Chapter 29. Selecting and Implementing Tools

Your team may need lots of tools for different purposes, all relating to quality. You need a good way to track bugs. You need practical and trustworthy source-code control. You may need a way to run executable tests through a user interface. We can't tell you exactly what path to follow; each situation is unique. Here are some guidelines that have helped us research and select tools.

It might seem obvious, but the first task in choosing a tool is to understand why you need the tool at all. What exactly does it need to do, and what features are critical? If you can't pinpoint these and just have a general requirement that the tool “take care of” a problem area, it's hard separate the wheat from the chaff when evaluating tools. Don't be seduced by bells and whistles that look cool in a demo but don't address what you really need.