Software testing is an integral and critical phase of any software project that takes up almost 40% of a software development life cycle, ideally. Developers and testers must ensure that new products or product enhancements meet functional and performance requirements, that those products are reliable and able to operate consistently under peak load. The risk of releasing a product that is not yet ready are greater now than ever before because of the change in expectations and demands of end users.
According to the Standish Group’s (an international research advisory firm) 2012 research report on Project Failure and Success, approximately three out of five software projects in the US are either delivered late, over budget or are cancelled before being completed. Project success rates are just 39% of all projects while failures are 18%. Challenged projects account for the remaining 43%.
This is true despite the involvement of experienced managers, developers and testers in the project. This is a problem that continues to date.
With the software development explosion in the last decade and the resultant resource crunch, there is pressure to deliver on time, worsened by industry trends such as accelerated release cycles. While the releases are more frequent and cycles shorter, the cost of failure has increased. And often, companies have overseas customers seeking replacement, because of some defect which needs fixing and re-testing. Thus, with every passing day, senior management of organisations are beginning to understand the direct implication of testing on client and user satisfaction; and also on maintenance and operational costs.
If you would like to discuss how I could help or improve QA standards while reducing the overall QA costs, please get in touch.
