Code Red: The Business Impact of Code Quality • Adam Tornhill • GOTO 2022

This presentation was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2022. #GOTOcon #GOTOcph http://gotocph.com Adam Tornhill - Founder & CTO at CodeScene Programmer, Psychologist, Lisp Hacker, Speaker & Author of Several Books Including "Your Code as a Crime Scene" @codescene-softwareengineer6553 @adamtornhill2546 RESOURCES https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04374 https://codescene.com/hubfs/web_docs/Business-impact-of-low-code-quality.pdf Adam https://twitter.com/AdamTornhill https://github.com/adamtornhill https://linkedin.com/in/adam-tornhill-71759b48 http://www.adamtornhill.com ABSTRACT Code quality is an abstract concept that fails to get traction at the business level. Consequently, software companies keep trading code quality for new features. The resulting technical debt is estimated to waste up to 42% of developers' time, causing stress and uncertainty, as well as making our job less enjoyable than it should be. Without clear and quantifiable benefits, it's hard to build a business case for code quality. In this talk, Adam takes on the challenge by tuning the code analysis microscope towards a business outcome. We do that by combining novel code quality metrics with analyses of how the engineering organization works with the code. We then take those metrics a step further by connecting them to values like time-to-market, customer satisfaction, and road-map risks. This makes it possible to a) prioritize the parts of your system that benefit the most from improvements, b) communicate quality trade-offs in terms of actual costs, and c) identify high-risk parts of the application so that we can focus our efforts on the areas that need them the most. All recommendations are supported by data and brand new real-world research. This is a perspective on software development that will change how you view code. Promise. [...] TIMECODES 00:00 Intro 00:25 What is technical debt? 05:11 Visualize technical debt & code complexity 15:19 Quantify the business impact of code quality 19:45 Does code quality matter? 28:37 Prioritize large amounts of technical debt 34:54 Resources 35:36 Outro Download slides and read the full abstract here: https://gotocph.com/2022/sessions/2059 RECOMMENDED BOOKS Adam Tornhill • Your Code as a Crime Scene, 2nd Ed. • https://amzn.to/44khqgE Adam Tornhill • Software Design X-Rays • https://amzn.to/3DEeEnI Adam Tornhill • Your Code as a Crime Scene • https://amzn.to/3FI5E2V Adam Tornhill • Lisp for the Web • https://leanpub.com/lispweb Adam Tornhill • Patterns in C • https://leanpub.com/patternsinc Caitlin Sadowski & Thomas Zimmermann • Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering • https://amzn.to/41ztwjs https://bsky.app/profile/gotocon.com https://twitter.com/GOTOcon https://www.linkedin.com/company/goto- https://www.instagram.com/goto_con https://www.facebook.com/GOTOConferences #CodeScene #CodeAsACrimeScene #AdamTornhill #TechnicalDebt #Legacy #LegacyCode #DeveloperProductivity #CodeComplexity #Complexity #CodeSmells #RedCode #GreenCode #CodeQuality CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUS Join this channel to get early access to videos & other perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/join Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at https://gotopia.tech Sign up for updates and specials at https://gotopia.tech/newsletter SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily. https://www.youtube.com/user/GotoConferences/?sub_confirmation=1