Write a list and check it twice
A very interesting post on relating drastically reducing hospital infections and smooth code check ins. Write a list and check it twice.
Now how does this apply to us Access folks? I'm not quite sure. I do testing as I add new features to Access software but that's about it. I don't have any automated testing. As much as anything because, unlike operating system software or application software such as Access or Excel we don't have much inter related code. Generally our code means one form updates one table. (And each subform updates another table.) It's the content of the tables that are inter related.
Yes, we do have modules of code but again they're executed from forms and generally they update one or two tables.
Now one thing that I occasionally have is an unnormalized grand total. For example in my Granite Fleet Manager system there is a total service order cost which is the sum of the parts, labour and external invoices. That only makes sense as otherwise on some reports I'd be doing a lot of extra reads of the three child tables to fetch that total. This is the same as your bank account balance.
I do have a routine which the user can run which compares the total present on the service order record against the child tables. If there is a difference I offer to fix it up. I also log the message to an error log table so I can review it myself. And after working with forms that update those values I will run that routine myself to ensure I haven't missed anything.
Once I add in the capability of automatically downloading updates to my software then I'll be testing that each time I put a new version on my web site.
My Auto FE Updater needs automated testing. Which I will be adding to it as I add some long overdue enhancements to it. But that's not the typical Access app.
So what can us Access developers do for a check list before releasing software to the users?