“Clean Code – A Handbook of Agile Software Craftmanship” by Robert C. Martin is a classical reading for software developers. Great, but how do you get the spirit he described into the heads of your whole software development organization? The Clean Code Developer Initiative by Ralf Westphal and Stefan Lieser drafts an interesting way to improve the skills of your software developers with the spirit of Uncle Bob Martin’s book in mind.

The Clean Code Developer Initiative (CCDI) proposes a grade based system with color coding. It borrows concepts from game design by introducing a level concept. Entry level is marked with black and levels up via red, orange, yellow, green, blue to white.

For each level there are principles and practices listed which a software developer – or a whole department – should follow to get to the next level.

Urs Enzler from planetgeek.ch produced a nice Clean Code Cheat Sheet – it’s worth a look.

There is a nice poster available by “unclassified software development“. It’s even possible to print it out in A0 format – huge!

The whole level of a developer can be shown through wristbands. Allow them to be proud on their achievements!

I personally haven’t tried the effort to introduce the principles of Clean Code into a software development department – but it looks like it’s a feasible effort. Accompanied by trainings and some team events, it should be possible to appeal to the developer’s honor – and improve your software quality standards.