Test Management Featured Article

Testing is a process performed to ensure that a particular product satisfies specified requirements by evaluating a system or its different component (s). By identifying any gaps, errors or missing requirements that is different to the actual objective, the product can be fixed before it is made available to consumers. Although all industries test the products they make before they are sent to market, there is no shortage of goods with defects that have to be recalled and fixed. In the automotive industry, for example, GM and Toyota are currently in the process of having to recall millions of cars, and the mistake Apple (News - Alert) made with Maps as well as Google with Android 4.2 stand out in the IT industry.

In a blog on thedrum.com, Martin Mudge spells out the risks of taking too long as well as hastily testing software to bring it to market.

Taking too long will slow the product getting to market, resulting in loss of revenue and allowing competitors to catch or pass you up. If on the other hand the testing is performed too quickly and it is introduced into the market, the subpar performance will result in poor reviews from professionals and consumers, again resulting in loss of revenue.

In the IT industry, software can be developed in-house by an organization or contracted out to a third party to create and test the product. No matter who develops the application it has to be tested with best practices in mind to ensure it doesn’t cost the company its reputation and, of course, sales.

The highly competitive nature of the software marketplace is primarily responsible for developers and companies being pressured to produce, and nowhere is that more evident than the apps created for mobile devices. Even though there are millions of apps and distinguishing one from another may seem impossible, the best applications always seem to rise to the top.

According to Mudge’s blog, this is because software that is thoroughly tested – and that doesn’t have to be a mobile app – delivers on its promise of doing what it says without any mistakes.

It is therefore hugely important to test the software thoroughly and time-efficiently, and that can be achieved using crowdsourced testing.  This methodology uses large, international communities of professional software testers instead of the traditional test teams consisting of 12 people or less.