TechCrunch reports a story of a top iPhone app developer that was losing $2,000 a day in ad revenue for their app because they made a simple software programming mistake that could have easily been caught by basic testing.

Test Driven Development

Our programmers use test driven development to ensure the highest quality code in our iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Pre apps. They create automated unit tests that define the expected results of the application functionality BEFORE writing any software code.

Test driven development follows a simple process:

1. Write the tests. Tests are written before the functionality being tested. This helps ensure that the application is written for testability, since developers must consider how to test the application from the outset, rather than worrying about it later. It also ensures that tests for every feature will be written. Other developers using traditional development methods choose to code the features first, but then inevitably under time pressure to work on the next feature neglect testing entirely. Don’t let your apps fall into that trap – demand that any app developer you hire uses test driven development.
2. Fail the tests. All tests fail first because no software code has been written by the programmer. This ensures that the test has been written correctly. Once this is shown, the underlying functionality can be implemented.
3. Write some code and rerun the tests. The next step is to write some code that will cause the test to pass. Now the code can be cleaned up as necessary and re-run against the tests, a process known as refactoring.

Test-driven development constantly repeats the process of adding test cases that fail, passing them, and refactoring. Passing the tests confirms correct application functionality as developers evolve and refactor the code. Our programmers use automated test frameworks to re-run the complete set of tests whenever new code is introduced, ensuring that the previously completed code is still fully functional without bugs.

Test Driven Development Benefits

Studies have shown that test driven development has numerous benefits and leads to better software.

• Programmers are better able to focus and are more productive.
• By writing tests before coding, developers show they clearly understand the feature’s specifications and requirements.
• Errors introduced during the development cycle are discovered earlier and easier to rectify.
• Software is designed simpler and is more modularlized, flexible and extensible.
• No code is written beyond what is needed to pass a test.
• Finished software has better quality and is more stable.

ArcTouch Bug Free Guarantee

We’re so confident that our Quantum Development process and our test driven development results in superior quality apps that we offer a bug free guarantee. If you discover a problem anytime after we’ve delivered your app to you we’ll fix it for free. Guaranteed.

If you’re considering hiring an iPhone developer, an Android developer, a BlackBerry developer, or a Pre developer, make sure they use test driven development and offer you a bug free guarantee. If not, their mistakes may cost you far more than your original cost to develop the mobile app in the first place.

After you’ve gotten done reading all the material in the new Palm Pre SDK and the information in the iPhone 3.0 SDK, you may want to add some additional items to your summer reading list. The IDEs, simulators and development kits make it easy to rapidly develop apps for mobile phones, but it’s important not to jump right in without laying a solid foundation for stable, scaleable applications.

We highly recommend the following books for mobile app developers. They cover the fundamentals and “best practices” for software development and are key resources for all software programmers to learn from. These books will teach you how to develop code that is better quality, easier to maintain, and reusable in your other apps.

Throw them in the backpack before you head to the beach… you are getting to the beach this summer aren’t you?

Must-Read Development Books

• Developer Reading: The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master (if you only have time for 1 book – this should be it)
• Object Oriented Design and Programming Reference: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (put this on your bookshelf and refer to it any time you need to design anything)
  
• Development Process & Best Practices: Test Driven Development: By Example

Other Books To Make You A Rock Star Mobile App Programmer

• Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications
• Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
• The Object Primer: Agile Model-Driven Development with UML 2.0