You're facing stakeholder pressure for unrealistic timelines. How do you maintain software quality?

1. Establish Clear Requirements 2. Adopt Best Practices in Development 3. Automate Testing 4. Implement Continuous Monitoring and Feedback 5. Adopt Agile Methodologies 6. Maintain Comprehensive Documentation 7. Invest in Training and Development 8. Prioritize Refactoring 9. Focus on Security 10. Ensure Effective Project Management Effective communication helps in addressing issues promptly and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Simply, you can't. I've advocated for businesses to understand the "software development triad" for over a decade (and to be fair, I didn't invent it, it's been used in everything from automotive maintenance to tattooing), but it's SUPER simple: 1. Good 2. Cheap 3. Fast Now, the rule is, the stakeholder can pick any two. Anecdotal, certainly, but to elaborate, since the question was about quality: 1. If you want quality (1) software, at a low price (2), it's going to almost always take longer than the stakeholder's expected timeline. 2. If you want quality (1) software, quickly (3), it's going to almost always exceed the stakeholder's budget (or payroll).

If the pressure is ultimately coming from a customer, the messaging should emphasize the partnership. Talk with them frequently. Give updates that show you aren't bullshitting. Prove you have empathy. Ask to hear about the customer's pain from the bug or new feature. Releasing something with a big bug will just add more delays. If the pressure comes from management who just wants to hit an arbitrary deadline, I remind them I am the professional. It's like telling a housepainter to work faster. If they do, you are going to have paint on your rose bushes and big screen TV. Sure the paint is on the walls, but the job will be seen as a failure. As the expert, you are responsible for all the ways the deliverables can fail.

1. Open communication on what is realistic, what is at risk, the compromises, and, most importantly, the delivery cadence. 2. Plan together what is essential vs what can be delivered later and agree on the delivery cadence. 3. Build the foundation with quality; the rest should fall into place in the subsequent iterations.

The most descent way to handle is by communicating clearly and early about the risk and potential consequences on doing development in rush. Secondly there is a need to realize stakeholders with example and data about the unrealistic timelines. and we can offer phase wise development with priority tasks which added value to current project requirements with full hand testing cycles.

Managing expectations is the first step. Be completely transparent with the client, and do this as early as possible. This way, you can develop an action plan together with the client, with all cards on the table and taking into account all the client's demands.

Communication is key in agile process . always keep informed about the priorities /risks /dependencies . Regular updates and regular demos will keep confidence in the stake holders

It is essential to have a clear understanding of the final objective, know what the client expects to see, and be aware of the timelines in which they will be able to observe the project's progress. Continuous sessions should be established to take corrective actions in case of deviations in progress or changes in the business.

Refinements and agile methodologies fix these issues, also sharing timeline and risk mitigation plans are really helpful, also clarification and trust between each other is the key point.

Implementing an Agile methodology can help maintain quality under pressure. Agile focuses on iterative development, where you build software in small, manageable increments. This allows for regular feedback and adjustments, ensuring that quality is baked into the process from the start. With Agile, you can deliver value to stakeholders consistently, even if the full set of features isn't completed by the original deadline.

Employ agile methodologies but don't forget to actively include business representatives. It doesn't make sense to make constant deliveries if the client's opinion is not considered in each iteration. Encourage client participation and make them feel comfortable with the process. Detail all the features until there are no more doubts and everything is clear to all parties. Measure twice, cut once.

Dear AI-Writer, The term "agile methodology" is too unspecific. The needs here are transparency, Kaizen and lean. Some people may think of bloated hierarchies and processes, when they are hearing "agile". "Agile" has a bad reputation already for a decade.

You should absolutely automate hevely on your most important use cases, to make sure that they always work. After that your test automation be your documentation for the details of your application, since it's very difficult to keep manual testing description up to date on the details.

Continous and frequent testing for each increment is the success factor. This is bringing the transparency to the project. Anybody knows, where the progress really is. Also it gives the basis for improvements and therefore Kaizen. Giving the software far-shore for manual testing is also ok, as long as it is done quickly and frequently. For sure is automated testing giving advantages beyond manual testing.

Testes automatizados n?o detectam erros funcionais. A automa??o e os testes funcionais s?o necessários. E eles podem e devem ser realizados n?o apenas pelos Qas, mas também pelos devs e POs.

Remember that doctors never stop washing their hands before surgery, no matter how critical the case is. Do not neglect automated testing in times when you're running late and under pressure. Tests ensure that changes can be made safely, and the larger the software becomes, the more important the tests are.

Automated testing or making sure product is testable using tools is key for the success of the project . Code that can be automated only should be released . Automation testing will r reduce dependency on manual effort and reduces the risk of human errors

Anyone who says they have never had technical debt has never worked on a project with tight deadlines. Whenever it occurs, correct it as quickly as possible. The older it gets, the more likely it is to be forgotten. Investing time in designing a good architecture will help accommodate sudden changes in the software and ensure that quality does not decline as the application grows.

As always time lines is critical , feature delivery is critical , some time design is overlooked which in turn require tech debt to fix the issue. Once product is stable and in BAU tech debt should be addressed

1. Negotiate with stakeholders to prioritize incremental small deliveries along with risks, constraints, mitigations. And timeline to fix the planned/pending items. 2. Cut back on quality targets like static analysis, code coverage, soak test, but ensure you have done enough testing to have good customer experience 3. Don't ask somebody else in the stakeholders team to approve/suggest cutting back on an item which you think is a must.

Reducing the manual intervention , reducing the overhead of release process better to go with continues delivery . Release process should also be automated so that end of the sprint deployment is just automatic .

Caution - This may sound as a short cut. I am giving a specific example from the past which hopefully can be applied with variations on the timeline, the scope and the impact. There was one time where we were asked to qualify entire release in just two weeks, which usually had a cycle of 8 to 10 weeks. There was a specific certification suite which we would run only at the end of the cycle. I suggested that we run only that suite and hopefully we find issues and only fix those issues. This was a collectively agreed upon decision. Worked at that time. A targeted and distributed bug hunts may also work to increase parallelism for quality assurance.

An example I encountered was in a previous role, there was an executive who consistently set impossible deadlines and, unfortunately, had no IT process knowledge, leading to poor decisions and project failures. However, maintaining software quality under unrealistic timelines is challenging but possible. Here are some strategies I found effective: 1. Prioritize Core Features: Focus on essential features. 2. Incremental Delivery: Break down the project into manageable increments. 3. Automated Testing: Use automated testing. 4. Transparent Communication: Communicate openly with stakeholders about realistic capabilities. 5. Manage Technical Debt: Address any compromises made as soon as possible after the deadline.

Its a common challenge. But some strategies to navigate this situation effectively are, 1. Clearly communicate the risks and consequences of rushing. 2. Work with stakeholders to identify the most critical features. 3. Adopt an iterative or incremental development approach. 4. Implement CI/CD for automated quality check, testing & deployment. 5. Be transparent about technical debt & its long-term impact. 6. Track & report on key quality metrics.

The biggest mistake, across the board in our industry, is treating software creation like a "factory" process. If we want to find an accurate analogy in the physical world, the "factory" would actually be the servers running our deployed code in a repeatable and predictable manner. However, when we're *writing* code, we're actually in the process of *inventing* the factory (and the widgets it produces). Inventing is inherently a research process, and is fundamentally incompatible with fixed deadlines (hence the wasteland of failed projects that litter our landscape). The best we can honestly offer is to focus our efforts toward whatever the stakeholders have identified as the highest priority, and pledge to deliver as fast as we can.