Software development handbook

This site shares Digital Health and Care Wales' (DHCW) software development standards. Until now, these have only been available to internal staff.

Why have a handbook?

When you're building software, especially in healthcare, good guidance really matters. It helps everyone work in a consistent way, so the code is easier to understand, safer, and more reliable.

A handbook brings together all the important know-how: how to write clear, secure code; how to manage changes properly; how to work well across teams; and how to meet the expectations of modern software development.

It's there to help you make good decisions, avoid mistakes, and deliver software that others can trust and build on.

Terminology and Requirements

To be clear about what’s expected, we use specific words with defined meanings.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this handbook are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Contributing

Thanks for your interest in contributing! We're still working out how we’d like to manage contributions. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your ideas—please feel free to open an issue with any suggestions. We'll share proper contribution guidelines soon.