Nothing can curb productivity faster than having an issue with your business software. To perform daily activities effectively, employees need to be able to rely on quick-running, quality software. Having your business software down for a week, or even a day, could have detrimental business effects.
One reason that companies may decide to purchase an out-of-the-box software is their assumption that there will be fewer issues than with a custom-created software solution. However, sometimes with larger, more bloated software programs, issues can arise from the smallest code changes and can often take longer to resolve due to the complexity of infrastructure of both the software and the business. Having access to your own software and development team puts you in control over potential downtime.
So how are issues avoided?
Through rigorous software testing.
Custom Software Development Testing Benefits
Yes, testing takes time – both on the part of the development team and on the part of the user. But software testing helps determine the quality of the code, discover errors and bugs before the software goes live, and make appropriate corrections swiftly.
At LTC, we use both manual and automated software testing to test each and every module and unit of your new software program.
Learning Through Testing
While the main benefit of testing is debugging and rectifying errors, testing also helps both the development team and user understand how the expected and actual outcomes of a software may differ. Through agile software development, the expected outcome may change from the original development plan as users get an opportunity to “play” with the look and feel of the software.
To improve quality, flow, and help improve business efficiency, it’s important to test the software in actual use cases to make sure each piece is not only present but working properly. This is also a great time to look at what else could be added to the software to improve workflow for the end user.
If software is launched without proper testing, not only could it fail to function properly, but it will cause a lot of unnecessary headache and downtime for a company. Plan on incorporating both budget and time into software testing in order to make your custom software investment a valuable piece of your company’s daily workflow.
At LTC, we believe that software development testing is one of the most critical steps of the software development process. We also believe that it shouldn’t be a hidden cost. You’ll save more money up front by testing than having to go back and remedy later. Interested in custom software development? We’d be happy to provide a free, no pressure consultation!
