Matthew Setter has posted five reasons why he thinks that making a coding standard is an essential part of your development process. He suggests that "pain avoidance" is one of the key factors, both for new members of the team and for those maintaining it in the future.

Whenever you're working on a project, are you consistent? Are you consistent in your coding style, consistent in your documenting, consistent in your database naming conventions? Better yet, do you and your team have a coding standard which you consistently adhere to? If you don't, you're buying yourself and others a world of pain - which is painlessly simple to avoid. Today I'm banging the drum, shouting from the street corner, calling from the cathedral spire, imploring you to do one thing, above all else - pick a coding standard and then BE CONSISTENT!

His five reasons for implementing (and effectively using) a coding standard are:

• Poor, Inconsistent Code - Causes You Pain
• Your Code is Easier to Read
• Your Code is Easier to Understand
• Your Code is Easier to Maintain
• Your Code is Easier to Collaborate on

Check out the post for summaries of each point.