Key Points

• Software construction is the central activity in software development; construction is the only activity that's guaranteed to happen on every project.

• The main activities in construction are detailed design, coding, debugging, integration, and developer testing (unit testing and integration testing).

• Other common terms for construction are "coding" and "programming."

• The quality of the construction substantially affects the quality of the software.

• In the final analysis, your understanding of how to do construction determines how good a programmer you are, and that's the subject of the rest of the book.