On the alignment of source code quality perspectives through experimentation: an industrial case

Abstract

CONTEXT. Alignment is a key factor for success in many software development projects. Aligned teams are capable of bringing collaboration and positive results to companies; whereas misalignment among developers can make a conflicted environment and even lead the project to failure. OBJECTIVE. To assist developers in an embedded software development company in their conceptual alignment regarding source code quality. METHOD. In the organizational context, plan and perform a series of studies such as surveys, systematic literature review (SLR), qualitative data analysis and focus group to support the identification of conceptual misalignments among developers and establish common terminology and guidance concerning source code quality. RESULTS. The results from a survey conducted in one company showed a conceptual misalignment among developers regarding the source code quality that was triggering continuous rework during software evolution activities. Through an SLR and a qualitative analysis of code snippets, a set of evidence-based coding guidelines for readability and understandability of source code were formulated. These guidelines were evaluated and used as an instrument for aligning source code perspectives during a focus group, showing their feasibility and adequacy to the company's context. CONCLUSIONS. The use of all contextual information observed -- e.g. teams' locations, software development context, and time constraints -- along with the information gathered during the industry-academia collaboration was particularly important to help us appropriately chose research methods to be used, and formulate evidence-based coding guidelines that matched the company's needs and expectations. Further evaluations have to be carried out to ensure the quality impact of some guidelines proposed before using them all over the company.