15 Commandments to Curb Bad Programmer Habits

I hijacked this from here and modified it.

1. Thou shalt not break the unit tests or system functionality (by checking in half done crap code to source control).


2. Thou shalt really understand the requirements driving your work (not make them up or not bother to read them and/or not ask questions when necessary).


3. Thou shalt deliver what the customer needs (not that which is easy to implement).


4. Thou shalt estimate work effort accurately (and deliver within agreed estimates).


5. Thou shalt understand the implications of thy work with respect to others on the team.


6. Thou shalt not just comment out code because it causes the test to fail (without understanding why it was there in the first place).


7. Thou shalt understand the implications of thy work with respect to other areas of the system as a whole.


8. Thou shalt follow the business priorities (not just do what you think is interesting).


9. Thou shalt deliver stuff that actually works - including the user interface that can't be unit tested (i.e. actually try it out rather than hoping for the best - test the UI - don't just leave it for the external tester to find as that is "their job").


10. Thou shalt not regard communicating with other members of the team as an unnecessary and tiresome overhead that can be ignored.


11. Thou shalt not deviate from the "agreed" development approach without a good reason that has been thought about.


12. Thou shalt understand that the external image of the development team is important - even though it does not contribute to your daily work.


13. Thou shalt not call the customer a wanker even when it is true. <ok, can't have this on the wall>.


14. Thou shalt understand that sometimes thou must do things because they are important to other people's jobs (thou art not the only person in the universe).


15. Thou shalt understand that getting the software out there, so others can see something has actually been done, is important (we're not just doing this as an intellectual exercise).