There are many software development methods out there today. Many of them, both waterfall and agile, provide great frameworks and value to the software development process. Both deliver the same outcome: high-quality software produced quickly for customers. Choose one that best fits your organization’s culture and needs.
Agile methodologies focus a great deal on improving quality in the software development process. Individually and collectively, many of them recommend practices that should be applied early in the development process.
Quality practices should be applied early (moved upstream) in the development process to ensure that:
Issues with designs or code are discovered early.
Developers have time to respond accordingly with code and design changes.
Testers can adequately ensure complete test coverage.
Schedule commitments are not compromised.
Apply the following practices during the development of your software applications:
Incorporate class designing and prototyping.
Add flexibility, add maintainability, and reduce complexity with metaprogramming.
Design for performance, scalability, and security.
Learn how to manage memory effectively.
Practice defensive programming.
Proactively debug routines.
Incorporate automated unit testing and invest in a repeatable testing process.
Implement code coverage testing.