DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Please enter at least three characters to search
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Refcards
Trend Reports

Events

View Events Video Library

Zones

Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Modernize your data layer. Learn how to design cloud-native database architectures to meet the evolving demands of AI and GenAI workkloads.

Secure your stack and shape the future! Help dev teams across the globe navigate their software supply chain security challenges.

Releasing software shouldn't be stressful or risky. Learn how to leverage progressive delivery techniques to ensure safer deployments.

Avoid machine learning mistakes and boost model performance! Discover key ML patterns, anti-patterns, data strategies, and more.

Related

  • Why Incorporate CI/CD Pipeline in Your SDLC?
  • How to Become a DevOps Engineer
  • Comparison of Various AI Code Generation Tools
  • Automation and Integration: Curing Your Context Switching Headache

Trending

  • How to Practice TDD With Kotlin
  • Scalability 101: How to Build, Measure, and Improve It
  • Setting Up Data Pipelines With Snowflake Dynamic Tables
  • Start Coding With Google Cloud Workstations
  1. DZone
  2. Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
  3. Deployment
  4. Working Software: A Go Live Strategy

Working Software: A Go Live Strategy

In this article, we look at the benefits that TDD and CI have on agile ways of creating software, and how they can help you create a working MVP.

By 
Ekaterina Novoseltseva user avatar
Ekaterina Novoseltseva
DZone Core CORE ·
Oct. 05, 17 · Opinion
Likes (6)
Comment
Save
Tweet
Share
6.2K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Nowadays, most companies claim that they are Agile, as it has become kind of a standard. The majority of them also say that they build working software, but, in reality, each company understands this requirement differently. And herein lies the problem! At Apiumhub, we have delivered applications for clients from different industries using Agile methodologies, and have come to the conclusion that to be truly Agile we should do TDD and CI, focusing on working software. And when I say working software, I'm not only talking about software from a functionality point of view, but taking performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness into account as well.

Working Software Formula

As most of you already know, Agile development is all about iterative and incremental evolution. Agile helps software development teams in a changing environment focus on the rapid delivery of value and on building working software. Agile development is based on rapid feedback, continuous improvement, flexibility, and the delivery of results with high quality and great functionality. In the software world, when we talk about Agile methodology, we are also talking about unit testing, Test-Driven Development, and Continuous Integration.1

For example, using TDD, software developers create unit tests when they program their code so that each unit test examines a small piece of code to make sure that these units perform as expected. Also, TDD allows teams to delete, add, or edit functionalities in a fast and very effective way. But let's face it, mistakes will happen. If you want to discover bugs at the initial stage of development and avoid finding them in the build stage, TDD is really a must.

In TDD, you begin by writing tests before coding new functionalities. And you write the production code necessary to make the test pass, and only after that do you refactor the code to make it more maintainable. This method guarantees immediate feedback after changes are made, so, in other words, it makes it very easy and very fast to find new errors. This immediate feedback allows software developers to fix the defects much faster as compared to other methods where code is tested days after implementation. TDD shows you if the code does what it is expected to do in real time. Basically, it allows you to save time and money as well as fight for the first mover advantage because you launch high-quality functionalities faster, which is really key to success in this rapidly developing world of technology. What is more, Test-Driven Development implementation is more likely to match the Product Owner's vision when we are talking about user stories. Tests are easily developed from the acceptance criteria. TDD guarantees that the final version will meet the needs of the Product Owner. Also, what we really like at Apiumhub is that TDD prevents us from having unwanted design or components in the product. It defines the exact set of required features. It makes it very easy to find redundant code, and detect and eliminate unnecessary development tasks. 

TDD really goes together well with Agile. It simplifies and speeds up the process of developing working software, making it possible to launch a new, scalable product as fast as possible with a solid and working MVP.

As for Continuous Integration, we think it is a crucial part of Agile software development. It helps developers build working software because it organizes development into functional user stories, which are put into Sprints. When software developers make a new addition to their code, a test for this code can be added to the suite of tests that are already being run when the developers integrate their work. It allows them to make sure that new additions don’t break the functioning work of existing elements, and developers whose code does in fact “break the build” can be notified quickly. Also, I should say that we are big fans of Martin Fowler, we always read his blog and strongly support his point of view. He says that Continuous Integration is a software development practice that requires team members to integrate code into a shared repository, frequently. The idea is that every person integrates at least daily, which leads to multiple integrations each day. Moreover, normally, several people or even multiple teams work on the same project and Continuous Integration helps to prevent integration problems. These integrations are verified by an automated build that runs regression tests to detect integration errors as quickly as possible. The CI rule states that programmers never leave anything unintegrated at the end of the day. So, developers always know what other team members are working on, how they did it, and they are sure that their code works and is integrated correctly; and even if something doesn’t integrate or something doesn’t work, it’s easy to solve. Integrating code frequently leads to reduced risk of failure, i.e. reduced risk of overspending money on redoing work. Normally, once teams have implemented Continuous Integration, they never switch back, they stick to CI, because they find that it leads to fewer integration issues and enables the development of working software more rapidly.

On the way to production, there will be struggles and issues. But we think that a good way to measure progress is “Working software.” What do I mean by that? Working software is tested software that delivers value to the end-user, i.e. a product that works well, maybe even better than expected, but never worse! In other words, working software is a piece of software which is fully integrated, tested, and ready to be shipped to customers or deployed into production. The only thing that counts is completed, fully functional pieces of the wanted product – working software.

Working Software Rules 

To build working software, teams must follow several rules. For example:

  • If you are not getting everything you planned to finish, then take on less, but do it well. Don’t try to develop all the functionalities, when half of them won’t work as expected. Do half, but do them right.
  • If you see defects in your code, test it sooner and better.
  • If your code is hard to work with, then refactor it as you go.
  • If it is hard to integrate, then integrate smaller pieces more frequently.
  • If you deliver your work to your customers and they don’t like it, then talk with them more before you start, as well as during the development process.

So, what can help you build working software? Your commitment and focus, putting quality into your work, active user involvement, a good understanding of your Definition of Done, two-week Sprints, TDD, CI, acceptance tests, and thinking about performance, scalability, and cost reduction.

And once you have built working software, make sure you go live right.

Go Live Strategy and Checklist

  • Make sure all unit and functional tests are green. If they do not pass, the artifact is not built properly.
  • Once we have the artifact, ensure that all the acceptance criteria are met. Here it is very important to consider user story format.
  • If all the acceptance criteria are OK, test the main functionalities of the app manually.
  • The logical user flows are covered by automatic functional tests. But, there is always room to make some visual mistakes or errors, so manual QA is inevitable. 

If you are interested in how other CTOs go live, check this article out, where 10+ tech startup leaders reveal how they prioritize software development.

I hope this article was useful for you! 

Software development Continuous Integration/Deployment agile unit test Integration

Published at DZone with permission of Ekaterina Novoseltseva. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Why Incorporate CI/CD Pipeline in Your SDLC?
  • How to Become a DevOps Engineer
  • Comparison of Various AI Code Generation Tools
  • Automation and Integration: Curing Your Context Switching Headache

Partner Resources

×

Comments
Oops! Something Went Wrong

The likes didn't load as expected. Please refresh the page and try again.

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Support and feedback
  • Community research
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Core Program
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends:

Likes
There are no likes...yet! 👀
Be the first to like this post!
It looks like you're not logged in.
Sign in to see who liked this post!