Building Quality in Legacy Systems - The Art of Asking Questions, JavaZone VR 2020

The goal of being able to build quality in software products from the get-go is something that many organizations are trying to achieve. However, the very definition of software quality is somewhat elusive which makes it difficult to agree upon the perceived level of quality in software products. Moreover, working with legacy systems poses its own set of challenges as uncertainty of preserving overall quality in the legacy product seems to be an everyday struggle for many teams.

This talk builds on a multi-perspective definition suggested by Gojko Adzic in his blogpost “Redefining Software Quality” some years ago. For each perspective a series of well-defined questions will be presented that help teams challenge their own assumptions about quality in the end-product.

The talk is based on practical applications of Gojko’s definition as embraced by the teams working on legacy enterprise software in the healthcare domain.

Transcript

4. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Mufrid Krilic Senior Software Developer/Coach DIPS AS, Norway @mufridk Building Quality In Legacy Systems – The Art of Asking Questions Her kan du legge inn bilde. Du finner figurer her: Link
5. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
6. Gojko Adzic - Using Maslow as an Analogy for Defining Software Quality Blogpost: • «Redefining Software Quality» • https://gojko.net/2012/05/08/redefining-software-quality/
7. Maslow - Physiological Needs • Quality methods: • TDD • Correct metrics: • Bug count • Code Coverage Roles to focus on: • Beta-users • Operations
8. Maslow – Safety Needs • Quality methods: • Performance testing • Risk analysis • Architecture and design patterns Roles to focus on: • End-users • People working with information security
9. Maslow – Love/Belonging Needs • Quality methods: • Usability testing • Design thinking • UX design Roles to focus on: • End-users
10. Intermezzo We usually invest most in the lowest three levels
11. Maslow – Esteem Needs • Quality methods: • Continuous delivery • DevOps • Correct metrics • Production environment measurements Roles to focus on: • End-users, Management
12. Maslow – Self-actualization Needs • Quality methods: • Impact Mapping • Correct metrics • What impact did the software product make? • Did we make or save money? Roles to focus on: • Decision makers • Broader user community • Public relations
13. Good enough – how to know where to invest? The more you invest in quality on this level the better Focus on good enough
14. How to apply this when working with legacy systems? The Art of Asking Questions
15. Different perspectives in the legacy system ▪ Ask questions related to – Delivery process – Conditions of acceptance – Code and product maintainability – Security and performance – Domain-specific context in existing operational environments ▪ Questions should be asked before or during the development process, not after
16. Delivery process related questions ▪ Any manual steps in the delivery process? ▪ Compatibility with previously installed versions in production – Can multiple versions of the product exist side by side? ▪ Documentation Deployable?
17. Conditions of Acceptance ▪ Automatic and explorative testing ▪ Testing integration points with other parts of the system – How to avoid introducing undesirable behavior? – Learn from experiences of the past – Talk to people in your organization ☺ Functionally ok?
18. Case: Patient Admission Letters – Context Map Admission Letter Templates Referral Appointments Surgery Send Letter to Patient Patient Information Next of Kin Send Message to GP Type of Integration: • Which team • What type of relation with the team Health Record
19. Code and product maintainability related questions ▪ Diagrams and maps – How to document integrations with other parts of the application? ▪ Logging and profiling – Just enough to be able to monitor usage in production Functionally ok?
20. Security and performance related questions ▪ Performance testing, memory footprint, authentication, authorization…. ▪ Code analysis for discovering patterns that could lead to bugs in production – Asynchronous communication patterns – Multithreading issues ▪ Concurrency control – Could new functionality introduce concurrency conflicts elsewhere in the system? Performant, secure?
21. Domain-specific context in existing operational environments ▪ How is the legacy system used today? – To what extent will users’ behavior change with new functionality? ▪ Examples from healthcare: Essential functionality customers takes for granted Usable? Useful? The most challenging questions to address are domain-specific
22. Case - Constraints imposed by customers’ organizational structure
23. Case - Constraints imposed by governmental ruling
24. Summary: Mapping of different perspectives to the software quality pyramid Conditions of acceptance Delivery process Code and product maintainability Security and performance Domain-specific context in existing operational environments
25. What about “Successful” ? Product management approach Design approach
26. Application of this Approach • Start with a set of questions that work for you • Engage with your users • Every piece of work is bigger than initially assumed
27. It boils down to this…. • Strengthen the team’s ability in decision-making • Relentless learning
28. Thank you! ▪ Blog: www.medium.com/@mufridk ▪ Twitter @mufridk
31. www.hjernekraft.org