--- title: Lessons learned about Bus Factor (Part 3/5): Write... description: Writing explicit, self-documenting code reduces bus factor by making codebases accessible to newcomers. Through a PHP refactoring example, the article... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-about-bus-factor-part-3-5-write-explicit-code-pahwlixqr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Lessons learned about Bus Factor (Part 3/5): Write explicit code | daily.dev og:description: Writing explicit, self-documenting code reduces bus factor by making codebases accessible to newcomers. Through a PHP refactoring example, the article... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-about-bus-factor-part-3-5-write-explicit-code-pahwlixqr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PAhWLIXQr.png og:image:alt: Lessons learned about Bus Factor (Part 3/5): Write explicit code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Lessons learned about Bus Factor (Part 3/5): Write explicit code **[Einenlum - Coding amongst alpacas and pinball machines](https://daily.dev/sources/einenlum)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Writing explicit, self-documenting code reduces bus factor by making codebases accessible to newcomers. Through a PHP refactoring example, the article demonstrates key improvements: using descriptive names for classes and methods, separating responsibilities, eliminating confusing conditionals with early returns, extracting magic numbers into named constants, and using type-safe value objects like Money for domain concepts. These practices help developers understand code intent without extensive documentation or team knowledge. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Refactoring Legacy Laravel Code in Small, Safe Steps \(With Real Examples\)](https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-legacy-laravel-code-in-small-safe-steps-with-real-examples--wsiyki28e) · CodeCraft Diary · 6 upvotes · 1 comments - [A developer’s guide to avoiding the brambles](https://daily.dev/posts/a-developer-s-guide-to-avoiding-the-brambles-trgwoskqo) · InfoWorld · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Start With Ugly Code](https://daily.dev/posts/start-with-ugly-code-k1ikjfcaw) · Ruby Flow · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Programming principles for self taught front-end developers](https://daily.dev/posts/programming-principles-for-self-taught-front-end-developers-zp5fgxbnt) · Piccalilli · 23 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-about-bus-factor-part-3-5-write-explicit-code-pahwlixqr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Lessons learned about Bus Factor (Part 3/5): Write explicit code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-about-bus-factor-part-3-5-write-explicit-code-pahwlixqr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-about-bus-factor-part-3-5-write-explicit-code-pahwlixqr"},"datePublished":"2026-02-01T08:37:00.952Z","dateModified":"2026-02-01T08:38:33.485Z","description":"Writing explicit, self-documenting code reduces bus factor by making codebases accessible to newcomers. 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