Introduction:

This article is about defect density as an estimation tool. This attempts to create a simple mathematical model for estimation based on historic defect density about total number of defects and project delivery time. This also presents proposal for creating organizational competitiveness based on defect density of individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, not YOU, of course. YOUR team’s code reviews, I’m sure, are pleasant, productive engagements where everybody leaves feeling good about the results. They happen early and regularly in the development process, the goal of the review is well understood, and you wouldn’t dream of shipping a line of code that hadn’t been through your review process. Your team loves doing them, and you don’t worry about who does the review because you’ve got a consistent standard that your whole team agrees with. You’re just reading this article because there’s this other team in the building that you think would benefit from reading it, and you’re going to forward it to them when you’re done reading.

I’m with you. Personally, I’ve never sat around a meeting table with 15 other developers, Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, I admit it. Sometimes I write unit tests second instead of first. I also bite my nails and rest my elbows on the dinner table. But when I’ve got a bug to fix, and I’ve already found the offending line, I can hardly resist the urge to just… just… change it. I’ll follow up with unit tests afterwards, promise.

I admit this to you because admitting my wrongs is a step towards rehabilitation. I admit this to save you pain. Learn from my example. Test-second is so much less efficient than test-first. Consider the following workflow:

1. Reproduce, identify, debug the issue.
2. Fix the code.
3. Compile and try it out.
4. Write a test that proves I fixed it.
5. Compile and run the test.
6. Change the code back to make sure my test really proves what it is trying to prove.
7. Compile and see the test fail.
8. Re-fix the code.
9. Compile and see the test pass.

I humble myself before you. How much time am I wasting there? It’s embarrassing. Read the rest of this entry »