Are you talking about doing freelance or doing your own thing? Anyway some things I've found useful: Freelance: Do work in a company first because it (hopeful

Are you talking about doing freelance or doing your own thing? Anyway some things I've found useful: Freelance: Do work in a company first because it (hopefully) gives some exposure regarding QA/CR and generally putting code out there. The whole process. For deadlines, if you have a deadline you're about to miss you better work harder and require a longer deadline for the next project. Each new project I take on I require longer and longer deadlines, if it is impossible just say no. Solo: Use the app/service yourself constantly for the bugs, create beta tests for the rest. I've found that you only need 1-2 people as beta testers if they are genuinely interested in the product. I've had essay written to me about features.