Category Archives: software-engineering

Smelly and Debt

I recently read an article on Opsera titled What Is Code Smell? that explores the concept of code smells and how they relate to technical debt. The article explains that code smells are indicators of deeper issues in software design, like redundant code, overly complex functions, or lack of proper documentation. While these smells don’t necessarily cause bugs, they can make the code harder to maintain or extend in the future. Technical debt, on the other hand, refers to the trade-off between short-term efficiency and long-term code quality. It’s like borrowing from the future to meet deadlines now, but it eventually has to be repaid with interest—usually in the form of extra work to fix the issues caused by the shortcuts taken.

I chose this resource because it gives a practical explanation of two topics that I’ve encountered in my software engineering classes: design smells and technical debt. These are concepts that seemed theoretical at first, but this article helped me understand how they show up in real-world projects. As I start working on my own coding assignments, I can see how these issues might impact my projects if I don’t pay attention to them early on.

The article made me realize just how crucial it is to identify and address code smells early in the development process. For example, the article points out that long methods and duplicated code can be a sign of poor design that will slow down future changes. At first, I thought that refactoring or improving code design was something only necessary when a project was nearing completion. But now I understand that addressing these problems early can save a lot of time and effort in the long run.

What really stood out to me was the connection between technical debt and long-term project maintenance. As a student, it’s easy to think that as long as the code works, it’s good enough. But this article emphasized that taking shortcuts to meet deadlines may create technical debt that leads to problems later, such as bugs or a codebase that’s difficult to work with. I’ve already seen this in my own projects—trying to push through a solution quickly, only to realize later that the code is harder to manage than I expected.

In the future, I plan to pay more attention to clean code practices. I’ll aim to refactor code regularly and avoid taking shortcuts that might seem like a quick fix but could lead to bigger problems. This approach will not only improve my coding skills but also make my future projects more maintainable.

Resource:

What Is Code Smell? – Opsera Blog

From the blog Computer Science From a Basketball Fan by Brandon Njuguna and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Speed Over Design

The following blog I would like to talk about is called “The Hidden Cost of Speed” by Brayden H. Hord. He begins with a quick story about a project he worked on. In this story he describes how he, in an attempt to impress his bosses and meet his co-workers needs, pushed out a product as fast as possible. This worked for the moment. His bosses were happy and he continued his work. However months later, bugs and issues are arriving daily. The software he quickly developed was being used on a daily basis, something he had not anticipated. Now all the shortcuts he had taken earlier had come back to bite him. Now he had something that was being used extensively that was built poorly. 

Now he and his team had to work laboriously to try to fix these fundamental issues. Fixing the problems but also trying to interface between management and stakeholders. The truth is that these problems could have been avoided. If he had better planned and took more time to access the needs and requirements of the project. The moral of the story is that taking time to build right saves headaches down the line. The rest of the blog goes into more detail about why planning and communication are fundamental for all software developers. 

The reason I choose this blog is because I think it highlights one of the most important factors when it comes to software development, Communication. Most software is not built by one person, but rather a team of people. What makes a good team is communication, making sure everyone is on the same page. I think this is important to remember because building without a plan is a recipe for failure. It’s easy to get excited and try to push something that works. But something built on shoddy foundations is always destined to fall. 

Sure your code may work at the moment, but somewhere down the line issues will arise. As needs and more complex architecture is needed, the holes in the code will rear their ugly head. That’s why building code that takes into account not only the needs of now, but also the needs of the future. Building architecture that makes life easier in the future, not harder. I think that this is an important lesson for any software developer to know. Because building something right not only makes your life easier, but everyone else on the team’s lives easier as well.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Code Craft by Kyle Tucker and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

What is Technical Debt

The Future you Problem

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Hello and welcome to a new week on this beautiful blog of mine. Today is a topic that is of interest to me and possibly everyone reading this. It could also be something you ran into during a coding project. It is called Technical debt, which is the concept of delaying or omitting work to complete a project but cause more work to do in the end. 

Let me give you an example that I have dealt with, and that you may have also dealt with. So you got a coding assignment to do right and that deadline is coming fast. So you set out to do it in the quickest and easiest way possible without a care for code layout or etiquette, it is just you working on it after all. The next day, you think to yourself that you may need to rework some facets of the code to make it run better or make it look neater. You then open up the project and look in horror at the mess you made and realize that it would take more time and effort to make it neater or run better than it would be to just continue on and get the project done. That is technical debt and yes it accrues interest.

The example was more personal and not that bad when you realize that the only price you paid is something you can’t stand to look at and also something that will take a long amount of time to fix. Like I said before it is just you working on it and as long as it works it’s fine…but what if you weren’t alone, say what if you were working in a team of 2 or 4 or perhaps a whole company amount. Then we have problems. Cause not only the debt is put upon others, but even money can be a problem if it is a company involved. 

There is also types of technical debt. Planned Technical Debt is meant to establish one presence in the market or gather feedback from customers, kinda like prototyping from my understanding. There is also Inadvertent Technical Debt when the developer is unsure of market requirements or aware of the architecture. 

Many things can cause technical debt to happen, such as poor management or the code not being reviewed well enough.  So to avoid such things it’s a good idea to 

  • Understand the Requirements
  • Understanding Decision Consequences
  • Supervising the Process

So be careful when coding a project as it may come to bite you in the future, so take into consideration the future you and help you out.

Be a Better Dev. (2020a, October 5). What is Technical Debt? (as a software developer). YouTube. https://youtu.be/2nDxKYIajoU?si=crpLGeoCewYZ_kEj

Eye on Tech. (2020b, October 7). What is Technical Debt and Why Does Tech Debt Matter?. YouTube. https://youtu.be/cdzUXv8SpjY?si=FHZ0Vl6ZVkhuSNeE

From the blog Debug Duck by debugducker and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Code Reviews for Quality Assurance

As we continue in CS443 – Software Quality Assurance and Testing, we’ve delved into the test strategy/skill of group code reviews for debugging. So, this week I chose to search for a blog about effective code reviews with a focus on good practices to extract the most value from participating in them and found a valuable article posted on Vates.com. This article is from August 2023, so it is modestly recent and applicable to our current learning materials and discusses best practices and habits.

Code review is a pivotal practice in software development, offering more than just bug detection. It serves as a collaborative process where developers meticulously inspect code changes before integration into the main codebase. By doing so, it not only identifies defects but also enhances code quality, ensures alignment with project requirements, and upholds coding standards. The process fosters collaboration among team members, facilitates knowledge sharing, and integrates multiple perspectives, ultimately leading to the creation of reliable, maintainable, and efficient software.

To maximize the benefits of code review, it’s essential to implement effective strategies. This begins with establishing clear objectives tailored to the project’s goals. By defining specific focuses, such as code quality improvements, security enhancements, or performance optimizations, teams can streamline the review process and prioritize areas of concern.

Moreover, involving the right team members is crucial. Senior developers, subject matter experts, and team leads contribute diverse viewpoints, enriching the review process and leading to better outcomes. Adhering to a comprehensive code style guide ensures consistency in coding practices, which is vital for long-term maintainability. Utilizing code review tools further enhances efficiency by automating checks, highlighting changes, and facilitating collaborative discussions.

Promoting a culture of constructive feedback is equally important. Emphasizing that reviews aim to enhance overall code quality rather than criticize individuals encourages open communication and continuous improvement. Balancing review speed with depth ensures timely feedback without compromising quality, fostering agility while maintaining code integrity.

Lastly, following up on review feedback is essential for iterative improvement. Addressing comments promptly, clarifying questions, and implementing necessary changes contribute to a learning culture within the team, leading to continuous enhancement of development practices.

Vates is a leading provider of IT and software services and the host of this blog. They provide tools and resources to enable teams to unlock the full potential of code review, IoT consulting, and software testing services. This collaboration empowers organizations to elevate their software development practices, delivering exceptional value to stakeholders through collaborative development and effective code review implementation.

Source:

https://www.vates.com/the-art-of-code-review-effective-strategies-for-collaborative-development

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tech. Worth Talking About by jelbirt and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Week 8 blog Post

For this week I found an article about writing code considering we have been writing classes for the past few classes. The article I found stuck out to me because of its title “Writing Code an Art Form”. People always use the analogy of code being like learning a new language but I never heard anyone consider it as art. From the countless articles I could have chosen without this title, I may have never chosen it to begin with.

This article first starts with a background of how the idea of this article came to be. The setup was that the author was working as a junior developer who had to get a recently hired senior developer with 10 years of experience acquainted with their program. I can only imagine how that interaction was set up and whoever was leading the group should have probably reconsidered who should help the new employee. Even though the senior developer had far advanced experience his code was not easily readable. The author was even taken aback because the senior developer commented how the author likes to write pretty code. The author goes into detail on how poor documentation must be taken into account because other flaws can arise from bad naming conventions for variables/functions, spacing, and having the mindset to problem-solve. Keep the code easy to maintain, read, and debug don’t write spaghetti code.

Now reading this article gave me insight into the inner workings of the tech field. I would have never assumed that a new employee would be getting trained by the second recently hired. I would have assumed that someone with more experience with the project would have filled in the new person but maybe it could be that there both coming from similar places. Both of them are the newest employees and could be easier to help another person adapt to the environment. Reading this article has also reinforced ideas that keep your code simple and clean. My main takeaway was whenever you write code don’t just write it for yourself to understand but for everyone. Let’s say you are working on a project on your own you might just get enclosed in how you understand code nobody but you will be able to update it. Even if you don’t care that someone else will update it in the future your code can be so unreadable that future you may have no idea what you created. In a way, code is like writing notes and there is an art to writing good notes.  

https://hinchman-amanda.mehttps://hinchman-amanda.medium.com/writing-code-an-art-form-e41e459bd2f6dium.com/writing-code-an-art-form-e41e459bd2f6

From the blog CS@Worcester – DCO by dcastillo360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Understanding Test Driven Development in Software Engineering

Test Driven Development is a method in software development in which tests are created before the actual code. By writing test before hand, developers have a clear understanding of what will need to implemented, which can help avoid unnecessary errors. This approach will help to have the software behave as expected. This method is a structured and systematic approach. This test method is doesn’t just focus on testing, however it also focuses on quality and behavior. The main goal of this test method is to ensure that the code meets the specified requirements and behaves as expected. Test Driven Development helps with clarifying requirements, reducing defects, and improving the code maintainability.

How does it work?

Test Driven Development operates on a cycle like, first write a test, second make it run, third change the code to make it pass, and then repeat. Developers should first write a test that will analyze the behavior that they want implement. After running the test and writing and rewriting the code to make the test pass, developers will then need to continue reframing the code to improve it’s design and maintainability without changing it’s behavior. This process will make sure that that each piece of code is throughly tested and validate before moving on to the next.

Test Driven Development vs Traditional Testing

The difference between Test Drive Development and Traditional testing is that test driven development method has a different approach and objective. Traditional testing methods usually aim to find bugs or even defects in code, test driven development mainly focuses on making sure that the code meets the specific requirements. A failed test in test driven development method tells the developers to write new code to fulfill the requirement’s, and it also tends to make sure that the code will be lead to higher quality, with fewer defects.

There are also two levels of test driven development that focuses on different aspects of software development. Those two levels being Acceptance TDD and Developer TDD. Acceptance involves writing acceptance test that verify the overall behavior of the systems based on the users requirements. Development TDD, focuses on writing unit tests for individual components or modules of the system.

Why Did I pick this Article?

I chose this article because Test Driven Development is a very important concept in software engineering. This article has taught me a lot about test driven development , which include numerous benefits like improved quality of code, reduced bugs and fewer defects, and faster development cycle. These many advantages are valuable for any software development project.

Reflection

After reading this article, i have learned a lot about Test Driven Development and it’s many advantages. One key take away for me was how in this method developers are to write test before actually writing the code, which can help in clarifying and ensuring that the code is correct and meets the required specifications. I also found how the article talks about the difference between test driven development and traditional testing methods. Learning about the Acceptance TDD framework helped me with my understanding of how test drive development can be scaled for larger projects and integrated into Acceptance methods.

Now that my understanding has been enlighten with this new found valuable knowledge and insights into test driven development methods, I can apply this in my future software development projects. I will also be able to writer better, cleaner, and more maintainable code when using this method.

Article link is Here: https://www.guru99.com/test-driven-development.html

From the blog CS@Worcester – In's and Out's of Software Testing by Jaylon Brodie and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Week 14 – Token #2 – CS-343

For this blog, I specifically wanted to look into how this class relates to the preferred field I want to go into, which is Game Design. I wanted to see what kind of languages would be used, what kind of design elements are implemented, and even in the case of frontend vs. backend, how online games employ servers.

However, it seems like I had a misunderstanding that these two positions were similar omewere, as I find many sources that say software design vs. game design are a completely different beast, which only made me more interested. I did some more research, and this lead me to end up reading this article below:

Software Engineer vs Game Developer – Which one is for you?

Specifically I noticed that software development has more rigidity when it comes to designing and delivering a product. Software engineers are usually employed to design a software to meet consumers demands, which usually entails specific features and options they’d want in the software you’re developing. Whereas with game design, you have a much more flexible development cycle, as theres a lot more creativity involved. You’re less focused on making sure specific features are available and more focused on delivering a product that is unique and interesting for consumers, and keeps them engaged.

Game developers also rarely work with programming languages when it comes to development of products. Game developers mainly use engines, which are interfaces that employ programming languages to create building blocks to build off of to create a video game. Software engineers mainly work with the code directly at almost all times, making sre each line is properly written. That’s not to say some game devs don’t work with code directly, some do, and many Triple A companies actually write their own engines using their own code, like in the case of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which is used to power their famous game Fortnite.

Something this article notes is that software developers may not need to worry about performance compared to game developers, and I can understand why they might say that. Games rel on having a fluid and enjoyable experience, and that is dependant on the performance of a game, making sure theres no glitches, bugs, or lag. However, I would argue that performance is still a factor within software design too, because what if a simple calculation process in a program takes multiple minutes? Consumers will still have an issue with that. While I do think it’s definitely a lot more important in game development, that’s not to say it’s not unimportant in software design.

And that’s all my blogs for this semester! I’ll be taking another of Professor Wursts classes next semester, so I’ll likely be writing again then. See all you readers come January!

From the blog CS@Worcester – You're Telling Me A Shrimp Wrote This Code?! by tempurashrimple and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.