Static Testing: We Know It Works, So Why Don’t We Use It?
We know that static testing is very effective in catching defects early in software development. Serious bugs, like race conditions which can occur in concurrent software, can't be reliably detected by dynamic testing. Such defects can cause a business major damage when they pop up in production. Despite its effectiveness in early defect detection and ease of use, static testing is not very popular among developers and testers. Meena Muthukumaran discusses reasons why static testing is not commonly used or not used optimally: lack of awareness, lack of time, and myths about cost and effort requirements. Meena explains ways to perform effective static testing—identifying your needs, shortlisting the tools based on your needs, creating awareness and a culture for proactively eliminating defects early in the lifecycle, and encouraging effective usage of static testing. She offers various implementation solutions to suit different development methodologies and ways to measure the benefits realized with static testing.