There are many things that could be considered a “Software Engineering Essential”. Software engineering spans many different fields, each with the different tech stacks (developer toolset) needed for different types of development and so-forth. With such a vast collection of development strategies, tools, and structures, the idea of consolidating that chaos into a few simpler essentials can seem like an oversimplification. However, there do exist multiple concepts that are applicable to the software engineering field as a whole. For the sake of this article, we’ll be looking at essentials for collaborative software development since collaboration exists in every field of software engineering.
As you work within different teams, you will find that they each have their own set of coding standards that programmers are expected to adapt to. Coding standards are a set of guidelines for the way a programmer is expected to format their code. Even with variability among different teams, certain coding standards are universally recognized. These standards are often language-specific, and it’s good practice to begin familiarizing yourself with them as you are learning new programming languages. Within a team, internal coding standards make for smoother group-collaboration as there is consistency between the different members’ contributions. In more general terms, coding standards make it easier for others to understand the functionality of your code. For any collaborative, open source, or really any project where others may be able to access your code the general rule of thumb is to make it as simple to read as possible. You may ask, “What if no one but me is going to see the code?” Coding standards aren’t just for others, they’re for anyone who might need to quickly understand what is being written, and for larger projects especially, that could very well include the developer themselves.
Remote collaborative programming is becoming increasingly common. With this, so raises the necessity of effective configuration management and version control. For applications that rely on computer systems or software that receive updates, it’s important for developers to stay up-to-date while still maintaining the integrity of the configuration. This is where configuration management comes in as a process that tracks and monitors these updates and changes. On the other hand, version control deals with the different states that a program goes through during the development process. Currently, GitHub is the most popular platform for dealing with version control. It allows different collaborators to create their own copies from the official/master repository (the place where code is stored), and edit that separate (local) repository without directly affecting the official code. When the desired changes have been made, the collaborator is able to ‘push’ that code, officially adding the changes to the master version. Throughout this process, other collaborators may be pushing their own changes, and with each change a new ‘version’ on that program file is made. Being able to practice proper version control is an important skill to have for any future projects, collaborative or otherwise. This system has applications for not only collaborative development projects, but for other version-dependent endeavors as well, like situations where features need to be tested without the risk of creating errors in the official code.
The GitHub platform also includes many features that are useful for group project organization, including a common blueprint for the assignment of roles and responsibilities: agile project management. This project management structure establishes a clear goal and, with issue driven management, lays out the steps (issues) that need to be completed to reach that goal. From there, the division of responsibilities becomes much clearer as different people or teams are assigned to a specific issue(s), which becomes their short-term goal. With an organized road-map, the chance of code-conflicts decreases as the possibility of unintentional overlap is lessened. Management like this can be used in collaborative environments where the project has many different features to provide clearer ‘boundaries’ between the different feature implementations.
It’s most likely that, at some point in a software development career, you will have to work in a team. Maintaining principles like these will not only improve the quality of any software or applications that you develop, it will also hone useful collaboration skills for the future. Without these essential skills, you may find yourself at a major disadvantage. All of these concepts are applicable, even helpful, to independent development projects, so the opportunity to practice them is there, and I encourage that you take it.