Look for Defect Indicators which are easy to find but are correlated with instability, errors and unnecessary complexity

IfSQ

Findings from Research
What should you look for?

Entry Level Compliance

Entry Level Compliance is best achieved by using the IfSQ Level-1 Standard, An Entry-Level Standard for Computer Program Source Code. Software which complies with the standard is more stable, easier to understand, and less expensive to fix than non-compliant software.

A Level-1 Assessment takes about 1 minute per page and can be performed by any I.T. professional (programmers, project managers, I.T. Architects, EDP auditors...). The following research findings influenced the content of the standard:

A study showed that when routines averaged 100 to 150 lines each, code was more stable and required less changes.
Routines with 143 lines or less are 2.4 times less expensive to fix than larger routines.
A study at IBM found that the most error-prone routines were those larger than 500 lines of code.
Few people can understand more than 3 levels of nested "if" statements.
Many researchers recommend avoiding going to more than four levels.
The DRY principle: Don't Repeat Yourself.