Published Tick-the-Code Material
Happy Are The Software Engineers.. (article)
My first ever published article is called "Happy Are The Software Engineers.." and it appeared in Better Software magazine in December 2006. The article describes briefly how complete concentration can create the feeling of happiness especially if the task at hand is meaningful. I wanted to highlight that working for software quality is meaningful and with Tick-the-Code you can achieve complete concentration.
Simply put, happiness is Tick-the-Code.
Tick-the-Code Inspection: Theory and Practice (paper)
My first ever scientific paper is called "Tick-the-Code Inspection: Theory and Practice" and it appeared in the peer-reviewed publication of ASQ (American Society for Quality) called Software Quality Professional.
As the name says, the paper reveals all details of Tick-the-Code up to the 24 coding rules. At the moment this paper is the most comprehensive written source for information about Tick-the-Code.
Tick-the-Code Inspection: Empirical Evidence (on Effectiveness) (paper)
My second paper is called Tick-the-Code Inspection: Empirical Evidence (on Effectiveness). It was prepared for, and first presented at, Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference 2007. The paper presents measurements taken in Tick-the-Code training courses so far (about 50 sessions with over 300 software professionals). The results are revealing. The main point of the paper is that software engineers could keep their software much simpler and avoid making many of the errors software projects are so notorious for.
In the Appendix of the paper, you'll find all the active rules of Tick-the-Code at the time of writing (summer 2007).
Tick-the-Code - traditionally novel technique in the fight against bugs (article)
Pirkanmaan Tietojenkäsittely-yhdistys (Pitky ry) published my article in their member magazine Pitkyn Piiri 1/2008. It is called "Tick-the-Code - uusvanha tekniikka taistelussa bugeja vastaan" and it is only available in Finnish.
An Example Rule Introduced
There are 24 active rules in Tick-the-Code. Each one of them helps to locate either omissions, redundancies, ambiguities, inconsistencies or assumptions in the source code. Individual rule violations might seem minor, but when you let them accumulate long enough, you'll be in trouble.
Marked rule violations are called ticks. Try the following rule on your production-level code and see how many ticks you can find. Then analyze each tick and see if you can't improve the maintainability of your code.
The rule sample changes weekly, so in a mere 24 weeks of diligent visits, you can have yourself the complete set of Tick-the-Code rules. However, there is an easier way and you'll be rewarded with laminated rule cards to top it all up. Get trained! Contact Qualiteers if you want to know more.
DEAD (WARM-UP)
"Avoid unreachable code."
Unreachable code is just dead weight. If you find functional looking code in a branch that absolutely can never be executed, mark it. Code that's been commented out also violates this rule. Unless the code is left as a bad example, it should be removed.
Outdated code with a comment like /* This doesn't work anymore */ or unfinished code with a comment like /* This doesn't work yet */ break this rule, too.
Future Work
Tick-the-Code Inspection: The Book (book, working title)
Since 2006, there's a book on Tick-the-Code on the works. Currently the book project is on ice, as I study and gather more material and field experiences to include in the book. The book will be the most comprehensive written source on Tick-the-Code.
Excerpt from the book
The excerpt changes weekly. Each excerpt is still a draft version and might change before ending in the book.
If the software developers perceive the coding standard to be nit-picking and aimed at minor or unimportant details of the code, they see it more as a hindrance than a help. At first they might complain about the hair-splitting rules, but if the quality manager persists with his coding standard, they'll give up and seemingly accept the guidelines. The acceptance is only pretend to get the quality manager off their backs. The developers won't follow the standard anyway. To them it is meaningless. The coding standard becomes shelf-ware.
If the quality manager forces the developers to follow an unimportant coding standard, they do it in the slowest possible way imaginable. They go to impossible lengths to follow the unimportant rules to the letter. Wasting time and effort seems a justified protest for the obligation to follow the pedantic rules. Malign acceptance is very wasteful. As a silent protest it is often a more effective in destroying any intended value of the quality activity than all-out subordination. With subordination you at least have a clear problem to attend to. With unexpressed resentment, you notice the problem only indirectly through missing results. A mandatory code inspection revolving around minimal issues in code is far from the kind of process we should be aiming for.
Psychology is an important subject in examining the shortcomings of any process involving people. Chapter 2. "Symptoms" makes stabs at it with minimal expertise. The described situations should be real enough to understand and sympathize with.
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