Software quality - What would you do differently?

[RosieA]

For those of you who have experience with software quality:

If you could start all over again and do it from scratch, what would you add or change about your software design process?

 

[NYHawkeye - 2005]

Hi Rosie -

If I had the ability to start from scratch with our process, I would realign software test to be more closely tied to SQA and less driven by the developers themselves.

It may just be our process but when push comes to shove and a project needs to be accelerated it always seems to come at the expense of thorough/adequate testing. The shortfalls in test seem to haunt us in production for a long, long time.

 

[Mike S.]

Originally posted by NYHawkeye

It may just be our process but when push comes to shove and a project needs to be accelerated it always seems to come at the expense of thorough/adequate testing. The shortfalls in test seem to haunt us in production for a long, long time.

NO! It is not just YOUR process! It isn't even limited to software by any stretch of the imagination! Ask most anyone here in the Cove, regardless of industry, if they have ever seen it happen and I'll betcha a beer over 90% say "yes"!

 

[Atul Khandekar]

I have to agree with NYH and Mike here.

If I were to (actually I am) rethink the whole process, I would like to make our design documentation more exhaustive in terms of user scenarios, mistake proofing and more importantly create detailed test plans so that it is not 'driven by the developers themselves'. They know exactly what not to do while testing!