Core Values

The core values that guide development of OctoMY™. Every change should improve the total.

Did You Know?

"Kanzen" (完全) is a Japanese word meaning "completeness" or "perfection." It's the same philosophy that drives Japanese manufacturing excellence. In OctoMY™, it means we'd rather have fewer features done well than many features done poorly. A polished, reliable system is more valuable than a feature-rich but buggy one.

Kanzen

The most important philosophy is that of kanzen. Roughly translated from Japanese, it means "completeness." In OctoMY™, kanzen means to continuously strive for perfection.

Every change should improve the total.

If a change does not improve the total, it is waste. This applies even to new features - a feature that degrades the overall quality of the project is not worth adding.

The Kanzen checklist

These are the qualities we strive to achieve and maintain:

Project identity

• Well-defined project purpose
• Strong project branding
• Good web presence

Documentation

• Well documented for beginners
• Well documented for experts
• Well documented for developers
• Documentation works on all platforms

Code quality

• Well-designed codebase
• No unnecessary dependencies
• All dependencies statically linkable
• Best practice patterns
• Warning-free build
• Beginner-friendly codebase
• Expert-friendly codebase

Performance

• Hardware accelerated
• High performance
• Nimble codebase
• Nimble resources
• Binary embedded resources

Architecture

• Cross-platform
• Vertically scalable
• Horizontally scalable
• Embeddable code
• Modular code
• Consistent API

User experience

• Good-looking UX
• Consistent UX
• Beginner-friendly UX
• Expert-friendly UX
• Fluid UX

Testing

• Full unit test coverage
• Full integration test coverage

Licensing

• Open source license
• Commercial-friendly license

Features

• State-of-the-art features

Applying kanzen

All these points are subjective. As a contributor to OctoMY™, it is your responsibility to find the best interpretation of kanzen and implement it as part of your work.

For every change that does not adhere to these values, we move a little bit away from our goal - even if we add a cool feature. Conversely, changes that increase adherence to these values without adding new features still add value to the project.

This thinking is well understood by experienced developers. For those eager to make their mark, it can be challenging to prioritize quality over features. OctoMY™ firmly believes that this continuous obsession with quality will become one of the project's major strengths.