Dynamics CRM 2011 – Importance of Coding Standards

Jaime Smith, 01 February 2012

As with any type of engineering or development it is vital to have a framework that outlines requirements and provides expectations of the way in which something should be built in order to meet best practice; Software (CRM) development is no different.  Coding Standards enable us to have consistency and scalability, to reduce risk and provide a clear structure for writing code. 

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Every developer brings their own style to the code they write and will have probably learnt from different people and places.  These things influence what they bring to your organisation and have the potential to create conflicts with the code written by other members of the developer team.  Guidelines allow the team to write code in a standardised way that represents your organisation well.  It is exactly like having a code of conduct for your workplace. 

To help with uptake and compliance keep it simple and concise.   Additionally, when putting together your standards ensure you include clear and definitive examples under each requirement so everyone understands what each one means.  We have broken our standards down into all the areas of development we work in: .Net, Javascript, SQL, Silverlight and Web portals.  However within all of these there are common standards that need to be addressed such as naming conventions and comments.

As a Microsoft Partner, we have found a good starting point to creating standards is in SureStep (Microsoft Project Management Methodology).  Otherwise a search on the net using key words such as coding standards, coding guidelines will bring up a number of blogs and resources that will assist you in writing your standards.

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