How to Build Quality Applications

Continuous integration

Even with high-quality units, there remains the risk of integration bugs. Integration bugs occur when two or more interoperating units don't communicate, share data or transfer control properly.

To help mitigate integration risk, the project team can use continuous integration. This involves checking in code as it is finished, compiling and building that code together and running automated tests against the code to check for integration bugs. As with unit testing and static analysis, a variety of tools now exist to help with this process.

When we deliver quality applications—applications that are fit for use—we get to enjoy positive outcomes such as satisfied users and customers, improved reputation, more revenue or resources, and greater job satisfaction. In this article, we've seen that the pathway to delivering quality and enjoying those outcomes starts on the first day of the project and continues to the very end. Good requirements. Proper organization. Quality-focused programming. Continuous integration. And, once the application is ready, we can go through formal system, system integration and user acceptance testing.

If you've followed the steps outlined in this article, you'll be amazed at how smoothly those tests go, and how quickly and confidently you can put a quality application into your data center.

Rex Black is President of RBCS. Rex is also the immediate past president of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board and the American Software Testing Qualifications Board. Rex has published six books, which have sold over 50,000 copies, including Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Hebrew and Russian editions. Rex has written over thirty articles, presented hundreds of papers, workshops and seminars, and given over fifty speeches at conferences and events around the world. Rex may be reached at rex_black@rbcs-us.com.