Your most important overall goal in terms of software development should be to find your way of working - either for yourself if you're a lone wolf, or for your team if you're working in one.

A big part of that way of working is adopting better practices and living by them. There are areas, though, where it's a matter of preference more than one of textbook definitions.

Obviously, our way of working includes all the other better practices described here, especially:

• Coding Conventions
• Source Code Control
• Issue Tracking
• Testing
• Documentation