Why coding guidelines are beneficial for readers of the code, writers of the code and fore managers. Plus a little bit of psychology.

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Zuckerberg’s gray T-shirt and
coding guidelines
Sandor DARGO
Agile Tour Sophia Antipolis
9ème édition – 20 septembre 2019

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Merci aux Sponsors !

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Agenda
What are guidelines?
Why are they beneficial for readers?
How do they help coders?
What is in it for managers?
What do they have to do with psychology?
What to bring back?

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Who am I?
Sándor DARGÓ
Software developer in Amadeus
Enthusiastic blogger http://sandordargo.com
Passionate traveller
Curious home baker and cook (@sourdad.baker)
Happy father of two

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What are coding guidelines?
More than a set of formatting criteria:
● Accepted style
● Practices
● Methods
● Methodologies
● Acceptance criteria

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Guidelines are good for the reader

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Focus on the inner beauty or ugliness
Establishes expectations
Makes it easier to review
One can focus on what is important

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A quick reminder on the Maslow hierarchy

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Code is written for people to read
“Programs are meant to be read by humans and only
incidentally for computers to execute.” – H. Abelson and G.
Sussman

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Code is written once, read all the time
“The ratio of time spent reading (code) versus writing is well
over 10 to 1 ... (therefore) making it easy to read makes it
easier to write.” - Uncle Bob

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How does a poorly formatted code read?

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How does a well-formatted code read?

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Guidelines are good for the
developer

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A tool for longevity
Less comments on style
Less questions on variable names
Better perception as a coder
Less time to re-read your code.
Better quality => higher satisfaction => happier life

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Guidelines are good for the
manager

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Happy employees will take care of
customers well
Better quality
Satisfied employees
Satisfied clients
Shorter onboarding time for newcomers
Sometimes are part of audit…

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Maintenance costs are part of the
equation
D=(Pv∗Vi)/(Ei+Em)
Pv: Probability of Value
Vi: Implementation value
Ei: Implementation Efforts
Em: Maintenance Efforts

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Maintenance costs are part of the
equation
The Desirability of Implementation is directly proportional to the Probability of
Value and the Potential Value of Implementation, and inversely proportional to
the total effort, consisting of the Effort of Implementation plus the Effort of
Maintenance.

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Is it worth to rush and save a few cents?
Day Effort Value
1 € 1000 € 1000
2 € 2000 € 2000
3 € 4000 € 3000
4 € 8000 € 4000
5 € 16000 € 5000
Total € 31000 € 15000
Day Effort Value
1 € 2000 € 1000
2 € 200 € 2000
3 € 20 € 3000
4 € 0 € 4000
5 € 0 € 5000
Total € 2220 € 15000
Investing in maintainabilityFocusing only on short term costs

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Where is that T-shirt?

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Find the similarities

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What is decision fatigue?
Willpower doesn’t work!
Each decision has a cost
Willpower has its limits
Only limited number of decision can be made
No no-brainers

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Guidelines against decision fatigue
Small decisions are already made
Follow the guidelines
Invest your energy in activities with high added value

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Conclusion
Use guidelines to:
● Avoid decision fatigue
● Increase readability
● Upgrade quality
● Improve satisfaction
● Reduce long term costs

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Call for actions
Use industry guidelines
Add your extra rules
Enforce the rules
Automate formatting
Always test and refactor

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Zuckerberg’s gray T-shirt and
coding guidelines
Sandor DARGO
Agile Tour Sophia Antipolis
9ème édition – 20 septembre 2019