This includes thorough and usable documentation, an easy installation procedure, and a set of test cases to ensure the program does what it is supposed to do.

We began our usual footprint-reduction procedure: set up the test environment, specify a reproducible test, fire up the profiler, run the test, analyze the data, and look for tuning opportunities.

Just as in a laboratory, to obtain consistent results, the test must hold the variables to a minimum and use a set procedure.