Are We Sacrificing Quality for the Sake of Speed?
Delivering the high quality code people expect at the speed the market demands isn’t easy. In fact, it’s extremely difficult. Our new agile world has forced teams to put the pedal to the medal more often than not, and while that’s produced some wonderful results, it’s important to question its possible drawbacks.
The biggest question is pretty clear: Are we reducing the quality of our code by pushing teams to produce at a speed that might be too fast? Will the final product require multiple updates in order to fix bugs missed along the way?
Like just about every question posed about agile, it can depend on the specific team makeup. But Sven Peters, the lead evangelist for Atlassian, spoke with StickyMinds about the issue and pointed to the sophistication of the tools we’re dealing with today as a benefit.
“I remember times when manual testing was the only quality check of new software,” Peters explained. “Nowadays we write automated tests, do asynchronous code reviews, use pair programming, implement static code analysis, constantly monitor our services, roll out new software to a small subset of customers first and much more to prevent bugs reaching end users.”
Software isn’t less buggy than before, but we do have better and more thorough ways of checking the quality of the software before it’s released. Where manual testers previously had to examine code with a fine-tooth comb, new tools and different automated options can find and fix issues that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks.
If you’re looking to adopt agile within a team and don’t know how to balance the speed with your quality expectations, don’t panic. It takes time, effort, patience, and practice to make a switch like this and trying to speed things up doesn’t mean you have to sprint at each and every turn.
One of the most critical things you can do is slow down when it’s necessary. Quality and security are still critical, so if you do decide that agile is right for you, make sure you know how and when to pump the brakes. As Peters points out, this is a system of risks and rewards.
“Importantly, I think we need to understand and carefully weigh the risks and benefits of shipping for speed,” he continued. “Not all issues can be fixed quickly. Security is incredibly important and needs to come first.”
