Code Quality Impact on Business Success
For an online-based business, a website or mobile app is a money-making machine. If something’s wrong with the mechanism - payments stop being processed, pages are loading forever, or servers can’t manage the number of visitors and eventually drop - the business is at risk.
Fixing these errors brings additional expenses which is never a pleasant surprise. Neglecting fixes can cost the business its clients and reputation.
Something has to be done,
Why do such errors
even occur?
The reason is unobvious to the naked eye, especially to that of a non-programmer. You as a business owner hardly ever looked under the bonnet of your software product, which clearly you should not - it’s the programmers’ prerogative.
For you and the users, everything can look pretty fine from the outside, but from the inside, the product has critical mistakes in its code that programmers have missed and never fixed for some reason. Be it hurry, missed Quality Assurance step, or just a human factor - doesn’t matter, as damage is already done.
And now, there are two questions:
Question number 1:
What to do?
Your game plan now is to detect the reasons that cause problems. When it comes to websites or software products,
problems are usually lying in the code. And, let’s face it, there’s hardly a way you can check it for mistakes yourself. The best you can do is to
request a code audit service
from experienced software developers who will review your source code and point out its weaknesses. This service
doesn’t include fixing errors but is a necessary step to find out where exactly the problem is.
However, in some cases, the code is so twisted that engineers conclude it’s better to rewrite it from ground zero than to fix. Figuratively speaking, it’s faster and less labor-consuming to buy a new car than to repair an old rusty one for the same money.
Or, for example, the code can be technically correct but outdated, i.e. written with languages and technologies not used as widely anymore.
If it’s not keeping up with modern requirements, it inevitably faces compatibility issues - in this case, developers can also suggest you redo the
entire solution to ensure its longevity.
What we mean is you need to be ready to take measures, sometimes quite serious ones.
Question number 2:
How to prevent such mistakes
from happening again?
Now we’re moving on to preventing the occasions when code quality negatively affects online business. Programmers who write the code are responsible for its quality. You, on your part, are in charge of choosing a team to write it. Here, things are getting a bit more complicated. There are thousands of software development firms to choose from, but not all of them create impeccable code. To lower the risk of falling across mediocre developers, consider these pieces of advice:
1
Most IT companies have a profile on Clutch, the largest software vendor directory. On Clutch, companies share their description and projects while customers leave their reviews on each aspect of cooperation. A great thing about this directory is that every review is strictly verified - fake ones don’t pass.
2
Carefully look through the company’s portfolio - most vendors have case studies on their websites. Would be nice if a company you’re looking out for has expertise in a domain of your interest.
3
Request contacts of previous clients of the company from its representative. This way, you’ll be able to address any concerns with its immediate customers and make sure you’re choosing the right vendor (or move on to another one in case some major downsides are revealed).
And there is always the 4th option we can’t ignore - word of mouth.
For me, estimating the code quality is really difficult. Actually, I got referred to Anadea through a friend of mine who also set up a website through Anadea which is very successful. He took his business further and hired his own developers who were happy with Anadea’s code. That's how I knew, “Okay, these guys do know how to do it.”
So don’t bother diving deep into the specifics of writing clean code unless you are genuinely interested in how it should work and look. What really matters is what developers think about other developers’ code and to whom you entrust creating software in the end.
In the perfect world, even a person with no technical background should have an idea of what a given piece of code is about.
The code can be written in multiple different ways to perform the very same task. For me, the most important thing when writing code is making sure that the next person who will see it will understand what that piece of code is about. [...] A good code doesn’t need additional text explaining what it means, it’s clear as is.
We at Anadea have solid experience in conducting code audits for business software and will gladly review your source code.
What happens next?
After inconsistencies in the code are identified, request the software development service, and our engineers will make all the necessary improvements. Shortly after, your online business that suffered from bad code will get back in the swing.
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