Software quality is not just about finding and fixing bugs, but also about creating and delivering value for the users and the stakeholders. It requires a mindset that embraces continuous improvement, collaboration, and feedback. In this article, we will explore some ways to cultivate a software quality mindset and apply it to your projects.
The first step to improve software quality is to define what quality means for your specific context and goals. Quality criteria are the standards and expectations that you and your customers have for the software. They can include functional, non-functional, and user experience aspects, such as reliability, performance, security, usability, and accessibility. You can use various tools and methods to elicit, prioritize, and document the quality criteria, such as surveys, interviews, user stories, acceptance tests, and quality models.
Having a tool like Sonar is of great help! If you're using IntelliJ Idea, you can use the sonar plugin. This let's you easily spot issues as you code. You can also add Sonar scanner to your build pipeline. Code smells, duplicate code, code coverage, bugs - now you'll have them covered.
Cultivating quality mindset is such a crucial element in the process of delivering high quality products. Begin by understanding the nuances of what 'quality' means for the specific context you are in and the collective understanding within your team. Understand that quality isnt just a checkbox but it is critical factor that impacts customer satisfaction, business success and overall reputation. It's also about having a mindset of continous improvement, collaboration and feedback. Have the emphasis on end users needs as the goal and derive the purpose to meet those needs and deliver value to the users.
Once you have established the quality criteria, you need a way to measure and monitor them. Quality metrics are the quantitative indicators that help you assess the quality of the software and the processes involved in its development. They can be derived from various sources, such as code analysis, testing results, user feedback, and project management data. You can use quality metrics to identify strengths and weaknesses, track progress and trends, and communicate quality status and issues.
Measuring quality is not enough; you also need to take actions to improve it. Quality practices are the techniques and activities that you and your team perform to ensure and enhance the quality of the software throughout its lifecycle. They can include planning, designing, coding, testing, reviewing, deploying, and maintaining the software. You can use quality practices to prevent, detect, and correct defects, as well as to optimize the value and efficiency of the software.
Building quality is a continous process which requires continuous improvments. These practices empower teams to not only establish a baseline of quality but also to maintain, reflect upon, and continually enhance it. These practices should focus on preventing issues from occuring in first place rather than just identifying and fixing them. Some of the practices could be pair programming, TDD, continuous testing approach, exploratory testing and many more.
Quality is a paradigm shift and takes time. Leads need to encourage and empower teams to understand the value that quality would bring both to them and the company. 1. Stick to clean architecture via SOLID principles, proper variables/method names, small and easily unit testable code. 2. Add documentation at method level and inline comments where the code needs an explanation. Customer facing external documentation needs to be vetted out by BAs before publishing. 3. Ensure code is above 85% and all code analyser bugs/vulnerabilities/code-smells are addressed. 4. Review all PRs aligning with one's organisational technical and functional conventions. 5. Ensure all automated tests pass against a code change before one hits merge to master.
Implementing quality practices is more than just measuring quality; it's about taking active steps to enhance it. These practices span the software development lifecycle, encompassing planning, design, coding, testing, review, deployment, and maintenance. They serve to prevent, detect, and rectify defects, while optimizing software value and efficiency.
Quality is not only a technical matter, but also a human and organizational one. Quality culture is the shared set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that promote and support quality in the software development environment. It involves the people, the processes, and the tools that make up the software quality system. You can foster quality culture by creating a vision and a mission for quality, establishing roles and responsibilities, providing training and coaching, encouraging collaboration and feedback, and rewarding and recognizing quality achievements.
Quality is not a static state, but a dynamic and evolving one. Quality failures are the inevitable and valuable opportunities to learn and improve. They are the deviations from the expected or desired quality levels that cause dissatisfaction, frustration, or harm to the users or the stakeholders. You can learn from quality failures by analyzing their root causes, impacts, and lessons, as well as by implementing corrective and preventive actions, sharing knowledge and best practices, and celebrating successes and improvements.
Learning from quality failures is an ongoing process in the pursuit of excellence. These failures, deviations from expected quality, provide essential opportunities for growth. By delving into their root causes, impacts, and lessons, we gain insights. Implementing corrective and preventive measures, sharing knowledge and best practices, and celebrating successes are key steps in this journey of continuous improvement.
Quality is not an absolute or universal concept, but a relative and contextual one. Quality changes are the fluctuations and variations in the quality criteria, metrics, practices, culture, and failures that occur due to internal or external factors. They can be caused by changes in the user needs, the market conditions, the technology trends, the project scope, the team composition, or the organizational structure. You can adapt to quality changes by being flexible and responsive, embracing uncertainty and diversity, and seeking feedback and innovation.