The Importance of Code Quality for Business Success

Code quality can have a significant impact on the success of a business. Developers spend a considerable amount of time dealing with technical debt, which can slow down the development process and reduce the quality of the final product.
In this article, we will explore the business impact of code quality, the time spent dealing with technical debt, and the importance of green code (well-written and structured code).

Developers spend 23% to 42% of their work time dealing with technical debt. This is almost 25% to 50% of developers manpower.
A cost of maintaining and improving existing code that has been poorly written. It can be caused by things like shortcuts, bad architecture decisions, lack of testing, and poor documentation.

When developers spend significant time dealing with technical debt, it can slow down the development process, reduce productivity, and increase costs.

Speed to market is essential for businesses that want to stay competitive. Green code, which is well-written code that is easy to maintain, can be twice as fast as red code, which is poorly-written code that is difficult to maintain. Red code can take up to 9 times longer to develop, significantly impacting the time to market for a product. That means your competitor can release a feature in one month that takes you nine months to release. That also means your competitor can release nine more features at the same time you can only release one.

Developers can become unhappy when they are stuck in problem-solving, under time pressure, or working with bad code. These factors can lead to burnout and reduce productivity. When developers are unhappy, it can have a negative impact on the quality of their work and the overall success of the business.

In a research titled (Happiness and the Productivity of software engineers)
Daniel Graziotin and Fabian Fagerholm said

“Developers suffer tremendously when they meet bad code that could have been avoided in the first place”.

You can read the full research here.

Code smells like Brain Classes, complex implementations, and large classes can lead to software vulnerabilities. There is a statistically significant correlation between software vulnerabilities and code smells. By investing in code quality, businesses can reduce the risk of software vulnerabilities and improve the overall quality of their products.

In conclusion, code quality is essential for the success of a business. Technical debt can slow down the development process and increase costs, while green code can improve productivity and reduce time to market. By investing in code quality, businesses can reduce the risk of software vulnerabilities, improve the quality of their products, and keep their developers happy and productive.