Before discussing the WatchDog & SpotTheBug Approach, let me give a brief context on the need for this.
Three months back, I was asked to write core infrastructure code for our new application, which uses all the latest and greatest technologies.
I have written the infrastructure code and implemented two use cases to demonstrate which logic should go into which layer, and the code looks good (at least to me :-)). Then I moved on to my main project, and I was hearing that the project that I designed (from now onwards, I will refer to this as ProjectA) is going well.

Test

A developer returns to a Java project after 3 months to find the codebase in disarray despite good initial intentions. The post proposes two complementary approaches to maintain code quality: a 'WatchDog' role — a dedicated person who continuously monitors for code smells, design violations, duplicate methods, and standards violations — and a 'SpotTheBug' program that incentivizes all team members to identify and propose fixes for bad code weekly. The combination of these human-driven processes with automated tools like PMD, FindBugs, and Sonar is presented as the best way to keep code clean over time.

Keep The Code Clean: WatchDog & SpotTheBug Approach