Implementation

The division between testing and implementation and maintainance is less distinct on the web than it is in other forms of development. Part of it is that testing methodologies such as regression testing aren't as well developed for web applications as for other applications. Part of it is that web sites are developed incrementally. The cost of fixing a bug in a web application once it's deployed is much less than that of a shrink-wrapped application distributed to thousands of desktops. Web server logs often make it possible to detect and correct errors that are experienced by ordinary users.

Two kinds of testing are particularly important on the web: usability testing and testing to make sure that a website works with different browsers. If a web site depends on fancy Javascripts and other client-side gimmicks, it's especially important to make sure the site continues to work with new versions of web browsers. Nothing is more embarassing than developing a site which is "optimized for IE 5.5" which breaks on IE 6! (This is one reason we have a preference for developing server-side to client-side applications.)

What we can do