Testing software right away and at an early stage in the software development cycle is a key best practice that saves not only time but also money. Tests allow us to catch bugs and problems when the code is being written in order to fix them more easily. With more and more software becoming complex, it’s crucial to have a strong testing strategy, which is why many businesses collaborate with a software development agency to ensure quality and efficiency.
In this article, we will discuss the main advantages of early-stage testing and some strategies regarding testing. In this post, we’ll show how tests help reduce costs, ensure continuous integration and delivery, and improve agile development. Real-world examples and statistics will be provided to show why organizations spend time building test suites and creating a quality culture.
The Costs of Buggy Software
Allowing bugs to persist in code has tangible financial consequences. A study by the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) found that poor software costs the US economy an estimated $2.41 trillion annually. Over half of these expenses come from direct development costs to identify and fix defects. Bugs that make it into production also generate significant overhead related to customer support.
Research from the Systems Sciences Institute at IBM indicates that the expense of correcting a defect discovered during implementation is roughly six times greater than that of one detected during the design phase. Additionally, mistakes found after a product is launched can be significantly more costly to fix compared to those identified during the design phase and can be up to 100 times more expensive than if they are caught during maintenance. Identifying bugs earlier with better testing allows organizations to greatly lower the total expenses associated with software development.
Catching Issues Early with Test Automation
The execution of tests by scripts instead of by manual human effort is test automation. Implementing test automation may involve a considerable upfront investment, but with enough future exploitation, it ultimately provides good dividends. Tests can be run fast and fast again without ongoing human intervention. You can execute user workflows with tools like Selenium to catch bugs; this is automated UI testing. JUnit is a unit testing framework that checks the software at the code level. IBM reveals that it achieved approximately $100 million in testing cost savings, attributing a 33% improvement in testing efficiency to automation.
Enabling Continuous Delivery Pipelines
Continuous delivery pipelines let developers merge code changes frequently and reliably. This allows new features to be released to customers on a more incremental basis. Comprehensive test coverage is what makes continuous delivery possible in the first place. Running tests automatically confirms that changes don’t break existing functionality.
A global industrial manufacturer worked together with a digital consultancy to shift from a traditional waterfall approach to a CD model. This change allowed the company to roll out a minimum viable product (MVP) in just 90 days and to add new features every three weeks after that. The ongoing process encouraged more experimentation with features, enabling the company to better satisfy customer needs.
Supporting Agile Development Velocity
Agile development relies on a tight iterative loop of coding and testing. Developers write new modules and tests in parallel sprints, typically lasting 1-2 weeks. The sprint concludes with the software being integrated and all tests passing. This approach depends on having an extensive automated test suite covering functionality old and new.
A Microsoft team moved from traditional test suites to contemporary DevOps unit tests, embracing a shift-left strategy. In about two and a half years, they eliminated their legacy tests, going from 27,000 to none. This shift resulted in the creation of 60,000 unit tests, with the continuous integration pipeline finishing in approximately 30 minutes, encompassing the execution of all tests. This quick feedback process allowed for fast delivery of software updates while maintaining high quality.
Architecting for Testability
Creating viable tests for complex legacy applications can prove difficult. Modern codebases should be designed with testing in mind from the start. Related principles like dependency injection and modular architecture also facilitate better test coverage.
Unit testing forms the foundation of most test pyramids. Structuring code into functions and classes that can be tested independently is ideal. Logic that touches the filesystem or network should be abstracted into dependencies that can be mocked. Following these guidelines results in more testable code requiring less effort to validate.
Investing in a Testing Culture
Building a quality testing strategy takes more than just tools. It requires buy-in across teams along with a supportive process. Developers should be incentivized to achieve high test coverage for the code they write. Common practices like test-driven development put testing responsibilities on the people closest to the software.
Leading technology companies like Google and Meta have dedicated testing roles and teams. However, quality cannot fall solely on these groups. Testing can be instilled as a culture by grassroots initiatives. Visible test coverage reporting is a simple tactic that keeps issues of testing top of mind. It also signals institutional commitment by allocating office hours for tests and infrastructure.
Conclusion
Early and frequent testing is indeed a proven way for development velocity for small startups to enterprise software. Continuous delivery combined with automated testing allows companies to meet customer needs at a low cost. This further this goal by testable architecture and development approaches. Organizations that emphasize the quality of the products and group also encounter enhanced output and employee satisfaction. This reduces expenses, and fewer bugs make it to production. With software now so embedded across every industry and product, and service, there is no choice: you have to consider testing strategically.
About the Author
John Smith has over a decade of experience leading test automation initiatives at software companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 firms. He enjoys writing about ways testing enables agile development. A longtime technology writer, John Smith focuses on software quality topics from unit testing to DevOps. He aims to clearly explain technical best practices to non-technical readers. With experience across the software development lifecycle, John Smith writes actionable guides on testing strategy. He believes quality engineering practices separate productive teams from struggling ones.
Thanks for breaking this down in such an easy-to-understand way. Looking forward to similiar posts.