Applying the 5s for Software Development

Usually when talking about the 5s our thoughts go directly to the manufacturing industry or at least to the simple task of sorting and organizing our work space but what if I told you it is also used in the software development industry?

The 5s consist of a practical approach that has the objective of dynamically establishing an organized and productive sustainable work structure. These principles are based on 5 actions that in the Japanese language start with the letters s. Seiri(Sort),Seiton(Straighten), Seiso(Shine), Seiketsu(Standardize) and Shitsuke (Sustain).  

Applying the principles to our simple working space, such as our desk, would result in asking ourselves if what we have on it is really essential? How often should I clean my keyboard? But then lets picture ourselves trying to do this with our code, when sometimes we software developers tend to follow the “if it works don't touch it” rule. These are some guidelines:

• To sort our code, we could go through the code identifying and removing any legacy code and  out-of-date comments. It is also good to identify any code that doesn’t follow established coding conventions. Tools like code linters could help through this phase.
• Straightening our code could consist of highlighting and locating our most used blocks of code and moving those lines to a module, making it easier to read and maintainable. Separating our code and using the OOD approach helps us in this process.
• To make our code shine, we have to refractor and clean our code, removing any unused line, data definitions, properly documenting it, and rewriting any logic.
• Standardizing your code will consist of as a whole defining a coding and documenting convention. Getting to know your team's coding practices and socializing with them to define a proper structure is always beneficial.
• Keeping the practices and standards, it's what makes your code sustainable; set a moment in your workflow and project development to audit these practices.

The act of modularizing and cleaning our code improves not only our work and projects, but it also makes the mere act of coding easier and scalable. To sum it all up, using the 5s as a programmer improves our code and it removes any unnecessary rubble that could decrease our productivity.