Friday, December 29, 2006

Good article on achieving a zero-bug count

[This was originally posted at http://timstall.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/good_article_on_achieving_a_zerobug_count.htm]

James Shore wrote a great article on achieving zero-bug count. It's part of his up-coming book.

Some of the things I really like are how he emphasizes that bugs are not "okay" or "necessary", but rather that the team should take active steps not to just prevent bugs, but to prevent the cause of bugs. For example, being required to explain why a bug occurred, such as adding a textbox to your bug-tracking system that requires the developer to explain what caused the bug.

The problem with bugs is that they take 10x longer to fix than create. So if you can improve your process to reduce bugs (which takes more time upfront), you can then go into an "upward spiral", where things keep getting better and better.

It's a thoughtful article.

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