QA is an Investment, Not a Cost

Historically, Quality Assurance (QA) has been seen as optional, an unnecessary expense, and a frustrating hurdle on the way to software deployment.  

But not anymore.  

In today’s competitive business environment, where frustrated customers can both find and migrate to competitors with ease, companies can no longer afford to treat QA as optional. 

Investing in proper software testing isn’t all “give”, however. When done right, QA doesn’t just help to find product bugs; it helps protect your brand’s reputation, increase customer satisfaction, and even lead to significant savings in costs and resources.  

QA ensures that products are market-ready, secure, and reliable, reducing the chances of expensive failures and building trust with customers and users.  

“But I Can Do It Myself!”

Some companies (such as Nike, Google, or Amazon) approach testing by having their developers, instead of dedicated QA teams, carry out both coding and testing.  

Setups like this expect developers to test and review their own code or that of their colleagues. Initially, this can be an efficient and cost-effective approach, especially in fast-paced environments, but it does present challenges in larger and more complex systems where specific QA expertise is often crucial.  

Sometimes, doing it yourself is not the best approach, here’s why:  

Developers may struggle to spot errors in their own code due to cognitive bias or overfamiliarity that a QA professional trained to approach software from a user perspective is more likely to catch.  

A dedicated QA team can identify errors early in development, making them “cheap” to fix and ensuring they don’t slip into a live environment. The team can also check that the software meets user requirements and performs well under varying conditions.  

Furthermore, this division of duty allows developers to focus on enhancing existing functionality or writing new code while the QA team ensures it is fit for a live environment, leading to more efficient overall development and long-term cost savings while ensuring a positive end customer experience.  

Dedicated QA Teams Are Better.  

Let’s take a deeper dive into the benefits of a robust QA approach.  

Cost Savings from Early Bug Detection.  

Research shows that fixing a software bug early in development is much cheaper than later. For instance, a defect that costs $100 to fix in the early requirements phase can escalate to costing ~$1,000 to fix during later testing and over $10,000 after release! IBM’s Systems Sciences Institute highlights that their proactive QA approach can save up to 100 times the potential cost simply by addressing bugs during the design and coding stages. Simply put, it’s cheaper to fix problems earlier rather than later.

Relative Costs to Fix Software Defects (Source: IBM Systems Sciences Institute)

Faster Time-to-Market. 

Effective QA processes help to make development smoother by catching problems early, allowing teams to address them quickly and relatively cheaply, avoiding expensive reworking down the line. As issues are solved quickly, your products can be ready for market sooner, giving a competitive edge.  

Increased Customer Satisfaction and Retention. 

A high-quality, stable product is key to keeping customers. Happy customers are more likely to leave good reviews and recommend your product, but unhappy ones are certain to leave bad reviews and warn others away from a poor experience.
For example, Netflix prioritizes QA to ensure its platform is reliable and user-friendly. Its QA team uses advanced automated testing to catch and fix issues early, before they impact users or cause outages and performance problems. This commitment to quality protects Netflix’s reputation and even helps them grow their customer base, contributing to their great success in the streaming market. 

Why is QA so Important?  

Through this article, we’ve established that a robust, committed approach to software testing not only wards off issues but also brings benefits and can even grow your business! Let’s recap. 

1. Invest early to save money (and resources): Fixing a bug early in development is much cheaper than dealing with after release. By including QA from the very start of development, companies can avoid expensive repairs that impact or even lose customers.
   
2. Use automation: Automating the QA process makes testing more efficient and thorough without slowing down production timelines. With automation handling repetitive tasks, QA teams can concentrate on more complex issues that need human expertise.
3. Building (and retaining) customer trust is vital. Customers expect high-quality products and will quickly “jump ship” to competitors if they’re consistently frustrated by issues and errors. Consistent QA helps meet these expectations, retain customer trust, and even win new ones.
4. Protect your reputation: A single defect can harm a brand’s image, especially in our modern, fast-paced, social media-fueled world. Poor reviews seldom disappear and make it even harder to win positive ones. Good QA practices help maintain your brand reputation by ensuring products are reliable and trustworthy.
5. Customize your QA to your development style: Whether you use Agile, DevOps, or other models, QA practices can be adjusted to fit different approaches and frameworks, encouraging continuous improvement and a focus on quality.  

As an industry leader in modernization, gravity9 specializes in elevating legacy systems and ensuring they’re feature-rich, efficient, stable, and fit for the demands of modern businesses and their customers. Our QA professionals are experts in their craft, making rapid, iterative, error-free development possible.  

If you have any questions about ensuring your development and QA approaches will bring you success or need assistance in reforming your approach, products, or systems, we’d be glad to help. Simply get in touch here.