1. Ensure the requirements are documented in sufficient detail that the actual problem to be solved (or feature to be implemented) is crystal clear to both the

1. Ensure the requirements are documented in sufficient detail that the actual problem to be solved (or feature to be implemented) is crystal clear to both the customer and the developer. 2. Write automated tests. You can do this up front (TDD) or afterwards (different people will tell you different things). The idea is that you can run the tests in an automated way to quickly detect deviations from the desired behaviour. It also helps you spot if changing code in one place breaks code in another place. 3. Test the application functionality manually to ensure that you (the developer) think the functionality is behaving as described in the requirements document. 4. Deploy the application to a testing environment, ask the customer to test it and (when they are happy) sign off on the functionality. 5. Deploy the code live. 6. Wait for the inevitable phone calls to tell you that something the customer wants (but which was most definitely not in the requirements document) is apparently not there ;-)