Question

One of our developers is continually writing code and putting it into version control without testing it. The quality of our code is suffering as a result.

Besides getting rid of the developer, how can I solve this problem?

EDIT

I have talked to him about it number of times and even given him written warning

Answer 1

If you systematically perform code reviews before allowing a developer to commit the code, well, your problem is mostly solved. But this doesn’t seem to be your case, so this is what I recommend:

• Talk to the developer. Discuss the consequences for others in the team. Most developers want to be recognized by their peer, so this might be enough. Also point out it is much easier to fix bugs in the code that’s fresh in your mind than weeks-old code. This part makes sense if you have some form of code owneship in place.
• If this doesn’t work after some time, try to put in place a policy that will make commiting buggy code unpleasant for the author. One popular way is to make the person who broke the build responsible for the chores of creating the next one. If your build process is fully automated, look for another menial task to take care of instead. This approach has the added benefit of not pinpointing anyone in particular, making it more acceptable for everybody.
• Use disciplinary measures. Depending on the size of your team and of your company, those can take many forms.
• Fire the developer. There is a cost associated with keeping bad apples. When you get this far, the developer doesn’t care about his fellow developers, and you’ve got a people problem on your hands already. If the work environment becomes poisoned, you might lose far more – productivity-wise and people-wise – than this single bad developer.