Many enterprises nowadays adopt agile methodology to deliver high quality software applications within a stipulated period of time. Agile methodology requires businesses to test their software application continuously and unify the software development and testing processes. An enterprise can accelerate the defect detection and elimination process by making programmers and testers work as a single team. But the programmers cannot test an application written by them without author bias. The author bias sometimes affects the process of finding errors, failures, and performance issues. Many enterprises nowadays opt for independent software testing to evaluate the quality and user experience delivered by their software applications from a neutral perspective.
When the testers do not participate in the software development process, they can easily find more defects and performance issues in the software. Also, the independent testers can produce from reliable test results by assessing the software from the perspective of the business and users. Independent testing even allows enterprises to get the software evaluated by both external testers and selected users. There are also a number of reasons why many enterprises nowadays opt for independent software testing.
7 Reasons Why Many Enterprises Opt for Independent Software Testing
1) Prevent Author Bias
Often programmers find it easier to repair the bugs or defects in the software during development process. Hence, an enterprise can reduce the software testing time significantly by performing testing early and continuously. But no programmer can evaluate an application written by him from an unbiased or neutral perspective. Hence, the application is often tested from a developer perspective. Independent testing makes it easier for enterprises to get the software evaluated without author bias. The absence of author biasness further results in detection of additional bugs, performance issues, and failures.
2) Evaluate the Software from a Neutral Perspective
The user experience delivered by an application nowadays determines its popularity and profitability. The user experience delivered by an application depends on its accessibility, functionality, usability, performance, and security. Also, the user experience delivered by an application varies according to the underlying devices and platforms. Hence, many enterprises nowadays perform beta testing to get the software evaluated by selected users. Independent testing helps enterprises to test software from the perspective of users. The independent testing results further help enterprises to assess the software’s user experience more precisely. Efficient software QA testing helps the businesses in delivering a better experience to its target users
3) Combine Manual and Automated Testing
The QA professionals differ from each other in terms of training, skill, and experience. For instance, some QA professionals have proficiency in evaluating the quality of software manually, whereas others know how to use test automation tools efficiently. No enterprise can automate all its software testing activities. In several scenarios, manual testing is preferred over automation testing. Also, it must perform certain tests manually to assess the precise user experience. When an enterprise does not work with internal testers, it can easily work with the skilled testers according to varying needs of projects. A business can further get the software evaluated effectively by combining manual and automated testing seamlessly.
4) Test the Software under Real User Conditions
Many enterprises nowadays involve real users in the software testing process to produce more reliable test results. They even explore ways to assess the software’s user experience more precisely by performing the tests under real user conditions. Independent testing enables businesses to get the software tested by both real users and skilled testers. A business can use any robust beta testing tool to invite users to evaluate the beta versions of an application. The tools even help businesses to collect feedback and suggestions of these beta testers seamlessly. Hence, an enterprise can opt for independent testing to get its software assessed by real users and under real user conditions.
5) Produce More Reliable Test Results
When the programmers and testers work as a single team, many testers find it difficult to highlight the flaws in the work of other co-workers. There are many instances when testing professionals do not report the defects found in an application honestly. Many enterprises opt for independent testing to get the software evaluated from a neutral perspective and obtain precise test results. As independent testers are not part of the development team, they can report the defects and failures found in the application honestly and unemotionally. Hence, independent testing helps businesses to produce precise test results and generate reliable test reports.
6) Accelerate Software Testing Activities
Nowadays, users access software application on different devices. An application needs to deliver optimal user experience across devices and platforms to prevent user abandonment. A business has to deploy additional testers to check if the software delivers richer user experience across various devices and platforms. Likewise, it must hire skilled testing professionals to perform both functional and non-functional testing. Independent software testing does not require enterprises to deploy internal testers or create test infrastructure. It allows businesses to work with skilled testing professionals according to the precise needs of each project. An enterprise even has option to deploy additional testers to accelerate testing of large and complex software applications.
7) Reduce Overall Software Testing Cost
An enterprise has to hire and train a group of software QA testers to evaluate a software application internally. Likewise, it needs to create and maintain a robust testing environment to accelerate the software testing activities. Hence, an enterprise has to incur additional expenses to create the testing environment and deploy skilled testers. Independent software testing enables enterprises to get the software evaluated by skilled testers and real users without investing in tester training, test automation tools, and test environments. Also, a business can scale the independent software testing resources seamlessly according to precise needs of each project without investing additional funds.
However, the level of independent software testing and choice of independent QA testers differ from one organization to another. Some enterprises prefer getting the software evaluated independently by internal testers, whereas others opt for external testers or outsourced test teams. But each enterprise must implement a comprehensive strategy to mitigate the risks associated with independent software testing – keeping the programmers and testers isolated, creating communication problems, and extending software’s time to market. It also needs to use the right tool to make the software available to external testers and real users in a secure and straightforward way.
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