Debugging Software

Given the business we are in, software quality is one of our core motivations. A recent posting on STP, the Software Test Professionals site (http://www.stpcon.com/Item/1027/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=081611-TQA&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTERS) posed the question: “Can You Really Test Quality into a Product?”. The point of the article, that “doing it right the first time” is really the only guarantee of quality, harkens back to the seminal Phil Crosby quality principles that we have talked about in previous postings.

When it comes to producing quality software, it’s hard to argue against setting (and freezing) requirements, communicating them perfectly to all constituencies and then following a well-defined and monitored development process. That’s what we all aspire to. The problem is, just like with airplanes, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, the real world of complexity, human foibles and change always intrudes. That’s why testing exists—to catch defects before they get baked into the final product.

Software testing is the safety net underneath what is hopefully sound process and practice and while no one likes bug fixing, if defects are found early enough in the cycle, properly documented and communicated with enough information to find and fix them quickly, then quality will improve. It’s not the “free” quality that Phil Crosby espoused, but with the tools and techniques that are now available to QA and Dev teams, it’s less expensive that it used to be.

Anyone who follows the complicated and arcane world of patents understands the controversy surrounding what are known as “process” patents. Unlike patents for genuine breakthroughs like the light bulb or the transistor, process patents provide protection for weighty concepts like pricing an item on an e-commerce site or attaching a graphics file to a manufacturing procedure. Nothing wrong with this kind of innovation but not exactly rocket science and not particularly unique.

We just announced (http://www.replaysolutions.com/company/news/62) our third patent award covering various foundational elements of our application record and replay technology. This is rocket science and the technology is definitely unique.

Capturing and managing the literally thousands of non-deterministic conditions that an application can exhibit and replicating them on playback with 100% fidelity is an extremely challenging technical task. The fact that we have already been awarded three patents with nine more pending is fitting testament to the technical achievement of the Replay engineering team.
I salute our engineers for producing truly valuable inventions that have advanced the state-of-the-art for a wide range of application monitoring and diagnostic technologies. Great use of the patent system.

When the United States fell asleep at the wheel in terms of product quality, one of the “re-awakenings” came in the form of a book called Quality is Free by Phil Crosby. His core principle was that any investment in quality improvement would return more than the program’s cost in terms of organization efficiency and customer satisfaction. Hence the title of his book.
Our co-founder Jonathan Lindo is currently the featured columnist for Sticky Minds (http://www.stickyminds.com/) where he discusses the economics of software quality in the context of automated testing. Based on the experiences and feedback from our customers, Jonathan has done an excellent job of highlighting changes that are driving software testing to increased levels of automation and a “time and motion” breakdown of the costs of software defects throughout the find and fix process. Given the time and resources tied up in documenting, communicating, replicating and diagnosing a defect, there is a great deal of savings to be had in improving the process.
The article has already received very thoughtful and supportive feedback, mostly along the lines that the cost estimates may be too conservative. If that’s the case, software quality is even “free-er” than we thought.