High-quality code is the secret to developing high-value software that fulfills market requirements and objectives. Not that we don’t know it, but most of us treat testing like an afterthought. As a result, many critical issues skip our eyes and become problems that become costly to rectify later.

The infamous Ashley Madison scandal is a popular example of how the lack of proper software testing can have detrimental effects. Not only they lost trust as private information of their 50 million customers was released to the public, they also had to settle over two dozen lawsuits for $11.2 million.

That’s why testing is crucial in software development. It ensures that you can identify and fix issues before they become major problems and affect end-users. Software testing also protects your application against security vulnerabilities, failures, and costly changes.

This blog will discuss why software testing is a crucial part of the software development process that can prevent a software development company from costly modifications and lead to maximizing user satisfaction. Let’s begin:

5 Reasons Software Testing is Crucial for Building High-quality Software

1. The cost of fixing issues is higher when it’s live than during development

Imagine you spent thousands of dollars building a high-end eCommerce store but didn’t pay much attention to testing because you felt it wasn’t important enough.

Years later when the online store was thriving, someone discovered and exploited a loophole in it to steal sensitive customer data, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details.

The result: Your reputation shattered, you lost millions of dollars in revenue, and angry customers sued you.

Now the same issue that you could easily detect and fix earlier costs your entire life’s work. You may still fix it, but that would require a lot more work and resources because of the following reasons:

• The software is deployed across different environments, making it challenging for your team to replicate, diagnose, and fix issues.

• Fixing live systems issues would cause disruptions and downtime, which would result in revenue loss.

• Defects discovered after the software release would also damage your reputation, which can be way more costly than any monetary loss.

By testing the software before releasing it into the market, you can fix these issues more easily and at much lower cost.

2. Testing ensures the software meets functional & non-functional requirements

What if you delivered a software only to realize it doesn’t do what the client’s business requires? They would be angry as their hard earned money would go waste, and will no longer trust and work with you. Not only this, they would share their experience with friends and on social media. So, your reputation would take a hit.

Software testing ensures the software meets the client's functional and non-functional requirements by testing it for performance, scalability, usability, and reliability.This way, you can build the software that meets both the client requirements and the market expectations.

3. Enhancing user experience

User experience is critical to software. It ensures the software engages users throughout their journey, resulting in excellent customer satisfaction. Software testing lets you evaluate the software from the end-user perspective and see if usability issues may hamper the user journey. The software is highly engaging and of premium quality.

Software testing also allows you to incorporate user feedback, thus gaining insights into their preferences and pain points. As a result, you can refine the software to meet user requirements efficiently.

4. Ensuring compatibility across different devices & platforms

Software often operates on other devices, operating systems, and networks in complex environments. Hence, you must ensure that the software seamlessly delivers across all devices and platforms.

Software testing solves this problem by thoroughly testing your mobile app across different platforms and devices for compatibility. It tracks all the compatibility issues and data inconsistencies and fixes them before they become a significant challenge. As a result, the software is of premium quality and smoothly operates across all environments.

5. Ensuring that your software is free from security loopholes that attackers may exploit

Do you know that many security loopholes emerge from a bug that went undetected? Let’s understand with an example:

Suppose your team was working on a code that handles user authentication and authorization. Someone, by mistake, introduced a bug that allows anyone to bypass authentication. The bug went undetected and you released the code into production.

Here’s what will happen:

A malicious actor will discover this loophole and exploit it to gain access into your website/application. Once that happens, there will be total carnage. The attacker can blackmail you, wipe your entire data, or even worse release confidential information in the public. Your reputation can take a hit. You may even invite many legal suits.

That’s why testing is crucial in software development. It ensures no bug remains undetected in your application. By performing software tests on your application, you can ensure that:

• It is safe and adheres to security standards and global regulations.

• It can handle sensitive customer information.

• It performs as expected without any issues.