Valerie Tremblay
The Cloud to Reduce Non-Value-Added Code
Source code can be an asset... or a liability! It all depends on its value to the organization and especially its customers.
In Lean, we talk about:
- value-added (VA), what the customer is willing to pay for;
- necessary non-value-added, what the customer is not willing to pay for explicitly, but is useful;
- non-value-added (NVA), what the customer is not willing to pay for.
Well-written, easy-to-maintain code that supports business logic and users offers a competitive advantage. In contrast, error-prone, redundant, or downright unnecessary code is a burden, as it requires continuous effort and resources to keep it running. In the middle, we find useful code that is not a differentiating element, such as infrastructure configurations or glue between system modules.
What to do with NVA?
Every application, even those developed by top-tier teams, has sources in all three areas. No developer boasts about writing non-value-added code, and yet it happens! Good software development practices can reduce the scope of the problem. For example, continuous refactoring cleans up the codebase to eliminate segments that are costly or don't provide any value. There's also collective code ownership, which avoids duplications, or pair programming, which improves quality.
What to do with necessary NVA?
Cloud-native applications allow us to offload writing and maintaining necessary non-value-added code. AWS offers a multitude of services in this regard and continues to strengthen its offerings. For example, EventBridge Pipes launched at re:Invent 2022 allows us to free ourselves from glue code, which is code whose sole purpose is to move data from one place to another. The goal of the following articles is to demonstrate how to minimize the writing and maintenance of necessary non-value-added code, thanks to various AWS capabilities.
Conclusion
Every line of code has a cost to write and maintain. Eliminating non-value-added code requires developers to be more skilled, while reducing necessary non-value-added code is possible thanks to the Cloud. Being aware of the proportion of lines of code in each of the three areas (VA, NVA, and necessary NVA) allows a leader to act accordingly and thus reduce their technical burden.
