Quality Code: Software Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns

The Role of Craftsmanship in First-Time Quality

Craftsmanship connotes skill. The skill with which we code affects the outcome of what we do. No matter how much we architect, design, or conceive our software, a poor implementation can undermine it all.

Traditionally, we relied on verification by our own attention or that of a quality assurance group to manually make sure the software behaved correctly. A developer once said to me, “I write my code, then I train it to do the right thing.” While I lauded the underlying attentiveness to ultimate correctness, that statement also communicates a lack of intention for or attention to the initial product. The punch line came when he spent a week changing some core code in a complicated system and asked ...