If you've ever cracked open an old codebase and found yourself in a mess of tangled logic, unclear variable names, and functions that seem to do everything and nothing at once—you've probably encountered a plate of spaghetti code.
So, what is spaghetti code exactly, and what’s the best way to tackle it?
🍝 What Is Spaghetti Code?
Spaghetti code is a term used to describe code that is messy, unstructured, and difficult to maintain or understand. It typically lacks clear organization, often with functions and logic tangled together in a way that makes the flow hard to follow — kind of like a bowl of spaghetti where everything is intertwined.
Common symptoms of spaghetti code include:
- Excessive reliance on global variables
- Long, monolithic functions
- Lack of modularization
- Repeated code blocks
- Poor or inconsistent naming
- Few or no comments
🧩 What Causes Spaghetti Code?
Wondering how you got the mess of spaghetti code in the first place? Spaghetti code rarely happens because of intentional laziness. Rather, it’s the result of multiple small compromises when decisions are made in order to meet deadlines, to keep up momentum even if the team is behind on refactoring, or to quickly develop a feature even if there’s not a defined scope or roadmap.
🔍 Why Is Spaghetti Code a Problem
Spaghetti code isn't just an aesthetic issue. It can slow down development, increase bugs, and make onboarding new developers needlessly complex. Left to fester, spaghetti code can cause fear of modifying the codebase, "It just works, don’t touch it."
As with all forms of technical debt, it’s best to face your spaghetti code head on and start cleaning it up.
🧹 Cleaning Up Spaghetti Code
Cleaning spaghetti code doesn’t mean rewriting everything. Here are some steps to untangle the mess:
- Start with refactoring, breaking long functions down into smaller, focused ones
- Introduce classes to organize code into reusable components
- Comment your code and create technical documentation to help others (or the future you) understand why things work the way they do
- Test to make sure your refactoring doesn’t break anything
- Follow a style guide for consistent, readable code
- Adopt design patterns -Use proven structures for common problems
- Use version control wisely, making small, incremental commits as you clean up
- Allocate time (specific sprints or development cycles) to cleaning up spaghetti code
✅ How to Avoid Spaghetti Code in the First Place
An ounce of prevention is better than cure. Here are a few best practices:
- Plan before you code
- Keep functions short and single-purpose
- Review and refactor regularly
- Prioritize readability over cleverness
The Thing to Remember about Spaghetti Code
Spaghetti code is an all-too-common reality in software development, especially in fast-paced or legacy environments. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. With a bit of discipline, teamwork, and willingness to refactor, you can gradually turn that bowl of spaghetti into clean, maintainable code that future developers will thank you for.
After all, code is read more often than it’s written—so make it something worth reading.
Spaghetti Configurations in Jira
The spaghetti metaphor doesn’t just apply to code. As an organization grows, their Jira configuration can begin to resemble a piled plate of pasta as well. Untended, your instance can accumulate thousands of custom fields, a different set of schemes for every project and more projects than your admins can keep track of.
The result is a Jira instance that’s difficult to maintain. A change in processes such as a new compliance requirement will take longer to implement. Admins may be overwhelmed, and at some point, performance may even be degraded.
Consider using the following strategies to keep your Jira instance feeling more like a tidy bento box and less like a languid lump of linguini:
- Share configurations across similar projects – Jira is designed with schemes that allow multiple projects to use the same issue types, screens, workflows, field configurations, etc. Using the same schemes across multiple projects can save a ton of admin time and ensure that all teams are held to the same standards.
- Consider restricting creation of team-managed projects – Team-managed projects offer ease and flexibility, but they also mean that a carefully and purposefully-designed configuration can be bypassed. You can control who can create team-managed projects by going to Jira settings > System > Global permissions.
- Avoid custom field bloat – Custom fields can pile up. Who doesn’t want more data? (Answer: The people who have to enter the data). To keep custom fields in check:
- Use field contexts so that the same custom field can function differently in different projects
- For JSM projects, use forms to collect customer service data. Form fields may or may not be associated with a Jira custom field, allowing you to collect the data you need for customer service without adding to your custom field count.
- Use worklog attributes – If you’re using Jira time tracking data for billing and invoicing, consider moving to Clockwork Pro for Jira. Clockwork allows to add worklog attributes to tracking information like billable hours, customer, cost center, etc. without having to create a custom field.
