Software Quality &Testing: The myth and lack of understanding.
After passing a day today talking and exchanging ideas with colleagues of the Quality Assurance department, it is clear for me that most people don't understand how testing is critical to any custom software development.
I hear over and over again from sales people, consulting, project managers among other roles within IT that when selling at a competitive price and the budget is tight, the first thing to be cut off is TESTING. Make not mistake, less testing means less quality; no testing means no quality and a crap software that maybe very well designed but not function. When testing is not well understood within IT companies, how can we expect our customers understand the value of testing?
In my professional IT life, I have heard the comparison such as: " the same way customer purchase a car and it has been tested, they expect our custom development also tested without any additional cost."
How can a car that is a serial manufactured line product be compared with a custom development software? I cannot conceive nor understand such comparison.
Instead, I would argue that, metaphorically speaking, custom software could be compared with a tailor custom made suit or dress. When a tailor has the task of doing a suit or dress, he or she has to know the material and the design the customer wants and take the measurements (the requirements), then the custom made product start to be build (development). During this process the tailor asks the customer to prove the suit or dress more than one time to make adjustments and then when it is nearly done, the last prove to make sure it is the way the customer wants. That garment prove can be called testing! If the tailor does not test over and over again until he or she is sure the product is the way and at the quality the customer will be satisfied with, the tailor may make a suit or dress that is very different from the customer expectations. Exactly the same occurs with software development!
"Quality is the degree of excellence of something," it means that is the amount of testing that will ensure customer satisfaction! In the IT industry that is a big claim to ignore.
Everyb
ody want quality software, however not everybody is ready to listen and to understand how much testing work is behind a good software that has been customized.
When we purchase ready software that is usable as it is, such as Microsoft Office suite, or office365 for example, they can be bought from any online or retail store. This clearly means the software is the same for everybody who purchase them. This type of retail software we can expect a fair amount of quality and testing is included in the license price.Remember though, that testing is included in the price because is is sold as it is, the same product for everybody.
We are living in the mobile revolution where more and more mobile devices are launched into the market almost every month. Our industry needs IT people that are not that technical within our industry to understand the crucial role of testing. When that happens, sales people and project managers would be able to open customer minds about quality and testing importance.
Remember: Testing is what ensures quality, and quality ensures customer satisfaction.
It's a pity that testing people, or quality assurance engineers as they may be called, are so poor viewed within our industry. They have the unique and very valuable skills to understand the technical requirements and business needs. This could bring enormous benefits to both customers and project managers during the life time of the project, if just quality and testing were more understood and widely used.