What methodologies can be implemented for the development and implementation of new features?

Question

PHP

I work on a personal project alone, very often the introduction of new features turns into errors. The site already has an active community, and due to the specifics of the project, errors greatly disrupt the operation of the resource. Loyalty drops.

Since November, I started doing everything on the test server first (a complete duplicate of the working one), deployed git on the working one, and I’m already pouring changes from the test branches there. But there are still errors, because apparently I can’t track all the moments when testing, but I want to innovate faster. Maybe I'm in too much of a hurry?

Can you recommend any methodologies for developing and implementing new features that exist in professional projects. Thank you.

Answer 1

Code testing?

Answer 2

As mentioned above, unit testing will save you.

Answer 3

There is a lot of literature on the topic of Software Development) The most common are Waterfall Model, V-Model, Spiral Model. For detailed information, I advise you to read about each system. But, how do you plan to promote the project itself, how many users will be involved there in the future? The most important point is to write requirements at the beginning, so that not only in your mind you have a plan of what should work, but also on a sheet, what functionality, what interface, so that it is clear not only for you to work on the project, but also in the future someone could help, in words that it doesn’t matter, and not in an adult way (IMHO)
Think of a strategy for how you plan to move. First run one functional e.g. Test it for 100% or 75%. Then implement another if there is no time. I advise you to introduce dreams and innovations little by little because everything will be there, but they will hardly work one at a time. The quieter you go, the further you'll get.

Answer 4

Automatic testing - functional and, preferably, load. It is not necessary to test absolutely everything, but at least the basic functionality that the user can register, send PMs there and all that. Directly write a script that goes to your test server with GET / POST requests. Or via Selenium.
You can also roll out features not for all users at once, but only for a certain percentage. For example, take X = crc32(login) % 1000, in the config write, for example, N = 5 (that is, roll by 0.5%) and in the code responsible for the new feature, see if X is less than or equal to N, the feature works otherwise it doesn't work. When you roll it out to 100% (N = 1000), you can remove the check from the code.

Answer 5

Give up loneliness, find a tester, pour out new features to the society only with the permission of a partner. Something like this.