Tools for Code Quality in Front-end Software Development

This thesis was created to identify ways to improve and enforce code quality using automated tools in front-end software development projects. The problems caused by a bad code quality vary from bugs to project delays and in general cause issues with the project timeline and budget. Finding ways to improve the code quality is important so that in the future the software development projects can be produced at the highest possible quality and that they offer the best value for the clients. Producing a high-quality code would also improve the image of the company and help to create long-lasting partnerships with clients. The study consists of a theory section, which defines good code quality attributes in depth. The following chapter contains two case study analyses conducted on past large-scale software development projects. The projects included some tools to improve the quality of the code, but they both also failed in some quality areas. These analyses were utilized to first find out the common pain points in software development projects, which reduced the code quality and secondly to help to identify methods that could solve these issues. The scope of the thesis includes only front-end software development related coding issues and tools. Some non-automated methods and processes are identified in the theory section, but the main focus was to identify automated tools that are relatively easy to configure and use throughout different projects. For the case study scope the two past projects were chosen. The results of the thesis show that issues, which could be solved by enforcing the code quality with automated tools, caused many of the problems in the past projects. The set up of the projects determined a lot of the type of issues that arose, but most of them could have been avoided with a better planning and implementation of the quality enforcement tools. The results and suggestions chapter consists of a list of tools and guidelines for how to use them to solve the most common coding related challenges