You are never taught how to build quality software (florianbellmann.com)

Article summary

The article discusses how quality assurance is often neglected in software development, both in academic education and in industry practice. This can lead to software being released with bugs and requiring costly rework. The author suggests that speaking about the financial costs of not doing QA can help bring the point home to managers. A minimal effective dose of QA measures can help improve the quality of software.

Main themes

• software quality
• quality assurance
• academic education
• industry practice
• complexity metrics
• testing and validation
• interdisciplinary approaches to software development

What commenters say

• Quality cannot be taught, it can only be learned through practice.
• Industrial practices, such as aviation, have strong cultures around quality assurance that software development lacks.
• Some commenters argue that there is a lack of academic theory and research around software quality and complexity metrics.
• Others claim that there is plenty of research and academic work on software engineering and quality assurance, but it is not being utilized effectively.
• The use of metrics such as cyclomatic complexity is debated, with some finding it uncompelling or unhelpful.
• The importance of testing and quality assurance is acknowledged, but the best approach to implementing it is disputed.
• Some argue that software development should learn from other fields, such as social science, to improve testing and quality assurance.