All too often quality is an afterthought in the application lifecycle. Ever-changing requirements, the pressure of increasingly short release cycles, and factors such as distributed development compound the complexity involved in effectively managing quality practices across application lifecycle activities. They also cast the ineffectiveness of addressing quality at the end of the cycle - in the "test phase" - into stark relief. What development organizations need to do is to shift their focus from a reactive approach to software quality and start putting in place strategies for "upstreaming quality and visibility" in the application lifecycle.

This article will discuss ways that development teams can become more "quality-enabled" by adopting processes and tools that will provide continuous real-time feedback to identify and isolate problems early when they're relatively easy to fix. Specifically, I'll address how development organizations can undertake a more proactive approach to quality and visibility throughout the application lifecycle by...