development

Have you heard any of these from your development staff or said them yourself? "Our software and systems are too fragile." "Technical debt is killing us." "We need more time to refactor." Having quality code is great, but we should understand why it matters and specifically what is important to your situation. Joel Tosi begins by defining and discussing some common code metrics-code complexity, coverage, object distance, afferent/efferent coupling, and cohesion. From there, Joel takes you through an application with poor code metrics and shows how this application would be difficult to enhance and extend in the future. Joel wraps up with a discussion about what metrics are applicable for specific situations such as legacy applications, prototypes, and startups. You'll come away from this class with a better understanding of code metrics and how to apply them pragmatically.

The question of how much design to do up-front on a project is an engaging one. Too much design often results in overkill, complexity, and wasted work. Too little design results in insufficient system structures that require rework, additional complexity, and wasted effort. How can we know what the right balance is? Alan Shalloway shows how to use the advice from Design Patterns coupled with the attitude of not building what you don't need from Agile. The trick is in discovering what you don't know, how it may affect you, and then how to isolate these risks in your code in a simple manner. Alan describes the essence of emergent design–that is, starting with a simple design and letting it evolve as the requirements evolve. He also demonstrates how to refactor to better designs and how this is different from refactoring bad code.

You're thinking of creating a mobile application to take advantage of the sky-rocketing potential of mobile phones and other smart devices. Serious and critical choices must be made. Which platforms and technologies do you support? Are web-based applications the best approach? What sort of testing will you need-from whom, when, and how much will it cost? Do you want to create applications that take advantage of the mobile platforms’ capabilities such as location-aware features? Since there are at least fifteen major platforms, including several that use disparate semi-proprietary programming languages, making the right decisions early is critical. Wrong decisions will result in wasted time, effort, and money and increase the likelihood of failure.

Because 10% to 20% of the general population has disabilities that can impact their ability to use software, systems should be developed to accommodate their needs. Even though web accessibility requirements are included in many development projects, they are often not fully understood and verified during testing. Join David Leistner as he examines the Web Accessibility Initiative and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. First, David explains what web accessibility is, its importance, and who it affects. Next, he introduces the types of technology available for testing compliance and shows how to use analysis tools in testing for accessibility. Gain an understanding of the issues and alternatives with web accessibility development and ways that testers can ensure that people with disabilities can access the web and Internet-access they deserve and, in some cases, are entitled by law to have.