Businesses ignore cost of software testing risks

UK businesses are risking significant financial loss with inadequate software testing, a new survey out today has found.

Most IT development and project directors questioned did appreciate the benefits of testing, with more than two thirds (68 per cent) stating they "strongly believe" automation can deliver real value and return on investment.

Despite this, a worrying 81 per cent had no idea what proportion of project costs are allocated to testing and 82 per cent believed that poor software testing was costing them significant amounts of money. Furthermore, a third (39 per cent) have had firsthand experience of this in the last two years.

Over half (55 per cent) admitted that they had experienced post-release problems during the first few months following software testing according to the survey, commissioned by independent software testing and quality management consultancy SQS and carried out by independent researcher PAC.

In the survey, 73 per cent believe that an increasing focus on regulatory compliance influences testing procedures. With growing regulatory implications, 45 per cent of respondents said their companies had plans to further invest in test automation tools within the next few years, where 62 per cent of companies do all their software testing in-house. And the budget for external testing is expected to grow in over half of companies this year (52 per cent), while three-quarters of organisations (76 per cent) now give their staff testing training in-house.

This is pertinent as David Cotterell, SQS Group chief executive, warned that businesses need to start budgeting for software testing.

Cotterell said the cost and disruption of post-release software problems were all the more stark when considered in relation to the resources companies say they plough into pre-release testing. "Choosing to train staff internally to do this only goes some way towards tackling the issue," he said.

But when only 26 per cent of the 198 respondents agreed that testing is an essential investment in the product and 70 per cent of companies thought that the test team should be independent of the application development team, Cotterell added: "A time and cost effective way to do this is to outsource non mission critical testing projects."

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