Java Software Quality Assurance Tools

Michael Slattery Indianapolis Java Users Group Meeting April 24, 2002

Overview

 Limited Concepts – Only those that increase quality, efficiency, and schedule predictability – Supported nearly entirely by a 100% Java tool  Open Source Tools – Inexpensive (i.e. free) – Accessible – Modifiable  Statistics and Usefulness

Typical Testing

 Many bugs won't be found until customers start using product   Subtle errors that can be missed or conditions that aren't seen Quality is unknown until testing begins  Buggy code must be reimplemented  User might not like what how the UI works  Release date becomes unpredictable and continually slips  QA/Testing is seen as the part of development overhead  A pre-set delivery date cuts off testing before enough bugs are found

Benefits of a good QA process

 Far less chance of users experiencing problems  Find and fix bugs early  Write more code in less time  Schedule predictability  Known and controlled quality at all stages of development  Keep more of your hair

Points

 As important as other aspects of development such as language, design, technology, even PM  The closest thing to a silver bullet  Most of this stuff is easy to implement and does not add significant overhead  The earlier you implement in a project the better  Common quotes – Test early, test often – Code a little, Test a little.

Related Concepts

 Design  Project Management  Requirements  Configuration Management  Programming

QA Components

 Configuration Management  Defensive Coding  Runtime Analysis  Testing

Configuration Management

 Change Management  Source Control – jCvs, SourceJammer  Tracking – Scarab, IssueZilla  Standard Working Environment – IDE, Editor, Compiler, JRE  Build and Test Scripts – Ant

Defensive Coding

 Design Tools – ArgoUML  Assertions – Kopi, by-hand, JDK 1.4

 Design by Contract – iContract, JContract, Kopi  Style Checking – StyleCheck w/Ant, Sun's style, Scott Ambler, InfoSpheres  Generics – Pizza, GJC, Kopi

Runtime Analysis

 Debuggers – IDEs, Sun's Debugger  Logging – Log4J, JDK 1.4

– Exception emails  Runtime Data Checkers – JTidy, DTD/XSchema

Testing

 Unit Testing – Manual, JUnit  System Testing  Static Analysis – JLint, Compaq/ESC  Code Analysis  Regression Testing – JUnit, JavaTest, HttpUnit, HTTP play/record  Coverage Analysis – Quilt

Various Techniques

 Code Inspections – JEdit + JDiff  Continuous Integration  Metrics - production, bugs, quality  eXtreme Programming  QA Specialist  Statistics / Metrics  Task Check-in Process

Task Check-In Process

              Report a task (bug or feature) Design - UI, technical, test plan Design Reviews - UI by project manager, tech by Lead, test plan by QA Prototype UI - approved by customer Write some unit tests (as described in the test plan) Code Unit test Peer Review Static Analysis, Source standards check Check in Update task report Initial verification by another programmer Final verification (System testing) when in alpha Code Review (weekly)

Daily Smoke Test

 Build – Ant  Full source check – SourceCheck  Regression tests – Junit, HttpUnit  Full static checking – Java/ESC  Coverage Analysis – Quilt

Evaluation of Tools/Techniques

 Cost  Effectiveness  Single/Team  Ease of integration – Into an existing process