Best Practices for Efficient Code Development

With the world now becoming automated in every walk of life, the building blocks of that automation –
code – has become the key factor to improve and master. Creating the code that works is only half the
job. The crux remains in creating a code that is most efficient. In terms of businesses, particularly, a well-
written, efficient code can offer the competitive edge that sets your company apart from everyone else
in the market. An efficient code is one which is clean, easy to understand yet really difficult to disturb.
Ideally, it should also be scalable and secure.

The good thing is that learning to code like this is not hard. Mastering a few best practices can not only
provide you with an efficient code, but it will also save you from the extra time and cost needed to fix
the errors later. Let’s look at what these best practices are and how they can be beneficial for your
business:

Keep it Clean

While it may seem like a good idea to use difficult words and password-like titles for your codes, the
truth is that the easier and more relevant your chosen names are, the better it will be for usage and
maintainability. A clean code will offer the strongest backbone for your products. Use meaningful, easy
to remember words for functions and variables as well as classes. For example, to calculate costs, use
calCost().

Another rule to follow with clean coding is maintaining uniform formatting all across the code. This
applies to spacing, indentations, styles etc. This will not only improve the readability but will also come
in handy for scalability of the code. It might help with avoiding duplication as well. Same goes for the
choice between camel snake or snake case. Pick one and stick with it. Consistency is the word to
remember here.

Finally, when you are adding comments, try to use them to explain ‘why’ rather than ‘what’.

Use Modular Structure

You must have heard about the ‘Divide and Conquer’ when it comes to administration. Administering
code is not any different. Break down your coding project into smaller modules. On one hand this will
make it easy to manage, and on the other it will allow you to reuse the same code over and over again.
It will also be easier to introduce any modifications later. Debugging will also be smoother with smaller,
divided modules.

To add the ‘cleanliness’ factor here as well, group together related functions of the code, and keep
specialized functionalities separate. For example, databases should be separate from business logic.
Ideally, these separated modules should have specified, preferably single, responsibilities as well.

Another, less known, benefit of dividing the project into modules is to allow different teams with
different skills to work on their specialized modules, and prevent them from stepping on each other’s
toes.

Kick Quality Up a Notch

While the modular structure will allow you to keep the development of code separate, it will also make
available fresh eyes to look at the whole project once it nears completion. With peer collaboration,
coders can look at each other’s work and highlight anything that jumps out at them as inefficient or
overly complicated.

Moreover, a fresh perspective can also bring in suggestions to improvements in logic and structure of
the code. Team members will be able to learn and share knowledge without feeling like they are being
judged.

Code reviews are meant to ensure adherence to guidelines and coding standards, and with the team
members working together, the review process can be streamlined better. Just remember to focus on
improvement and not criticism.

Automated Testing

One of the best ways to make sure that the code works efficiently is to run it through a test before
rolling it out. For that purpose, machines may be better alternatives than human workforce. Automated
testing can identify, and therefore rectify, issues early on and reduce time and costs needed for
repeated improvements later on. These can be conducted as unit tests, integration tests or end-to-end
tests, whichever is most suitable to your respective project.

Design Patterns

Sometimes, it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Take help from the protocols already available to
make the best version of your code. These could be external design patterns like singleton, factory, or
observer or it could be a design that you already produced for your earlier projects. Incorporating these
design patterns can help in improving clarity, reducing time requirements and allowing consistency over
different projects.

Something Extra!

When you are starting off a new coding project, bring your development (dev) and operations (ops)
teams. The collaboration between dev and ops is critical for high-quality end product, and it is better to
keep both teams involved together from the start.

They can share knowledge, suggestions as well as responsibilities. There are multiple ways you can opt
for collaborative workflows. For instance, ‘Branching’ allows you to create multiple versions of the same
code to identify what works best. Alternatively, ‘Merging’ can be applied to multiple versions to bring
together the best of every individual code. Programmers can also issue ‘pull requests’ for a code already
existing in a repository, and ethically speaking once finished with a new product, a programmer can add
that version of the code to the repository, known as ‘Pushing’ a new version.

The repetitive tasks in the code generation should be automated. This automation will yield
considerable savings in terms of time and price, far more than it may initially cost you to automate the
process. The automation process also reduces human error and allows tests to be conducted in a
development pipeline for faster validation.

Moving on to continuous integration (CI) that can help in maintaining codebase integrity. It involves
regularly merging code changes into a shared repository to detect integration issues early. CI can allow
for better management of code changes, branches, and provides instant feedback on build statuses. In
addition to streamlining the process, it ensures timely resolutions of issues.

At the end of the day, the primary purpose of a clean, efficient code is faster deployments, which quickly
delivers value for the invested time and money. These best practices for efficient code development
minimize the time from the origination or an idea to its completion and rollout. To take this one step
even further, the modular method can be implemented here too. You can choose to deploy chunks of
the finished code, in episodes, perhaps to a subset of users. This will also work as a beta test post
completion and help you in debugging and improving quality as and when the opportunities present. In
the worst case scenario, you will be able to roll back the deployment in case of an unexpected function
failure.

Finally, Make it Secure!

No matter how easy, clean or efficient your code is, if it is not air-tight on security, it won’t be the best
and it won’t last long. To master this non-negotiable aspect, remember this from the best coding
practices – incorporate security measures throughout the development process, don’t wait to
implement only a blanket security after the project is completed. Encryption is your best friend when it
comes to security. You can choose encryption tools from the market or build your own protocol to
secure your data.

Multifactor authentication is another thing you should never take lightly. Use industry-standard libraries
for multifactor authentication processes.

While you are adding external security protocols, make sure to conduct regular vulnerability
assessments in-house as well. Scans and audits are often found useful in identifying potential threats.

Finally, reap as you do! Follow ethical guidelines for your coding practices and avoid taking pre-prepared
projects from unreliable sources, that may also result in compromising the security of your own code.

OWASP guidelines, for example, are useful for preventing common vulnerabilities like SQL injection or
cross-site scripting. Compliance with data protection laws such as GDPR or HIPAA are also known to be
helpful in safeguarding against security risk.

Don’t be stingy when it comes to storing sensitive information. In addition to strong passwords and
encryption, make sure that the services you are using to store your sensitive information are also solid in
security.