This paper is written for people who want to write good software, but don’t have a master’s degree in software architecture (or someone managing the project who does). Much of what is here would be covered in a software development practices class, often taught at the master’s degree level.

Writing quality software is not only about the satisfaction of a job well done. It is also reflects on you and your professional reputation amongst your peers. In some cases writing quality software can be a factor in getting a job, losing a job, or even life or death. Furthermore, writing quality software should be considered an implicit requirement in every software development project. If the intended useful life of the software is many years, that is yet another reason to do a good job writing it.