Companies have to decide what the right level of code quality is for them. Such decisions have two aspects: the cost, and the benefit. Let’s look at the cost first. Code quality comes at a cost: you need to come up with code quality guidelines, discuss them in your team, get everyone to understand them. Then, whenever an engineer writes code, he has to keep these practices in mind. Then you may have a code review. During the code review, bad code is pointed out and needs to be improved. New engineers need to be adapted to your code quality. When you add all these together, it’s clear that code quality comes at a cost in slowing down your company, or in requiring more engineers to compensate, as this infographic shows:
What's the Right Level of Code Quality?
What's the Right Level of Code Quality?
What's the Right Level of Code Quality?
Companies have to decide what the right level of code quality is for them. Such decisions have two aspects: the cost, and the benefit. Let’s look at the cost first. Code quality comes at a cost: you need to come up with code quality guidelines, discuss them in your team, get everyone to understand them. Then, whenever an engineer writes code, he has to keep these practices in mind. Then you may have a code review. During the code review, bad code is pointed out and needs to be improved. New engineers need to be adapted to your code quality. When you add all these together, it’s clear that code quality comes at a cost in slowing down your company, or in requiring more engineers to compensate, as this infographic shows: