Agile Development and Business Goals

Chapter 7 Assuring Software Quality

Chapter contents

• Introduction 118
• The Value of Quality 119
• External Software Quality 123
• Internal Software Quality 125
• Symptoms of Design Rot 128
• Quality and Software Craftsmanship 129
• Size of Work Pieces 131
• Unit Testing 132

Introduction

Software that functions as it should, every time, in every situation, is boring (and, of course, unheard of). Some people might use the term “reliable” for software that functions every time. But really what we want is boring, so boring in fact that you don’t stay up at night wondering if things are processing correctly. You don’t have to think about changing your work habits around the cases where features do not quite flow right. In fact, you want to be able to ...