Quality, efficiency, maintainability, portability, reliability, usability… There are multiple criterias that a well-written code should fulfill. Code review is one of the techniques that help achieve such quality requirements. However, it consumes a significant amount of resources and does not guarantee that all flaws will be detected.

Business Problem: How to efficiently assure higher quality standards without increasing the costs and needed efforts?

New digital solutions require code to be written. It is written by people and thus is not fully resistant to mistakes, wrong design decisions and the use of bad patterns. Moreover, even the most experienced developers can sometimes be less effective and introduce bugs, vulnerabilities, and code smells to the projects. Accumulated flaws lead to growing tech debt and decreased performance over time. Proper QA support, automated tests and code reviews might help, but are time and resource intensive and can be less effective in the long-term.

Nowadays, assuring proper level of the code quality is even more essential, as the code security aspects are extremely important. Vulnerability hidden in the code might be a gateway for attackers to compromise the whole system, leading to severe losses and allowing for further attacks.

Manual audits, like code reviews, can avoid some of the flaws. However, even if the reviewer spots 99% of the potential vulnerabilities, the remaining 1% might be enough for attackers to break the securities.

QA Engineers are responsible for ensuring the high quality of the product. They do this by preparing the proper test strategies, comprehensive test scenarios and cases and by making sure that the application meets the requirements. Moreover, they also should assure proper code coverage by automated testing. Last but not the least, performance tests and security audits should also take place. Experienced and qualified QA Team can greatly improve the quality of the delivered software. However, they are only humans and thus cannot guarantee a 100% success.

Solution

At SolDevelo, the quality of the delivered solutions was always one of the most important aspects for us. This is why we created the addon for IntelliJ IDEA to help developers reach their quality objectives in an efficient and effective way. We called it QAPlug (https://qaplug.com/) and published for free to everyone to help the industry improve the quality of their work.

QAPlug manages code quality which integrates tools such as PMD, Checkstyle and Findbugs.

It has the following features:

• Full integration with development environment (IntelliJ IDEA)

QAPlug is an easy-to-use plugin which helps you to manage the quality of code. It is fully integrated with IntelliJ IDEA and can be simply installed via IDEA Plugin Repository.

• Support for different code quality tools (PMD, Checkstyle, FindBugs)

QAPlug allows you to select different code quality tools. It gives users freedom to use the tools and rules they are accustomed to.

• Friendly user interface

QAPlug is very simple to use. Most operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without any additional complexity.

• Extended reports

After deep code analysis you will get a complete scan report which contains:

• Project summary (Scope, Profile, Improperly configured coding rules);
• Results  (Enabled coding rules, Problems found);
• Time statistics.
• Code quality metrics

QAPlug has an integrated code quality metrics tool which presents you the total code numbers such as total files, lines of source code, symbols, methods, classes, etc. All metrics data are presented in an easy-to-read summary.

• Import/export analysis profiles

QAPlug allows you to create your own scanning profiles and to save your customized settings. You can easily export your analysis profile to an xml configuration file and decide which modules will be exported.

• Recognize PMD, Checkstyle and FindBugs configuration files

QAPlug recognizes several coding rules configuration files which can be imported into profile: Checkstyle, PMD, FindBugs, Hammurapi. Configuration file import is as simple as a few mouse clicks.

• QAPlug Real-Time Analysis

QAPlug Real-Time Analysis is a tool that offers you the on-the-fly checks functionality in your IntelliJ IDEA. After activating QAPlug Real-Time Analysis inspection in IDE, you will be informed all the time about the written code quality.

• Update notification

QAPlug has an integrated update module which informs you about the new plugin versions. Pop-up message appears every time the new plugin version is available. Of course if you want, you can also check for the new updates manually!

Result

QAPlug has been released as a free software and this will never change. Recently it reached a fantastic milestone, reaching 1,000,000 downloads of all the components during its lifetime. This is a huge achievement, as we are talking only about the addons to IntelliJ IDEA.

Even if quality is still one of the most important aspects for us, we currently do not have any plans for active QAPlug development. It is a mature solution that only requires slight maintenance from time to time.

On our daily basis we are using many different tools and techniques to assure that we deliver great results for our clients with the accordance to our mission:

“We deliver high-quality solutions for modern world challenges.

As IT professionals, together with our partners, we build a digital future.”

“Our vision and long-term plan is to be an organization able to effectively solve the real business problems of top players.”

About SolDevelo

SolDevelo is a dynamic software development and information technology outsourcing company focused on delivering high-quality software and innovative solutions. An experienced team of developers, customer-oriented service, and the passion for creating the highest quality products using the latest technology are the undeniable advantages of the company.

Using Atlassian products since 2009, SolDevelo always strives to exceed customers’ expectations. ISO 9001 confirms our dedication to the highest quality and ISO 27001 shows that we treat security extremely seriously. Over 70% of our team members are certified Scrum Professionals, over 35% are Oracle Certified Professionals and 100% of our quality assurance team has ISTQB certificates.