Advice about testing an application before release?

I would like to get some tips from peer developers about how you go about testing an application you developed, prior to release to QA. Keep in mind, this is a small scale application (requirements are verbal), and so doing formal testing processes wont work, especially, since your boss told you to develop this app quick, push it out the door.

Despite the time restraints, I would like to make sure it is开发者_Go百科 bug free, however, numerous times in the past, I have had the app sent back to me because clicking the "Reset" button, messes up the other controls alignment etc.

I know there are people out there that develop small scale apps fast, and send them out with minimal bugs. How can I achieve that?

I researched this post, but it didnt quite answer my question. Testing your code before releasing to QA

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Unit testing and something like Selenium for simple UI verification might be enough. You've given impossible constraints - testing and pushing it out the door conflict. You can only do the amount of testing that doesn't compromise the speed issue.

Let's face it - all software has bugs, and the second law of thermodynamics applies. Even code that works perfectly on the day you ship will evolve and need changes, updates, and face lifts as time goes by.

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Making an application bug free is quite hard even if it's tiny. The advantage is that you can test almost any aspect of such a tiny application by hand. There will however be features you cannot test at the end of your development process. It is always good to test small features on the go. It also pays to have someone else test your application and (if possible) make another developer review your code. But then, it is probably impossible to fully test a weeks work in a few hours.

The best advise is to make at least someone test you application as it is commonly used. Nothing frustrates a user more than an error on the first clicks. Errors in a more deeply hidden feature that is hardly used is easier forgiven. So test as a user, not (only) as a programmer.

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One important thing is to either develop multiple personalities or get someone else to run through the app at least once -- you are too close to the problem so there could be a design flaw that makes things unusable. Which is not technically a defect, but users do not understand the difference between "working as designed but the design was wrong" and "horribly broken."

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Keep in mind, this is a small scale application (requirements are verbal), and so doing formal testing processes wont work, especially, since your boss told you to develop this app quick, push it out the door.

Did your boss also tell you not to test?

Developing quickly without tests usually does not in fact get the thing done more quickly.

There are of course no guarantees, but you might consider doing test-driven development to get the tests and maybe get code that actually works done more quickly.

See Scott Bellware's blog entry: Does Test-Driven Development Speed Up Development?