Errors, defects, and issues are very common when building software and products. They can happen in all stages of the project life cycle and some remain undiscovered.
Most of the time, these things happen when testing is neglected or skipped. As a result, instead of benefiting from the reason you omitted testing, you’re actually either holding up the project or you’re delivering a project that looks like it has been hastily done.
So, what are the repercussions of avoiding this step and why is it so important that we test the work we have done?
Firstly, it saves money and time.
There are people who overlook doing proper testing because they think they will be saving money and time from not doing it. However, this is actually false thinking. Testing done hastily, or not at all, can cause more problems in the future. There are some bugs and issues that can ruin all your hard work and, depending on what you’re building, can even cause a domino effect of issues resulting in a failed project. Being able to find these issues right away, can help you mitigate the problem or even eliminate the issue entirely.
However, if you find these issues in the later stage, or worse when the product is already live and people are using it, it might cost additional money and could take longer to fix as you’ll have to think about the impact of the solution to other functionalities and look at how this will affect the users and your existing data. This will definitely cost more than when you could have fixed it in the early stages.
It ensures that you are delivering a quality product.
Who doesn’t want a quality product? You don’t want your product to have errors when it comes to users using it in actual situations. When you introduce your product, you want to make sure that it is well-made and defect free. You want to be confident that the product not only meets customers requirements but, at the same time, is something you can be proud of.
And last but not least, you make your customers happy and satisfied.
In this line of work, customer satisfaction is our top priority. We not only want to meet our customers requirements, we also want to provide value for money so they are more likely to keep coming back.
Having customers test the product and allow them to have actual user experience on the product can help you get valuable and constructive feedback. By telling you right away what they do and don’t want, customers will be comfortable when using the product and will be happy to do so.
Testing is an integral part of the project lifecycle and should not be taken for granted. When you’re pushed for time, or are almost out of budget, neglecting testing may seem like an easy way to get things back on track; however, you’ll soon realise that an error can be a simple fix, but could lead to complications when users are impacted. So why wait for them to see it when you can already fix it.