Why software testing is important for your tech startup
Starting a new tech company is a challenging and pressure filled period for any entrepreneur. You have limited time and resources as well as plenty of unknowns to deal with. It’s only natural to look for ways to minimize resource use and get your product out there as fast as possible. A lot of the time this means being stingy with your software testing efforts. But we are here to tell you not to do that. Find out why software testing is important for your tech startup.
No matter how great or experienced your software development team is, bugs will always make their way into your product. And in a very competitive startup landscape with VCs becoming more cautious with regard to their investments this can be a recipe for disaster.
If you don’t provide a smooth experience from the very beginning customers won’t stay around very long. In fact, just looking at mobile apps and how customers interact with them, 80% are deleted after their first use. Almost all of the reasons given by customers could have been solved with proper software testing.
An idea gets you started, but quality keeps you going
As a startup you sometimes have the tendency to get caught in your own narrative. You can fall in the trap of relying on the originality or “awesomeness” ? of your idea and end up paying less attention to how it will actually work in practice. Having a strong concept and business case is important when you’re looking for capital. But it matters less when you are building and deploying your software solution.
If your app has a lot of bugs, takes forever to open, freezes mid use and so on this will not encourage trust from the customers in what you do. Especially if you need them to give their personal or financial details.
Costs
Software testing doesn’t need to be an expensive activity, yet many people look at it that way. But keep in mind that the longer it takes to find the bugs during the software development lifecycle, the more expensive it will be to fix them. So, you need to start your software testing efforts early.
Initially you can rely on your team to handle QA. Even though some of your team members might be in sales or marketing, it still makes sense. In a close-knit startup team pretty much, everyone knows the product in detail and can lend a hand. With a little help and effort, they can do some of the software testing activities at the beginning.
Another way to go is to simply outsource your software testing efforts. Outsourcing isn’t just for software development, you can also use it for other activities in your project. What matters is that outsourcing gives you the flexibility you need and it can grow along with your project. At first you might not need a full time QA Tester so you would be better off working with a software testing provider where you can scale the manpower and hours based on where you are in your company’s journey.
Growth
Implementing proper software testing from the very beginning will also help your start-up as it grows. As the number of users increases, so too will the bugs and challenges. In a beta version with a couple of hundred users things might not seem as critical. But once you fully launch your solution things chance. The expectations are bigger and so is the competition. Your solution will need to work on different devices, servers and software versions.
It is easier to adapt your software testing activities if you were doing them from very beginning instead of starting from scratch at that particular time.
How can QTeam help?
Our services include not only software development and maintenance, but software testing services as well. We offer clients a tailored approach based on our years of experience in the IT industry. So, get in touch with us, and let’s talk about software.