It all comes down to one simple idea: the only way to make sure something works is by testing it. All kinds of goods from children’s toys to pharmaceuticals and aircrafts go through quality checks. Tests ensure that the manufactured goods meet product requirements and that potential defects are found before products reach end-users. The same idea applies to software. Here are three simple reasons why every business should test software on websites.
1. The Increasing Demand for Effortless Usage
Customers today demand high quality and fast web experiences. If a website works poorly, it is easy to switch to a competing service with just a few clicks. Think of it this way: what will happen if I am looking for a pair of boots online and successfully find the perfect ones on your site, but cannot purchase them due to a bug in your shopping cart? Eventually I will end up on your competitor’s page.
To make matters worse, it may very well be that I was on your page for the first time and even though first impressions can be changed, they do matter. With what likelihood will I then ever return to browse your site after such an experience? The fact is that effortless experiences have become a necessity on the web and working software is crucial for companies aiming at a quality brand image.
2. Time is Valuable
How does adding work result in saved time? Let’s imagine that you need to upgrade the following features in your web shop: signup, login, catalog and shopping cart. Initially you create a new login and catalog, and publish them on your site. Then, you build and publish a signup feature for new users. Suddenly the login and catalogue you spent so much time on no longer work as they are supposed to. How did this happen?
Programming websites is a kind of a puzzle. The pieces must match for the big picture to function properly. And how does this then save your precious time? It is very simple: instead of going back to phase one and starting all over with your login and catalogue, current software testing solutions allow you to continuously test the previous features you have programmed, so that they work effortlessly together with the additional features you are creating at the moment. Keep in mind that bugs are slow to fix and it will most likely take you several additional hours to adjust a broken feature at a later stage.
3. Saved Time Equals Money Well Spent
Bugs are expensive. If your web store is updated with a broken feature, such as a new payment system, you might lose a significant amount of revenues before the bug is fixed. You could lose thousands of current purchases and future customers even if you managed to fix the defect and update the site within a few hours.
If the reasons for testing are so obvious, then why do companies not test their web software? Software testing used to be highly tedious and time-consuming in the past. Traditional manual testing is slow while coded automated testing is difficult even for experienced programmers. Today, however, new technology enables easier and quicker testing than ever before and users need no coding skills to perform automated tests for their websites. Testing is a reliable way to keep those money eating bugs away from your business. If nothing else convinces you about the profits of testing, at least the actual profits should.
So give it a try. The simplicity of testing might surprise you.
