How to make developers follow coding standards? [closed]

Answer 1

Go get more obedient devs.

On a serious note: I can say for myself that I tend to ignore (or reluctant to follow) practices I find downright unreasonable, too authoritarian or plain stupid. Try speaking to your guys and ask them what they don't like about the doc.

Answer 2

I wouldn't worry about it until I'm team leader and getting paid to worry about that stuff. If he writes awful code, let it be and do your own thing, you probably aren't being paid enough to worry about it anyway.

Answer 3

Automate it.

You could integrate StyleCop and FxCop (Code Analysis in VS2008) into your build process.

Thus, when someone checks something in which breaks the rules, the build will break and they'll have to fix it. If you don't have an automatic build process which supports this, you could always run the tools manually prior to code reviews etc.

You probably won't find a perfect match for your coding standards, but you should be able to get something pretty close.

StyleCop

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/sourceanalysis

FxCop:

http://blogs.msdn.com/fxcop/

Answer 4

I agree w/ Anton. You need their buy-in, else the coding standards are just arbitrary rules meant to inconvenience them (at best) or stifle their creativity (at worst).

I also recommend making the coding standards concise, and, for the most part, tell your devs what they shouldn't do rather than providing an exhaustive list of what they should do. Find stuff that they'd reasonably agree on (like "avoid using empty catch blocks like the plague, as they just mask errors"). Make it known that they are the beneficiaries of the dev standards to achieve buy-in from the majority.

Rushing to fire non-pliable employees isn't the answer. Turn this into a positive experience for your devs and everyone wins.

Answer 5

Were the developers consulted when the standards were written? I hate having to follow guidelines that someone came up with out of the blue and did not consult some of the devs. It happens all the time.

The other thing that bugs me is someone giving me guide lines to follow that does not actually work on production code. There is a big difference in the theoretical right way to do something and the practical right way to do something.

Answer 6

You need to learn serenity! This is a common situation. Even as you get more senior and are more able to affect things, you won't be able to make a perfect coding situation. Just try to do the best job you can, and be a good example yourself.

Know-it-all-superstar co-workers is also something that will never go away. There are a few things you can do though.