cwash into software

Dwight D. Eisenhower said “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” After reading Jason Yip’s No matter how many times you say it, we still don’t need a QA on the team, I started thinking about how similar this is to the correlation between (software) quality and exploring what software quality is. In the spirit of Jason’s article, thinking about how you “get quality right” will have more positive results for the sake of quality than searching out defects. So the question stands, how do you get quality right? I’m not sure there’s a cut and dry answer, but I have a feeling it’s in the details. I know it sounds anecdotal, but quality isn’t easy. It requires a lot of effort applied constantly. It requires reward and incentive, not punishment and fear. It’s caring about small things, and shifting how your team thinks, communicates and works together. (continue reading…)