Test Out Your Software Or Risk Failure

You may be confident your new mobile app, online service or piece of accounts software is working and that you’ve thought of everything. You may have even done some of your own functional testing and found nothing. But these days the complexity of our online and offline user experience means that getting more testing done, is a must. For example just getting the staff in the office to use the software might not be enough to check that the usability testing has passed the stresses of hundreds or even thousands of users finding ways to put pressure on your new piece of software. You need to establish its behaviour when being used by customers. Also the later you leave it the worse bugs get, and the more expensive it is to fix. So getting an outside agile testing team to look at your software has benefits beyond what you might imagine. The question then becomes not shall I task an agile testing team to check my new software, but where do I find someone.

There are a handful of good software testing companies out there. And they can offer a range of software testing methods. You can find a software testing company that has a small group of testers, or you can seek out a crowd sourced software testing company, who use a network of technicians, who bring a range of skills and experience to the table. However, it is recommended as a minimum that you complete the testing with agile software testing. Agile software testing employs a group of different customer behaviours, and tests them to establish 1) how customers will use the software, and 2) how the code responds to the way customers use the software which might be completely different to what you imaged.

There is also a strong cost element to software testing, particularly outsourced software testing. Releasing a product to the public with bugs is a risky way to manage your investment in your product. Customers also don’t tend to report bugs back to the software company. They just return it back to the shop and demand a refund. So testing software properly before it is released is cost effective and also means that you do not have to issue updates and patches and seek out your customers, which is also an expensive business.

Investing in software testing and using a software testing company outside of your organisation, is vital before you send the product out to market. Not only is it a vital component of developing, but it is also a sound business strategy and a cost effective one. Finding a company that fixes your software, per bug – in other words you only pay when they find a problem, per problem, may bring those costs down further, especially if you test it yourself first, as comprehensively as possible. That way you’re bringing your new software to the tester, with the minimum of problems, and hopefully it won’t cost you the Earth to fix.