Code As A Crime Scene: Fix Technical Debt with Behavioral Code Analysis

In this masterclass you learn novel analysis techniques that support both technical and organizational decisions around your codebase. The techniques use data from the most underused informational source that we have in our industry: our version-control system. Combined with metaphors from forensic psychology you learn to analyze version-control data to:

• Identify the code that’s most expensive to maintain amongst millions lines of code
  
• Detect architectural decay and learn to control it
  
• Analyse different architectures such as layers and microservices
  
• Measure how multiple developers influence code quality and what you can do about it
  
• Uncover the social side of your codebase and learn to use the data to guide on- and off-boarding
  

During the workshop you get access to CodeScene – a behavioral code analysis tool that automates the analyses – which we use for the practical exercises. We also discuss open source alternatives where suitable, and see how we can use Git itself for data mining. Participants are encouraged to take this opportunity to analyse their own codebase and get specific take-away information around their system.

Are there any prerequisites?

The masterclass is language neutral. The target audience is architects, senior developers, and technical managers. While we won't write any code during the class, the participants need to be comfortable with reading code. Detailed preparations with installation instructions for the tools will be sent out in advance.

Style

Hands-on, bring your own laptop. The masterclass is based on the books Your Code As A Crime Scene (2015) and Software Design X-Rays (2018) by the instructor.

• The History of your Code will decide its Future
  
• Your Code as a Crime Scene
  
• Lisp for the Web
  
• Patterns in C