Belt and Suspender Rule Definition

Belt and Suspenders Rule – the involvement or use of multiple methods or procedures to achieve a desired result, especially out of caution or fear of failure which is also commonly called “belt and braces” in the UK.

Bеlt and suspenders is a term used to refer to conservatism and safety. As the use of a belt and suspenders to hold up your pants implies having redundant safety procedures to eliminate all risks.

Mоre often, it describes an attitude of having multiple layers of security procedures to minimize risks. While the term can be used as a complementary description of a prudent and honest lender, it can also deride behavior that is considered overly conservative.

Across the plethora of industries it can be applied to we can name finance and healthcare as the most in demand ones as related coders implement these rules to make software protected across the lending niche as an example or sensitive patients data.

Belt and Suspender Rule Use Cases

Engineers using this method got stardust in their pockets as their “pants” of cybersecurity will not unexpectedly fall in case of any attacks or errors when the part of your solution stops performing. Though it sounds weird to wear both protection for pants, it is more like a metaphor here, adding an extra protection just in case.

Here are some examples where you can use this method:

• Safeguardness of data. Let’s say you need to do a backup, a common practice for every company minding their long-term appearance on the market. How to accomplish it properly? — maybe you are thinking about making a backup once a week, and it seems to be OK, but here you decide to add a suspender called “real-time backup” to another server.

  That’s where you are not afraid of losing information even if the lightning will destroy one of the servers.

• Authorization. This part of the security is related to social media, banks apps, and other programs, used by the top web design companies in the USA and other countries who make these solutions where users need to login and keep an account.

  There is another case when you are making an in-house system for workers, and you have to limit their access to the data they need according to their roles, so you implement both mechanisms like password, biometric, and additional — role-based access.

• Testing. While writing your code lines, you need to ensure it will work bug-free, as well as you check it after it is ready to prevent vulnerabilities during deployment stage. How do you accomplish it? — Typically developers choose automated tests with various tools like Selenium, and it is their “belt” but they also can investigate it manually which will be their “suspender.”

What are the pros and cons of Belt and Suspender rule?

We have considered some of the use cases here, so it is time to bring advantageous moments you can receive with this approach in terms of software creation.

• Customer-oriented design. As one of the UX design agency in London for user-centered solutions, we also implement this rule for more accessibility and usability, which makes your users stay longer on the page and investigate it.

  For instance, it is crucial to make an intuitive menu, and additionally, you are able to put on the screen some extra buttons allowing visitors to jump on the start screen or else.

• Increased performance. In various usages, this rule will be the spine of the structure and will prevent various human errors and allow you to catch them before they appear. It will be a teamwork of your front-end and back-end departments who are in the charge of keeping data clear for usage and understanding.

• Higher quality of outcomes. When you put effort into something, it will pay off, and in the case of belt and suspender approach, you are turning fod into fireworks, making a product safer, leaving place for zero accidents that can lead to downtimes.

  Moreover, you will focus on the core demands, applying this rule only to vital aspects which determine the whole performance — security, code, UI/UX design, end-users satisfaction.

• Saved mental health. Yes, we said that as even is case of data breaches, you will be safe, conducting stress-free backup or going live without rapid errors appearing in real time.

Talking about a good side we can not ignore some challenging moments that come into the play, so here are some of them according to our experience and background of coders who shared it online:

1. Costly approach. As it is cost-effective in long-term run, it requires additional resources here and now which is not suitable for startups or small businesses. Still, it depends on the market you are operating on, for example, some healthcare software development companies can offer a budget-friendly extra data protection.
2. Bulky workload. It needs extra efforts and more time dedicated to working on the solution, which is also related to the previous con — vendors will change more if you are operating on hourly basis.