Posts tagged “Making Software Quality Visible”
23 posts total. See Filtering and Navigation for tips on how to find the bits in which you're interested.
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It's up to you to lead meaningful change using the ideas from this Making Software Quality Visible series. Here are some final resources, insights, and calls to action to improve your own software quality culture.
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Software quality doesn't come from forcing people to use specific tools, techniques, or processes. It happens when making high software quality becomes part of their lifestyle. Here are a few hints to make that happen.
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Accepting unnecessary complexity, risk, waste, and suffering as part of Business as Usual produces cultural failures that have actually taken lives. It also encourages an Arms Race mindset that makes problems worse.
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We need to understand, if software quality is so important, why it's so often unappreciated and sacrificed. The next few posts will examine several psychological and cultural factors that are detrimental to software quality.
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To advocate effectively for an investment in software quality, we need to define clearly what it is and why it's so important. We'll consider the economic and social impacts of both internal and external quality.
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Vital Signs are a collection of signals designed by a team to monitor project and process health and to resolve problems quickly. This is as opposed to so-called, performative "data-driven decision making."
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Many projects have too many large, slow, flaky tests and few smaller ones. Retrying failed tests and marking known failures introduce risk and waste. Examining the root causes is essential to breaking the cycle.
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Unit testing existed before the World Wide Web, and the Test Pyramid has existed for years. Lack of awareness and belief hinders adoption of the Quality Mindset, not a lack of tools or code being "too hard to test."
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Contract and Collaboration tests are medium sized tests that validate how one's own code interacts with an external dependency. Internal APIs are adapters that insulate most of your code from changes in such dependencies.
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Test Doubles are lightweight, controllable objects that replace production dependencies in smaller tests. Adding seams in your logic to accommodate them enables much faster, more reliable, more thorough testing.
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The Test Pyramid model and the concept of test sizes are powerful tools for introducing the principles underlying a sound testing strategy. When applied well, they create a positive Chain Reaction of high software quality.
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Software Quality must be visible to promote a Quality Mindset that improves everyone's individual choices, ultimately minimizing complexity, risk, waste, and suffering. This visibility also reveals our common humanity.
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Team and organizational alignment is essential to making software quality a priority for everyone. Roadmap programs like Test Certified and Quality Quest help provide focus, shape conversations, and show results.
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Michael Feathers's definition of "legacy code," his concept of "seams," and Scott Meyers's "most important design guideline" are profound insights. Perhaps my "electrical outlet" example will also prove useful.
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Developers (and those who work with them) are often misguided regarding the tradeoffs between quality, risk, and productivity. Here I take aim at two common bad habits and one common bad attitude.
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Improving one's skills helps improve one's choices. Helping developers learn to catch bugs early or prevent them altogether is critical to achieving and maintaining high software quality.
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I left the industry after Google, but not for long. At Apple, the Quality Culture Initiative embraced the power of "Focus and Simplify."
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My Laggard encounter eventually inspired me to organize the Revolution Fixit in January 2008, launching new tools that drastically reduced suffering all across Google.
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Normally I advise steering clear of those who directly resist change, but in this case, honesty and an open mind created a profound opportunity.
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I learned much more about software quality and automated testing at Google—but more importantly, I began learning how to change culture.
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My first exposure to software quality issues and automated testing happened by accident while working on navigation systems for US Coast Guard and Navy vessels.
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This is the first post in a long upcoming series to discuss and refine the Making Software Quality Visible presentation.
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I've completed the full script for my first post-Apple presentation on testing, culture change, and leadership.