Software Success Depends on Getting Your App Properly Tested from the Jump
Quality can’t be just another box you need to check off at the very bottom of your to-do list. If you don’t properly test your application—whether that’s through traditional manual work or strategic automation—there’s a significant chance the final product won’t find a real audience.
By testing your application early and often, you get closer and closer to that mystical five-star rating across the different app stores—a badge showing that yes, your user experience is functional, fast, and consistent. But with how quickly updates can be issued and how vocal users are, why can’t you just release something that’s mostly cooked, wait for the response, and adjust from there?
According to Shankar Konda, a practice lead for banking and financial services at Tata Consultancy Services, that first impression means just as much in software as it does in real life. And while people might give a restaurant or bar a second chance after a bad experience, users often move on to another app as soon as yours malfunctions.
“Every product or release or solution that the business puts out there has a customer interface—whether it's through a mobile or any digital interface,” Konda explained in a recent interview with StickyMinds. “Hence, it is crucial to achieve it first-time right, as the customer forms an opinion on a particular app as soon as he or she opens it.”
Think about a banking app. If you’re trusting someone with your financial information, you want to make sure everything is as buttoned-up as possible. Even the slightest outage can force you to question whether or not you should ever use that app again, even if the developer promises a more secure version down the road.
And there are few businesses more competitive than software at this very moment in time. There are bigger corporations with more resources making apps similar to yours, so if you don’t exceed quality expectations at launch, your users will find a new home.
“Customer loyalty resulting out of his or her experience, once lost, is difficult if not impossible to regain,” Konda continued. “Businesses cannot afford to ship something that is incomplete; they have to get it right the first time.”
Testing isn’t always easy, and the speed of software can be difficult to keep pace with. However, the value in assuring a secure, functional application is far beyond that of being first to market. Take the time to test your app, and you’ll find an audience willing to stick around for the long haul.
