Why Empathy is important in Software development and testing?

"The greatest gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy" - Meryl Streep

Empathy is an ability to keep yourself in other's shoes and think through their perspective.

A company that understands the importance of empathy with context to software development and testing knows how this reflects its cultural ethos to the world. It shows that the brand 'cares' for its people.

It doesn't really matter if your software just "works". What matters is how deeply it is able to connect with the user base.

So in June- pride month, there were a lot of companies that changed their LinkedIn page logos to include rainbow colours in order to showcase how they encourage "inclusivity & diversity" at their workplaces.

But are they really empathetic?

I understand that it might be possible that they are using traditional/legacy software that is just maintained but is it a valid excuse to not actually practice what you preach?

Here is a screen-recording of the careers page of a leading bank where I was applying for a position. After the application, they asked if I wanted to enter my gender- not a mandatory field(which is a good thing), but after I clicked the "Gender" drop-down, I saw:

"Male"

"Female"

"Shared Parental Leave for UK"

Now I don't know which gender is the third one. I identify with the gender - female, so I chose that.

But now think of a candidate from the LGBTQ community and from a non-IT background? Do you think they'll be left with a good memory of this? This can actually raise doubts whether the employer is actually pro-community or not because clearly, the website does not show "inclusivity" as compared to what they claim.

Now you and I may be from IT and we know "technically" how small this issue is. You just need to change the value there and it could be rectified within minutes.

But if you think of someone who knows nothing about software, after all, it isn't a software company, do you not think it will directly or indirectly show the company in a bad light?

It might not be a very "big" issue. But one may argue that if they actually aim to employ diverse people, they should have started with their careers page on their own website first.

This is not the case for this specific company, it can be found everywhere.

Here is where empathy-driven development and testing come into the picture. UX does not mean how well you can use tools and how colourful you make your software look. It means to take into consideration how much emotional impact it has on your users and leave them emotionally fulfilled.

Software testing is a phase where testers are the first set of users of the software. They should not just test a product with pass/ fail results as given in the requirement documents, but also, with facts on how they 'feel' about software. While it might look silly to people in IT, it is how it is in the REAL world. Nobody cares about the effort gone behind software development or testing. The only thing which can make or break the brand is the value it brings to the people associated with it. How the brand makes them feel. We should remember that when we build or test software, we doing it for the people. Therefore, how people will feel about it should be the initial concern in all of the processes.

Lastly, in order to be more empathetic and to brace yourselves with this super skill, one should put themselves in other's shoes which can only be done by unlacing ours!

Disclaimer: The views on this post are based on my personal experiences and my opinions on things. The pictures are directly downloaded from sources on internet.