Source code must become a C-level priority

We’ve all heard Marc Andreessen’s famous proclamation in 2011 that “software is eating the world”. It was a foresight: Today, modern, digitally driven companies offer a variety of software-based products and services, while also relying heavily on software to manage their internal operations. Even organizations known for selling hardware, such as electronics companies and car manufacturers, are increasingly offering subscription-based software services to increase their revenue.

Organizations have long realized how important their software is to their business. But they now fully realize how important the source code of their software is. Source code is the most critical asset. It contains all the business logic and dictates how the software will behave and how it will perform. It is the source code that is eating the world.

Source code is the foundation of any modern enterprise. The C-suite needs to take ownership of the code and make it a priority, similar to things like sales, marketing, security, finance, and HR. To strengthen this critical strategic asset and maximize their business results, organizations must focus on top-level code.

The problem with the source code

This transition will address a major issue that has gone unchecked for years: code ownership. Someone must be responsible for managing the source code and software. Today, no one really owns the source code.

Developers don’t feel like they own code because most software has a lot of old code that they didn’t write. Instead, they only feel they own the new code they write. This harms the overall code quality. Bad outdated code is often ignored and continues to take hold, leading to degraded software performance and potential vulnerabilities.

We’re seeing more Chief Development Officers (CDOs) emerge, but they’re usually responsible for managing the software development process and making sure best practices are followed, not the code itself. CDOs and VPs of engineering ultimately focus on process and efficiency, not code ownership.

Possess code at C level

Companies that prioritize code will ensure that there is someone at the highest level of an organization who is responsible for code and accountable for its success or failure. Today, it is inconceivable that a large company could exist without an executive dedicated to managing security or someone responsible for managing finances. As the C-level begins to make code a priority, every modern software-driven organization will have a leader dedicated to code ownership. In some cases, this may take the form of chief coding officers (CCOs).

Code ownership helps eliminate technical debt. Any organization large enough to have 200-300 developers is likely to have a huge technical debt due to flawed legacy code. With someone specifically responsible for code, organizations can do their best to systematically clean code, fix bugs, and minimize their technical debt.

This, in turn, frees developers to focus on new projects and generate real business value. These leaders will also take the lead in preemptively correcting coding errors before they cause major problems for the software (and business), resulting in even greater developer productivity and overall efficiency.

Almost every large company, regardless of industry, relies heavily on software to provide services, manage operations internally, or promote itself. Without clean code, the performance of this software will suffer, negatively impacting the business. As more organizations continue to recognize that source code is the central component of software, they will begin to prioritize source code at the board level and ensure that they have someone, perhaps a CCO, who is solely responsible for the success of their code.

Oliver Gaudin is CEO and co-founder of Sonar