become as good a programmer as you possibly can, and learn to write extremely thorough test plans. put another way, build quality in from the start. ensure tha

become as good a programmer as you possibly can, and learn to write extremely thorough test plans. put another way, build quality in from the start. ensure that you don't need to fix/update your code or test plan later. if that's unavoidable, at least make doing so as quick and painless as possible.