Built To Last: Bug Management that Works

Welcome to the first edition of my weekly newsletter “Built To Last”, where I’ll be sharing valuable insights on building high-quality products.

Each week, I’ll curate a selection of articles and podcasts that caught my attention – resources that I believe will be relevant and insightful for everyone looking to build a great product.

This Week’s Picks

• Bug management that works (Part 1) and Bug management that works (Part 2) – a deep dive into effective bug management – how to find, triage, and fix bugs efficiently. From dogfooding for early detection to prioritization frameworks and dedicated bug-fixing time, these strategies help maintain product quality and prevent backlog buildup.

• Can We Automate All the Things? – this article explores the limits of automated testing, emphasizing that while automation is effective for known scenarios, uncertainty in software behavior always exists. It highlights the importance of exploratory testing to uncover unknown risks and argues that true quality engineering requires balancing automation with human-driven feedback.

• Testivus – Testing For The Rest Of Us (from 2007 but still relevant) – this article introduces Testivus, a pragmatic approach to developer testing that avoids rigid dogma. It emphasizes that any testing is better than none, encourages flexibility in testing practices, and promotes a mindset where testing beats debugging – making testing more accessible for all developers, not just TDD enthusiasts.

• Reliability isn’t just a virtue – it’s a competitive advantage that compounds over time – both in life and in software, where consistency and dependability drive long-term success.

• Gradually, Then Suddenly – this resonates deeply with me since it applies so well to building cultures of quality. It can feel like you’re putting in huge amounts of effort with little immediate output. But change happens gradually – until it suddenly does.

• Revolutionizing QA with GenAI: A New Era in Software Testing (YouTube video-podcats aired in Dec 2024) – the discussion explores how the rise of Anthropic’s Claude Computer Use makes AI-driven automated testing inevitable. However, human QE remains essential for creative problem-solving and decision-making. The guest also emphasizes the timeless importance of understanding your application’s purpose and audience – key factors for success, with or without GenAI.