the best practices in software development is studying. Yes, the study of theory through the review of development patterns, architecture, books and a lot of theoretical material that includes design patterns. There are programming books, of good programmer rules, that is, this data goes a little beyond the guidelines of point 2.

One thing is the guideline, which explains step by step how a technology or tool has to be used. The guideline precisely gives you the skeleton of how you should do things but, in the end, you have to see how to execute the development and that the result is the most optimal based on this skeleton.

We give you an example, imagine the human skeleton. Suppose you are being asked to organize the bones of the 20 fingers, both those of the hands and the feet. Immediately doubts arise such as how you are going to place them, where they are going. Well, in this hypothetical case, the guideline explains the step by step of how to do things. Although in the end, the quality of the development remains on the part of the engineer, it is his responsibility.

This is where the use of programming principles that define the developer's way of working, his quality standard comes into play. They define how the tasks should be carried out so that they ultimately yield the most optimal and efficient result, which is why it is also one of the best software development practices.

Now that you know three of the best software development practices, feel free to analyze these concepts and make sure that your software partner meets these characteristics. Remember that the quality of your project, software or application depends largely on the work standards of the partners and their team of engineers. Do you have any concerns? Contact us!

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