6 Benefits of Starting Your Software Testing Early

The potential of software testing has always been underestimated by development teams who follow the traditional waterfall model of software development lifecycle (SDLC). Even the teams adopting the Agile methodology squeeze in testing at the end of every sprint or development cycle. However, this frantic and unsystematic debugging at the end of a typical development cycle can leave software with many undetected bugs. To make it worse, testing will detect the errors in the code that must be eliminated. This leads to project delays as major chunks of software have to be rewritten to meet customer requirements.

A report by Tricentis revealed that around 5 billion people in the world were affected by software bugs. It has been found that most of the bugs appear at the requirements and design phases. Hence, it is clear that it will be more expensive to fix bugs and defects that are detected in later stages. Experts in the field of software testing, the A1QA company among them,always recommend that testing should begin from the initial phases of software development and on. Here are the benefits ofstarting testing in the early stages of SDLC in detail.

1. Identifying Common Mistakes Made By Developers

A testing specialist views the application in a way that is different from a developer’s perspective. Testing professionals have extensive experience in evaluating the code in a number of different ways. That’s why they are well aware of the areas where developers frequently make mistakes or let a bug in the code. A developer codes according to design specifications, but testing is carried out based on business and user requirements. So a number of errors can be rectified at the right time, if the testing team’s intuition is relied upon during the design and coding phases. Test-driven development helps to improve the software quality and curb project costs.

2. Keeping Bugs from Proliferating

Failing to detect bugs at early stages of developmentcarries risksthat there will be loads of bugs and defects right before releasing the software product. Such a scenario usually leads to hectic efforts by development teams to resolve issues as soon as possible so that the release schedule isn’t affected. However, it’s hardly possible to ensure that the resulting code will be of high quality in such circumstances. In most cases, unimportant bugs are allowed to seep in through the cracks at the expense of user experience. This not only affects the product owner’s reputation but also leads to overrunning the project budget when additional efforts are required to remove defects. The relation between the costs of defect correction to the timing of defect detection can be illustrated with the graph below.

3. Obtaining Accurate First-level Feedback

Usually, developers have to wait for the UAT (User Acceptance Testing) phase when the end users test the software and give their approval for product release. This may prove risky, because end users might require considerable changes to be made in the software if it doesn’t meet their expectations. Moreover, a defective software piece will leave a negative impression on users.

Early testing can help to prevent these negative scenarios.In collaboration with the testing team, developers can continuously improve the quality of the product in progress, and deliver on user expectations.

4. Maintaining Up-to-date Documentation

Test cases and project documentation undergo multiple changes throughout the development and maintenance cycles. This is especially true for Agile development, when even the changes in the client’s requirements and business needs are continuously incorporated. Sometimes not all such changes get into the documentation, and this may create a great deal of confusion when the testing team starts out after the development phase is over. Involving testers from the very beginning help to keep track of the changes made to the test cases.

5. Cutting costs

Software projects tend to suffer from budget overruns when testing activities aren’t given due importance. Estimations go in for a toss due to bug explosions. At the same time, early testing helps to achieve considerable savings in a number of areas. The high ROI associated with early testing is achieved by cutting down the following costs:

• Unexpected expenses due to developing and distributing patches
• Expenses incurred due to increased support costs
• High costs associated with service outages
• Lawsuits associated with damages resulting from software failures
• Increased penalties and insurance costs associated with unreliable software systems
• Regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley stipulate criminal prosecution for companies that develop software with missing or incomplete information

A good example of inadequate testing was the mission failure to launch Mars Climate Orbiter intothe Mars atmosphere. The Orbiter disintegrated as soon as it entered the Mars atmosphere because of the inaccuracies in the software. Software Testing Class reports that the fiasco cost NASA about $125million.

6. Business Growth Due To Continuous Quality Improvement

Early error detection helps to achieve the quality standards and benchmarks set by quality certifying organizations. Most software companies require quality certifications for winning more clients. Integrating testing in every SDLC phaseensures that such quality is improved on a continuous basis.

Earlier bug detection also leads to faster delivery and reduced time to market. Most importantly, the project managers will be able to build trust when they are able to meet deadlines. These strategies help to gain competitive edgeand builda brand. Involving the testing team right from the beginning enables companiesto develop a ‘low-cost, high quality’ strategy for fighting off its rivals.

Conclusion

Today, more and more software development teams are adopting Agile methodologies to keep up with their client’s changing requirements. Newer methodologies encourage teams to integrate testing earlier in the development cycle to ensure that quality remains a priority throughout the software development process. The paradigm shift has given rise to the emergence of testing automation and regression testing suites that ensure that frequent changes in business needs do not deteriorate the quality of the software. All this helps testing to become an integral part of the development process.