Let’s start with a little history.
Software testing arrived alongside its development just after the Second World War. The Computer scientist Tom Kimbul was credited with writing the first piece of software, which was developed on June 21st, 1948, at the University of Manchester in England; it was a software that performed mathematical calculations using a code instructions machine.
By the 80s, almost 40 years later than the first written piece of software, the development teams looked beyond to improve their software by fixing the bugs that were found during the testing in a real-world environment. Those quality practices started with debugging, which was the main testing method at that time, and it has remained until now.
After those debugging practices, development teams set the stages for a broader view of testing. For implementing methodologies where the development team worked on their code, and once the code was finished, the Quality team started the designed tests. This methodology was called: “Cascade.”
Alexander Yaroshko – Software tester and part of the uTest community, says: “In the 1990s, there was a transition from testing to a more comprehensive process called quality assurance, which covers the entire software development cycle and affects the processes of planning, design, creation, and execution of test cases, support for existing test cases and test environments”. Alexander Yaroshko. (2022, October 25th).
Why is software testing important?
Nowadays, software has become part of our lives even without thinking about it. We use software on an almost-minutely basis. Our computers, smartwatches, phone, and remote devices rely on software that works with few or no bugs, but how would we feel if the apps or devices don’t work as expected because of software failures? Or What would happen if some of the websites or applications take too long to load? Probably, we would look for other alternatives, right? That’s why quality assurance (QA) is an integral software project. QA takes care of ensuring that software works in the way it is supposed to perform. This umbrella term refers to many different methods or processes for testing the software, preventing bugs, verifying the product, and ensuring its high quality.
Many companies have recognized the importance of paying attention to quality control processes that guarantee the quality of their products, being one of the main practices of QA, the “early testing.” which can uncover problems before a product goes to market, even in stages when the company is planning the software or designing the requirements.
Late deliveries or software errors can damage a brand’s reputation, leading to frustrated clients or money losses. According to the website cloud tech, US software failures cost the economy USD 1.1 trillion in assets in 2016. What’s more unbelievable is that they impacted 4.4 billion customers. Siroky, D. (2020, April 2nd).
As soon as the QA team is involved in the progress, development teams will receive feedback about each development stage and be able to address issues like
- Architectural flows due to poor planning and analysis.
- Poor design requirements.
- Incorrect or incomplete functionality flows.
- Vulnerability in terms of security.
- Scalability issues.
Some of the most significant reasons why early testing in Software is important
- QA can save you money from a dev perspective and a customer perspective.
- QA increases the quality of the product.
- QA reduces the number of vulnerabilities and increases security.
- A QA process improves and structures the software delivery process.
- QA inspires client confidence and customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Considering the previous points and applying them to your business will allow you to become more efficient and guarantee the quality of your product. Involve testers in different stages of the SDLC will help ensure the software matches the initial requirements and expectations, achieving maximum efficiency, reducing efforts, and saving time and money, which might be translated to customer loyalty.
