How Much Does Software Testing Cost? 9 Proven Ways to Optimize it.
This blog begins with understanding the importance of software testing, followed by an insight into cost-effective testing solutions and strategies to reduce software testing cost. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a reliable outsourcing partner, Simform’s software testing services are here to help you.
How Much does Software Testing Cost and How to Measure it?
The overall software testing costs are observed somewhere between 15 to 25% of the total project cost as per the industry standards. Also, as of 2019, a panel of CIOs and senior technology professionals reported of 2019, a panel of CIOs and senior technology professionals reported that around 23% of their organization’s annual IT budget was allocated towards quality assurance and testing on average.
9 Best practices to Reduce Software Testing Costs
Test Early, Test Often
According to Systems Sciences Institute, the cost to fix an error post product release is 4 to 5 times as much as one uncovered during the design phase. Also, this increases to up to 100 times more than one identified in the maintenance phase. In addition, many organizations have experienced that it is more challenging to fix post-release bugs than identifying them during the early stages. For instance, a bug caught during unit tests costs much less than the same bug during integration level testing.
Adopt Test-Driven Development
TDD implies writing unit tests even before writing the code. It starts with unit testing of functionalities by specifying the exact function of code from the earlier stages. For example, suppose a function has 3 conditional statements, and there are 3 operations based on these conditions. So, using the TDD approach, you’re supposed to write 3 individual test cases. Practicing TDD will help you identify functionalities that are failing and for whatever reasons. Not only that, developers can quickly work on the identified issues resulting in smooth code refactoring, better documentation, and less debugging.
Use Modern Tools for Feasible UI Testing
One of the best approaches for effective UI testing is to automate visual regression testing using low code solutions. The main reason is that there are multiple testing tools that enable you to run UI tests in less than 5 minutes without needing developers to code. These tools use smart image comparison, analyze and verify DOM structure and on-page elements, automatic handling of timeouts, and also helps with user acceptance testing.
Consider Risk-based Testing
Risk-based testing covers all possible risks that may appear while testing the software. It involves prioritizing the risk factors that may affect the code quality. For example, testing features and functions based on the risk of failure, the importance of the functions, and the possible impact of such failures. This strategy determines the testing goals by organizing the testing team’s efforts in a unidirectional way to reduce risks of failure once the product goes to production. Hence, using this strategy eliminates the possibility of external failure of software products along with several benefits related to productivity and software quality such as,
Use Reusable Materials in Training the Employees
Training is an ongoing process for any growing organization, and so is the case for new testers joining the QA team. You’ll need to introduce your organization’s methodologies and testing team’s work patterns to them. So instead of allocating dedicated resources for training employees, you can use reusable materials and courses. Also, you can ask experts to provide recorded materials that can be used multiple times and host one-time on-site training sessions.
Optimize use of Manual Testing
Manual testing is prone to more human errors, and optimizing its usage would ease your software testing cycle, especially in enterprise-level projects. Because as the project scope expands, it’d eventually increase the time, workforce, and overall software testing costs.
Consider the Hidden Costs
No matter how accurately you try to work around reducing software testing costs, some unexpected hidden costs are bound to emerge due to a variety of circumstances. Because, here’s a thing:
Use Hyper Testing Strategy
This strategy is a part of agile testing, which addresses testing issues from three angles,
- process,
- practices,
- and tools
Understand the Impact of Enterprise Application Upgrades
Understanding the impact of smaller updates made to enterprise applications is essential since it may impact critical business processes. To further analyze this, you can use AI-powered analytical tools that show the impact areas with each release. These tools effectively ensure the testing gaps created and also create test cases for the same. This kind of analysis and testing reduces testing time by almost 80% and saves you a lot of time and money while covering 100% risk.
Manual and Automation testing– Which one is cost-effective?
Manual testing involves exploratory and scripted tests. The former requires testers to explore the application features individually, while the latter suggests manual testers follow step-by-step instructions manually.
What is the real “Cost of Software Quality” and how it affects Business
The cost of software quality is directly related to software testing. Therefore, the more good you and your team are at optimizing testing, the better business value you receive. Conversely, bad testing teams or compromised software testing process results in poor software quality, ultimately impacting customer experiences.
Conclusion
The discussion about software testing costs is endless until you have project requirements at hand and are sure about the project scope. Once you’re all set with the technology stack and project scope, you may go ahead and explore options for the final stage — software testing cost estimation.
Originally published at Simform: How Much Does Software Testing Cost? 9 Proven Ways to Optimize it.