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In the course of our - sometimes missionary - selling
we have run across many developers, software managers
and QA professionals for whom automated software inspection
has been a real boon, enabling them to detect serous
potential defects early in the development cycle and
demonstrably cutting testing time.
However we have to admit that we also have run across
people who claim to have no use for automated software
inspection. Who knows maybe they're right but we tend
to suspect otherwise. After al,l QStudio will typically
flag several thousand potential defects in a source
base. We've seen some pretty heated arguments between
developers and quality managers. After all, it's not
alway great for your ego to have your code held up to
scrutiny.
So without further ado here's our tongue-in-cheek list
of top five excuses for not using QStudio.
- Our real problem is with
requirements and design!
So maybe it is. Or with demotivated programmers. Or
with cashflow. A car manufacturer that puts off looking
at the tires because they have problems with the engine
will soon be out of business (or subject to some heavy
lawsuits). Gradually improving each area simultaneously
is the name of the game. Putting off improving one
area because others are percieved as more important
won't cut it.
- Automated software inspection?
Our schedule is too tight!
Ahh, the old classic. Personally, we've never heard
of a project where the schedule wasn't too tight but
maybe that's just us. The funny thing is that automated
software inspection obviously helps here. It finds
errors earlier and finding errors earlier clearly
saves time. You would think that this is a no-brainer.
We would think that this is a no-brainer. But for
some reason we still come across people who when adding
this particular two and two together refuse to come
to four. Frankly, we're at a loss on this point. Mysteries
of human nature? If you have the answer step out of
the shadows and tell us.
- We don't have the budget.
No, of course we don't. But we DO have the budget
for a 30% overrun pulling out all those software defects
at the end of the development cycle or worse yet into
production. A typical QStudio configuration starts
at less than 10000 euros. A typical development project
250000 euros. That's 4% if we calculate correctly.
- We already reviewed the code
manually
All 200000 lines? Good for you! Hope you managed to
achieve the 60 lines a SECOND our software typically
achieves. Not to mention flagging of code, description
of errors and so on? Of course we have to admit that
sitting down with a good cappucino with a group of
3 or 4 developers can be a fun way to spend the afternoon.
Sounds like an awfully expensive coffee break to us
though...
- Actually, we don't really
have any bugs this time.
Who doesn't love this one? We certainly do! This particular
project really IS different (and who knows maybe it
is) after all history is always in the making. Maybe
its just us and we keep on hitting the unlucky projects.
In any case, we have NEVER (and we really mean never)
ran an inspection on a project that did not find at
least one serious problem problem. More often than
not QStudio finds several major ones and dozens (most
times hundreds) of more minor ones.
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