High Level Principals

Essential Development Mindsets

• Write clean code.
• Follow all conventions outlined in this documentation.
• Always leave the code cleaner then you found it.
• Focus on finding the root cause of an issue instead of fixing with a band-aid.
• Write documentation as you build.

Working With Existing Code

• Spend some time ensuring you understand the existing code and what it does. If after doing so you still need clarification, ask around.
• Understand how code you add may affect the existing code. Look for areas that might potentially break or be affected by anything you add and be sure to test those areas when done.
• Develop test cases and strategies before you start and include existing functionality in those test cases.

Troubleshooting Guidelines

• Start at one end of the behavior and work towards the other end.
• Narrow down the problem. Look for testing opportunities that allow you to rule out large pieces of code/functionality.
• Use all of your available tools to diagnose the problem.
• Take note of any recent changes including your own and document.

Error Handling

• Think about all possible points of failure for your code and document them.
• For each point of failure, think about how it should be handled. Do you stop the user? Show a message? Redirect the user?
• Ensure your code has ways to handle all of the points of failure you identified