Have you ever felt frustrated working with someone else's code? Difficult-to-maintain source code is a big problem in software development today, leading to costly delays and defects. Be part of the solution. With this practical book, you'll learn 10 easy-to-follow guidelines for delivering Java software that's easy to maintain and adapt. These guidelines have been derived from analyzing hundreds of real-world systems.Written by consultants from the Software Improvement Group (SIG), this book provides clear and concise explanations, with advice for turning the guidelines into practice. Examples for this edition are written in Java, while our companion C# book provides workable examples in that language.Write short units of code: limit the length of methods and constructorsWrite simple units of code: limit the number of branch points per methodWrite code once, rather than risk copying buggy codeKeep unit interfaces small by extracting parameters into objectsSeparate concerns to avoid building large classesCouple architecture components looselyBalance the number and size of top-level components in your codeKeep your codebase as small as possibleAutomate tests for your codebaseWrite clean code, avoiding "code smells" that indicate deeper problems