The Biggest Mistake Static Analysis Prevents
Editorial Note: I originally wrote this post for the NDepend blog. You can check out the original here, at their site. Take a look at NDepend while you’re there; if static analysis interests you in the .NET space, it’s a must-try.
As I’ve probably mentioned before, many of my clients pay me to come do assessments of their codebases, application portfolios and software practice. And, as you can no doubt imagine, some of my sturdiest, trustiest tools in the tool chest for this work are various forms of static analysis.
Sometimes I go to client sites, by plane, train or automobile (okay, never by train). Sometimes I just remote in. Sometimes I do fancy write-ups. Sometimes, I present my findings with spiffy slide decks. And sometimes, I simply deliver a verbal report without fanfare. The particulars vary, but what never varies is why I’m there.
Here’s a hint: I’m never there because the client wants to pay my rate to brag about how everything is great with their software.
Where Does It All Go Wrong?
Given what I’m describing here, one might conclude that I’m some sort of code snob and that I am, at the very least, heavily judging everyone’s code. And, while I’ll admit that every now and then I think, “the Daily WTF would love this,” mostly I’m not judging at all – just cataloging. After all, I wasn’t sitting with you during the pre-release death march, nor was I the one thinking, “someone is literally screaming at me, so global variable it is.”
I earnestly tell developers at client sites that I don’t know that I’d have done a lot better walking a mile in their shoes. What I do know is that I’d have, in my head, a clearer map from “global variable today” to “massive pain tomorrow” and be better able to articulate it to management. But, on the whole, I’m like a home inspector checking out a home that was rented and subsequently trashed by a rock band; I’m writing up an assessment of the damage and not tsking their lifestyle.
But for my clients, I’m asked to do more than inspect and catalog – I also have to do root cause analysis and offer suggestions. So, “maybe pass a house rule limiting renters to a single bottle of whiskey per night,” to return to the inspection metaphor. And cataloging all of these has led me to be a veritable human encyclopedia of preventable software development mistakes.
I was contemplating some of these mistakes recently and asking myself, “which was the biggest one” and “which would have been the most preventable with even simple analysis in place?” It was interesting to realize, after a while, that the clear answer was not at all what you’d expect.
