DeutschPosts Tagged: quality assurance
The 5 Levels of Logging Explained by Orhan Kavrakoğlu
In this article Orhan Kavrakoğlu explains the logging levels commonly used in software alongside with some pertinent examples as well as recommendations and best practices such as in which case to use which particular log level and how to present them to the target audience (i.e. other developers, system administrators or DevOps people) so they get noticed in accordance with their respective importance and urgency. As mentioned here before seemingly trivial improvements such as providing better context in your log messages can ... Read more
Artur Śmiarowski’s Guidelines for Writing Readable Code
Code means communication has become a bit of a mantra for me. Source code isn't just the means by which you translate requirements into commands and structures a machine can understand. Source code also communicates your intent as a designer and engineer as to what a particular piece of software is supposed to do. If written in a clear and comprehensible manner code can serve as an authoritative design specification with no or little extra documentation needed. I would go as far as ... Read more
Dimensions of Software Quality: Outcomes, Continuity, Cohesion and Coupling
IT consultant Erik Dietrich wrote this interesting article about his approach for evaluating software quality from a business perspective. He suggests these 2 questions as the main business considerations when it comes to software quality: Does the software do what it’s supposed to do? Can I easily change what the software does? In other words: Software quality is determined by both outcome and continuity (the extent to which software allows for changing circumstances, see Jeff Sussna's book Designing Delivery for more information on this matter) The ... Read more
Test-driven Development (TDD) with Angular 2 / 4
Recently, together with Jan Massenberg of Setlog I gave a talk on test-driven development (TDD) with Angular at the 2nd Angular Ruhr meetup. Currently, I help Setlog with improving their software quality and in particular with developing a SaaS tool that simplifies quality assurance processes (QA) in supply chain management. The talk was about hands-on experience with using TDD for implementing this SaaS tool. This article (sorry, German-only) summarises the key aspects of the talk and goes into some more detail regarding the various ... Read more
Agile Med Dev: Software Testing for Medical Devices
Medical devices software engineer Julien Zaegel wrote an interesting series of articles on medical devices software testing. These articles provide an overview of as well as several useful insights on the specifics of testing medical devices software and software in general. When it comes to automated and manual software testing for medical devices there are several aspects you don't usually have to deal with when testing more common kinds of web or business applications: With medical systems human lives are at stake. Medical devices ... Read more
Designing Delivery and Moving Beyond Products
I'm a frequent attendee at Lean DUS, a regular event organised by the fantastic folks of sipgate. Earlier this year at LEAN DUS #23 Jeff Sussna gave a talk on moving beyond products and unifying design and operations. Jeff runs a consulting company called Ingineering.IT, which aims to help businesses to establish a comprehensive, continuous service delivery process. He also condensed his expertise in a book called Designing Delivery, which outlines a continuous value creation process involving design thinking, agile software development and ... Read more
Testing REST Services with REST Assured
RESTful service testing can be unwieldy and difficult to get started with. Providing a REST API implies using a variety of technologies and techniques such as HTTP, JSON, authentication, various payload transfer mechanisms and content types. This is where a tool that abstracts over these technical details and facilitates their application comes in handy. REST Assured is a high-level DSL for testing REST APIs. It draws upon behaviour-driven development (BDD) and hence makes for readable test descriptions. A typical acceptance test with ... Read more
The Art of the README
Just recently I was reminded about an obvious and vital but all too often neglected aspect of good quality software: Creating and maintaining a README file to both onboard new developers and to get users started with your software easily. While certainly essential in the context of open source software maintaining a high quality README is also relevant regarding proprietary / company-internal software that's limited to only a select circle of developers and users: It enables both your customers and internal users ... Read more
Clear Acceptance Criteria: The Key to Good Software Quality Right from the Start
Actually it should come as no surprise that clear acceptance criteria are a quintessential prerequisite for high quality software that meets both design requirements and customer demand. All too often however, acceptance criteria for software products are either non-existent or vague and ambiguous at best. Who hasn't come across 'acceptance criteria' such as "The app should have a modern UI." or "The application should be easy to use."? What do bromides like that amount to? Not much, unfortunately. Elena Kulik of RubyGarage wrote ... Read more
Keeping database schemas up-to-date with Flyway
At least ever since Ruby on Rails' Active Record Migrations put an emphasis on keeping database schemas consistent with your software's source code both during development and in production database migration tools have become a staple in modern software development. Database migration (or database refactoring as this technique is sometimes called as well) tools allow you to apply data definition language (DDL) statements like "CREATE TABLE ..." or "ALTER ..." to databases in an automated, consistent and traceable manner instead of either ... Read more
