As developers it is important to set out standards for development. The desired outcome for defining standards is to make our products better and our development easier.
To achieve these goals, we must use standards that make sense and are objectively helpful to reaching these goals.
For this reason, do not succumb to just using any standards because "that's what everyone else is doing".
And when asking why an existing standard exists, if the reason is "that's how we've always done it", then it's probably time to either drop it or review it, because that reasoning is equivalent to "I don't know". And if you don't know why you are doing something, than it may not be a good idea to be doing it.
Even when you have defined standards, it's important to remember that standards should never be absolute. When you define a standard, all you should be saying is "this is the best standard we can think of for the situations we could think of". You may find a better standard in the future to replace it. Or you may find edge cases where your defined standard is not the best solution, but your defined standard is still best for your other scenarios you've used it for.
Be agile with your standards. Improve and update them as often as you can.
When defining team standards, it is very important to evaluate the reasoning for a standard. Why is this standard better than another?
Team standards should be standards that objectively improve development, or the end products being produced.
If the reasons why for any standard are only subjective in nature, then exclude it from your team standards.
Developers should be given the freedom to define their own subjective standards. Standards that they find make development easier for them, even if other developers on the team disagree.
Personal standards should only include standards that are subjective. Standards with objective reasoning should be added or discussed for Team Standards.
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