左移位, build right: Your success factor in building quality into the software development process

The movement to shifting left in software development to find and prevent defects early in the software delivery process is a slow revolution, 大概有二十年了. By involving different members of the team earlier in the development lifecycle, the approach takes what would be a linear journey and makes it more iterative, which helps avoid delays in the release cycle when bugs are being discovered at the end.

这在实践中看起来像什么, 然而, can vary significantly from organisation to organisation, 甚至是团队对团队. 为了更深入地了解这在z hlke意味着什么, 我们采访了两位支持者, 首席执行官马特·摩尔斯, 和首席QA顾问Paul Carey, 倾听他们的想法.

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左移——重新思考开发周期

From a Business Analyst (BA) perspective, shifting left can have huge value. “我们就像把团队凝聚在一起的胶水, and we need to make sure everyone has enough information to keep them going,马特说. But if the team works in isolation and doesn’t have exposure to why and what they’re building early on, 信息可能会丢失或被稀释. “You’d get to the end of a project and plenty of important conversations would have been lost along the way, and each would move you slightly further off course and you’d only pick up the issues when the Quality Analysis (QA) came in,马特继续说道. “So, 我的文学学士学位, 这让每个人都能达成共识, see the big picture and cut out any assumptions before we even start development,他总结道。.

在Zuhlke, the shift left approach shows up in the way developers are brought in early, so they can hear directly from the client what they want and how they expect the features to work. That big picture view means the team can start thinking about the solution from the outset. They are involved throughout the whole lifecycle so they gain more context and understanding, and ultimately more ability to innovate and trial when it gets to the development stage. “在这个行业，我们需要能够快速失败, learn from it and move on and if we have Quality Analysis happening earlier and earlier in the process, 我们可以这样做,马特说.

The key to a successful Software Engineering project: Speaking the same language

In order to embrace this way of working, 然而, one thing is vital: clear communication. There was already enough room for misunderstanding in the old software engineering model as a project progressed from team to team, 一个阶段接着一个阶段. 现在, 如果所有人同时输入, shifting left can be more of a hinderance than a help if you haven’t defined a common frame of reference. 这就是泛在语言的由来. By giving people the ability to describe systems and issues in the same way, you are all able share information that can be easily acted on.

In practice, this just entails choosing a single way of talking about the project. “如果我们使用一种像小黄瓜一样无处不在的语言, then Matt can write in a way that is understood by the team and the business and it’ll translate into what the delivery team implement and test,保罗说. They both note that while ubiquitous language can vary from team to team, 重点是大家都懂, 目标总是一样的.

软件工程中的转移与现状

So the question is, why wouldn’t everyone be taking this step to the left? For a start there can be cost implications with including more team members upfront. And, of course, some people may just not be willing to operate out of their usual field. “Many people want to work in a certain way because it’s familiar to them,” Paul explains. So shifting left is, in part, also a matter of overcoming this inertia.

On top of this, there are also more theoretical issues. 有, 例如, a school of thought that QAs shouldn’t have sight of the code before they come in so they can view it with a fresh eye. “我确实理解这种想法, but I think it’s less about coming in cold and more about being objective at the right stages than anything else,他说.

At the end of the day, shifting left isn’t only about changing people’s focus. It’s about the way you look at your role in a project as a whole. Paul sums this up in terms of the change in attitudes that he’s seen over the last few years. “现在 I hear developers saying that they’re not just paid to produce code, 他们是被雇来送东西的,他说. 有一种感觉，编写代码是简单的部分. 挑战在于建立正确的东西, and bringing the team in earlier in the lifecycle to build it in the right way too – and that’s what shifting left allows you to do.