#software quality engineering

When the entire global digital landscape is underpinned on the reliability or performance of software, the role of software reliability testing becomes critical. In the metrics of gauging performance, reliability is often pegged above efficiency owing to the following reasons:

 ·         The lack of product reliability can be telling on the brand value of a company. This may lead the end-users to shy away from buying the software, thus impacting sales.

·         For critical systems like navigation control in an aircraft or an embedded software in a medical device, any system failure can have serious consequences.

·         An inefficient system can be improved by working on small sections of the program suite. However, an unreliable system can be difficult to improve as the glitches leading to such unreliability are not localized but distributed throughout the suite.

·         Inefficient systems can lead to delays and have their own sets of issues. However, the consequences of unreliable systems can be more telling on their immediate surroundings or the people handling them.

·         Inefficient programs can take a long time to execute. This may help programmers or users to find out the issues and remedy them. However, unreliable systems may not sound any alarm until it is too late. For example, a design flaw in an aircraft may not be visible during testing but can manifest itself in the form of a crash.

·         Executing each function fully at least once.

·         Reducing the interaction between functions.

·         Checking the new functionality for its quality and accuracy.

·         Identifying bugs that could get into the system after the new addition or modification.

 Since reliability is a critical factor when it comes to the execution of software, software reliability testing needs to be pursued in right earnest. However, let us first understand what software quality testing in terms of validating reliability is all about.

 What is software reliability testing?

 Reliability testing as a part of software quality assurance services ensures consistent performance and functioning of the software. This means the software should render fault-free performance in a given environment and time period. Importantly, the end-users tend to believe in the outcome of any software. They mostly have blind faith in the performance of software, which may lead to unforeseen consequences. For example, a glitch-prone banking software can be hacked into by cybercriminals with disastrous results. However, users do not brook such a possibility while using the software. Thus, software quality testing becomes the key to ensuring their trust.

 How to make your software failure-free courtesy software testing services?

 The reliability of software can be assured by executing a number of tests as detailed below:

 ·         Feature testing: This type of software testing services checks the features and functionality of the software. It tests if the application runs according to the expected outcomes. Also, it checks the interoperability of the software with other components and environments. The test comprises the following activities -

·         Regression testing: This type of testing is done when a new version of the software is added to the build. This validates the new version to be free of any glitches. The activities associated with this type of testing are as follows.

·         Load testing: This type of testing checks whether a particular functionality works to its optimum when subjected to the highest workload. The test ensures the software responds within a minimum time, say 5 seconds, to the user commands. If this test is not conducted, then the system can crash abruptly or suffer from latency. This can lead to frustrating user experiences and creating a negative impression of the brand.

·         Security testing: Given that a large number of software is dealing with sensitive personal and business information, security testing has become integral to reliability testing. It relates to identifying the vulnerabilities and preventing any unauthorized access. Also, the testing checks if the software complies with the industry accepted rules, standards, etc. This is more apparent with software that deals with banking and financial transactions.

  Conclusion

 The reliability of software is arguably the most important facet of any software application. Also, it is relatively costly than other forms of testing thus necessitating proper test management. As the complexity of software increases with each passing day, software quality engineering can play a key role in driving reliability. Reliability testing can go a long way in ensuring better user experiences and maintain the competitive edge of businesses.

The rapid penetration of digital technology through devices and applications has transformed the lives of the end customers. Activities that were considered challenging, inconvenient, and time-consuming in the past are done in a jiffy now. Take for example, the paying of utility bills, carrying out financial transactions, buying groceries, medicines, apparels, or the booking of tickets. However, there is a flip side to convenience, agility, and speed offered by digitization as well. With an increased level of sophistication of software applications driving the digital revolution, there are instances when things can go wrong. For example, a malfunctioning smoke detector at the house or office not picking up the smoke caused by a fire, the bank failing to notify the customer that his or her account has been compromised, or a digital pill miscalculating the level of blood sugar and administering more than the prescribed dosage of a drug.

All these can have severe ramifications for both the customer and the service provider. This brings into sharp focus the key role of quality assurance in ensuring technology to be an enabler and not a disaster. Further, to achieve success in the competitive business environment, enterprises should look beyond the customer experience, which can be a one-off thing. The challenge is to establish trust with the end-user by assuring the quality of products or services on a consistent basis.

However, this is easier said than done, for quality assurance can often miss a thing or two. This is due to the preponderance of devices, operating platforms, browsers, third-party applications, and networks. To ensure the smooth running of a software application, the same needs to be compatible with the above-mentioned elements. Moreover, in the Agile and DevOps led Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), where there is a requirement for continuous testing, integration, and delivery, QA should give way to software quality engineering.

 What is software quality engineering?

As opposed to quality assurance, software quality engineering deals with identifying the causes of failures and implements a system to prevent them from occurring in the first place. It is focused more on analyzing the technical side of glitches such as their deviation and non-compliance, or the signing of quality prior to the delivery of a product. In most organizations, there is an overlap between the disciplines of enterprise quality engineering and quality assurance. It mainly deals with developing an environment where products or services are designed, developed, tested, and delivered according to the requirements of the customers. Independent quality engineering services take the cross-functional approach by combining multiple business disciplines.

So, with the advent of technologies like AI and ML, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Big Data, among others, the vulnerabilities have increased as well. Since the ramifications for application malfunction are immense, the need for a software quality engineer has become crucial. Let us find out how Quality Engineering or QE can help in achieving excellence in quality.

A quality engineering company offering QE services covers the following areas:

Agile and DevOps testing

Test data management

Service virtualization

Test automation

Security testing

Performance testing

How enterprise quality engineering can help driving excellence

The main focus of QE is to build a QA environment that preempts the presence of glitches and achieve the following outcomes.

Reduces or eliminates vulnerabilities: With the development and testing team working in close proximity, QE offers end-to-end transparency to everyone associated with the build process. This approach helps to detect vulnerabilities and inherent risks early in the SDLC and ensures the initiation of prompt remedial action.

Streamlines coordination among departments: The reasons for glitches to remain unidentified is that every department deals with its turf only. Even if glitches are identified by another department or process, the tendency is to overlook the same and pass the buck. However, with independent quality engineering services in command, the old ways of workflows are abandoned in favor of more coordination and cohesion. Since a commonality of interest is established among departments, the usual blame game is averted.

Enhanced productivity with automation: The flip-side of manual testing such as the lack of coverage area and errors in regression testing can be avoided with test automation. The iterative testing processes are executed quickly resulting in better identification of glitches. As the quality of code improves in the build, the overall delivery schedule becomes better and speedy.

 Conclusion

With the level of sophistication increasing in the digital ecosystem, traditional Quality Assurance can come a cropper. It is only through the implementation of software quality engineering involving steps such as service virtualization, performance testing, and test data management, among others, that excellence in the quality of applications can be achieved.

Author Bio

The rapid penetration of digital technology through devices and applications has transformed the lives of the end customers. Activities that were considered challenging, inconvenient, and time-consuming in the past are done in a jiffy now. Take, for example, the paying of utility bills, carrying out financial transactions, buying groceries, medicines, apparel, or the booking of tickets. However, there is a flip side to convenience, agility, and speed offered by digitization as well. With an increased level of sophistication of the software applications driving the digital revolution, there are instances when things can go wrong. For example, a malfunctioning smoke detector at the house or office not picking up the smoke caused by a fire, the bank failing to notify the customer that his or her account has been compromised, or a digital pill miscalculating the level of blood sugar and administering more than the prescribed dosage of a drug.

All these can have severe ramifications for both the customer and the service provider. This brings into sharp focus the key role of quality assurance in ensuring technology to be an enabler and not a disaster. Further, to achieve success in the competitive business environment, enterprises should look beyond the customer experience, which can be a one-off thing. The challenge is to establish trust with the end-user by assuring the quality of products or services on a consistent basis.

However, this is easier said than done, for quality assurance can often miss a thing or two. This is due to the preponderance of devices, operating platforms, browsers, third-party applications, and networks. To ensure the smooth running of a software application, the same needs to be compatible with the above-mentioned elements. Moreover, in the Agile and DevOps led Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), where there is a requirement for continuous testing, integration, and delivery, QA should give way to software quality engineering.

 What is software quality engineering?

As opposed to quality assurance, software quality engineering deals with identifying the causes of failures and implements a system to prevent them from occurring in the first place. It is focused more on analyzing the technical side of glitches such as their deviation and non-compliance, or the signing of quality prior to the delivery of a product. In most organizations, there is an overlap between the disciplines of enterprise quality engineering and quality assurance. It mainly deals with developing an environment where products or services are designed, developed, tested, and delivered according to the requirements of the customers. Independent quality engineering services take the cross-functional approach by combining multiple business disciplines.

So, with the advent of technologies like AI and ML, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Big Data, among others, the vulnerabilities have increased as well. Since the ramifications for application malfunction are immense, the need for a software quality engineer has become crucial. Let us find out how Quality Engineering or QE can help in achieving excellence in quality.

A quality engineering company offering QE services cover the following areas,

Agile and DevOps testing

Test data management

Service virtualization

Test automation

Security testing

Performance testing

 How enterprise quality engineering can help driving excellence

The main focus of QE is to build a QA environment that preempts the presence of glitches and achieve the following outcomes.

Reduces or eliminates vulnerabilities: With the development and testing team working in close proximity, QE offers end-to-end transparency to everyone associated with the build process. This approach helps to detect vulnerabilities and inherent risks early in the SDLC and ensures the initiation of prompt remedial action.

Streamlines coordination among departments: The reasons for glitches to remain unidentified is that every department deals with its turf only. Even if glitches are identified by another department or process, the tendency is to overlook the same and pass the buck. However, with independent quality engineering services in command, the old ways of workflows are abandoned in favor of more coordination and cohesion. Since a commonality of interest is established among departments, the usual blame game is averted.

Enhanced productivity with automation: The flip-side of manual testing such as the lack of coverage area and errors in regression testing can be avoided with test automation. The iterative testing processes are executed quickly resulting in better identification of glitches. As the quality of code improves in the build, the overall delivery schedule becomes better and speedy.

 Conclusion

With the level of sophistication increasing in the digital ecosystem, traditional Quality Assurance can come a cropper. It is only through the implementation of software quality engineering involving steps such as service virtualization, performance testing, and test data management, among others, that excellence in the quality of applications can be achieved.

Author Bio

Oliver has been associated with Cigniti Technologies Ltd as an Associate Manager - Content Marketing, with over 10 years of industry experience as a Content Writer in Software Testing & Quality Assurance industry.

Before the era of consumerization and the advent of digitization, quality has become the center of attention for businesses. However, the emergence of digital technologies including the internet has empowered consumers to find out and compare an endless list of products from across the world. Quality assurance to end users has become an indispensable feature of attaining success along with the right digital strategy. Organizations are at different levels in their digital transformation journey and at distinct speeds as well. No matter what levels they are at, their business objectives have stayed the same - delivering a superior quality product at high speed.

The implementation of digital technologies has become imperative to stay ahead of the competition in most of the industry verticals. Today's organizations realize that they cannot retain or gain a competitive advantage unless they continuously deliver exceptional quality software faster than their counterparts. In fact, user experience and speed have become even more critical for success and survival. This is the primary reason why development initiatives such as DevOps and Agile have become a part of the digital transformation milestones and the boardroom agenda.

With time to market becoming shorter, the importance of software quality engineering has shifted entirely from the erstwhile way of waterfall testing in the SDLC. Most organizations today pursue Agile methodology that offers accelerated delivery of products and services. Enterprise quality engineering always ensures timely release of all builds, be it the tools, hardware, data, cloud solutions, performance-related readiness, and devices. Digital quality today requires an engineering approach that is different from the traditional method to achieve agile delivery and prevent defects.

Let us look into some of the primary features of these approaches below:

Business agility and continuous testing:

Automation is not a stand-alone approach anymore where scripts are executed by respective specialists and status reports are accumulated later. Automation today is synonymous with Continuous Integration and is scheduled to be run as the build arrives. The integration of automation with test management solutions achieve shortened release cycles with an automatic appearance of results without any human intervention. With shortened release cycles, the time for verifying quality also gets reduced significantly, thereby, elevating business agility.

According to Andy Walter, the CEO of Procter and Gamble, manual testing is no longer a sustainable method, for it creates bottlenecks for organizations in achieving operational excellence. With the help of continuous testing, organizations are able to radically evolve their ecosystems. Organizations cannot satisfy the rigorous demands of digital transformation without Continuous Testing and DevOps along with the agility and speed they trigger.

Exceptional user experience

Digital platforms help derive continuous and immediate feedback on applications’ quality. Any feature of the services and products that does not satisfy customer expectations is handled with harsh reviews by disappointed end users. Therefore, UX has become as crucial as the application’s functionality.  Software quality engineering should be integrated into the digital transformation strategy for seamless UX assurance. User experience is a combination of various factors such as device capabilities, application flow, ease of interaction with application UI, networks, and so on. As the performance of any application is paramount, every outage, crash, and slowing down of the application can raise customer grievances. These, in turn, can directly have an impact on the revenue and value proposition of organizations.

The software quality engineers identify such challenges and work on mitigating them. As per Vittorio Cretella, the CIO of Mars, quality assurance is critical for creating an exceptional user experience. Previously, there has been a cushion between consumer and information technologies, but now, everything is interconnected, thereby, placing IT in a very strategic position in any organization. Organizations need to realize how the users are responding and how to achieve an optimal customer experience with the help of continuous testing and quality assurance.

Role of Enterprise Quality Engineering in digital transformation

Digital quality engineering has a crucial role in the journey of digital transformation. Implementing quality checkpoints ensures delivery of the intended business outcomes along with end-user satisfaction. Quality assurance fortifies the end-product at each phase throughout the software development cycle and reduces challenges posed by latest technologies. Quality assurance plays the best supportive role in any company's digital initiatives to ensure security and performance.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to take over the organizational value chain and determine how they are interconnected, it has become indispensable for organizations to include quality engineering. Therefore, enterprises making advances towards the direction of extended digitalization already understand the associated risks and see the entire picture of quality challenges. QE keeps a continuous check on the quality of the service or products being offered right from the beginning of a software development cycle. Enterprise quality engineering tries to meet the three main agendas of a company’s digital transformation initiative: safeguarding brand image, demanding quality assurance and delivering client satisfaction.

Safeguarding brand image

Quality assurance measures the end-user experience across several digital platforms. This enhances accessibility, minimizes response time, and enhances the brand image of the organization. Software quality engineering addresses the following difficulties in testing user experience across multiple devices, platforms, and networks.

Devising test cases.

Gathering important requirements in the test set and the right coverage of end-user expectations.

Using test tools for user experience testing.

Establishing test data for customer experience testing.

Entire Life cycle Automation: Quality Assurance expedites the transformation process not only with the implementation of application-level automation but also by speeding up life cycle automation. Apart from utilizing the conventional automation method, digital quality engineering focuses on testing the end-to-end software development life cycle, thus ensuring impeccable user experience and cross-platform compatibility.

Advanced level analytics data support

Enterprise Quality Engineering utilizes advanced level analytics to extract data from several commercial and social platforms that can be used in productive decision making. This offers exhaustive insights into all levels of the end-user experience.

Conclusion

Digital channels are pushing enterprises to reach the end consumers faster through unique services and products with satisfactory results at the core. Therefore, in the modern digital economy, enterprise quality engineering experience (for customized and omnichannel experience), speed (test results as you build and even before) and iterative development (creating a viable product) are what organizations are striving for. This is where, an independent quality engineering company can bring values by successfully establishing quality assurance practices across the technological ecosystems.

The fast-changing dynamics of the global digital ecosystem involve quick adoption of advanced technologies, faster time-to-market, seamless rendering of workflow, and the delivery of top-notch product quality. Should any enterprise flounder in providing the above-mentioned outcomes, the competitors will ultimately have the last laugh. Also, enterprises are facing challenges arising out of mergers and acquisitions, risk and compliance, data and analytics among others. These activities are kindling the expectations of stakeholders (including end customers) to a whole new level. No wonder enterprises are looking for ways and means to stay on the right side of competition. The focus is exclusively on enhancing the quality of products and services using methodologies like Agile and DevOps. However, the reshaping of customer expectations and the prevalence of intense competition in the digital ecosystem, businesses can no longer rely on the efficacy of shift-left quality assurance alone. They must make a gradual shift towards quality engineering.

What is Quality Engineering and how it differs from Quality Assurance?

If quality assurance is about identifying the defects in a software application or system using the shift-left or waterfall model of testing, software quality engineering is about transforming the product workflow, processes, and team culture to pre-empt the ingress of glitches in the first place. So, if QA is about identifying and removing glitches, QE is about reshaping the workflow to prevent the generation of glitches. The latter encompasses methodologies that have an omnichannel approach straddling multiple engineering disciplines. In software quality engineering, the activities involve the designing, development and manufacturing of products to enhance their quality as well as reduce waste along the way.

The quality engineering approach is not just about following end-to-end software testing as in a typical QA process. It is about defining, analysing, and implementing technologies, methods, and tools that are in tune with the business objectives of enterprises. The software quality engineering services may involve the following key activities.

Automation of testing processes: When it comes to the quick delivery of products/services to beat the competition and garner customer satisfaction, the existing testing processes need to be automated. Here, AI can be leveraged to analyse the glitch prone sections of software as well as to suggest correctives. Test automation can enhance conventional test strategies through AI and achieve continuous integration and delivery – noted outcomes of DevOps methodology. Test automation can leverage both AI and Machine Learning (AI & ML) to optimize testing.

Strengthen shift-right testing: As businesses go about developing and deploying quality applications, elements like mobile commerce, social, IoT adoption and cloud are making QA shift left and strengthen right. The comprehensive QE initiative would involve activities like virtualization, test-driven-development, API testing, performance engineering, security testing, and analytics-driven automated testing. Since the ultimate objective of enterprises is to develop quality products that can derive customer delight, shift-right testing helps to validate the quality of software from the right – post production. This test approach focuses on the performance and usability of the software and in the process, seeks continuous feedback from customers to understand their behaviour.

Achieve agility: Agile and DevOps have emerged as key enablers for business enterprises in a software development life cycle. The effective implementation of digital quality engineering by leveraging industry best practices can help businesses achieve quality outcomes across digital touchpoints. The Agile-led processes can identify and mitigate glitches besides integrating the various software modules faster to deliver customer delight.

Value proposition: The software QE services test and analyze the entire value chain thereby looking for inherent vulnerabilities or defects. These services ensure the value chain is compliant with the regulatory requirements and has the necessary wherewithal to detect and eliminate glitches. Also, there is a renewed focus on offering customer-centric innovative solutions and enhancing the value proposition. These objectives are achieved through minimal testing efforts and encompass the reduction in production glitches. As quality engineering aims at improving the test effectiveness of enterprises, the quality assurance of product/service gets enhanced leading to its rising acceptability among customers.

Conclusion

With the automation of workflow including the regression suite, there is an increased adoption of mature practices and testing methodologies. The implementation of quality engineering over quality assurance by using tools like 4D analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning can lead to the optimization of test cases and better prediction/identification/mitigation of data.

Check out this White Paper to know the significance of Application Performance monitoring for the aviation industry from Quality Engineering perspective.

The quality of software applications has assumed utmost significance, given the changing user dynamics and the intensely competitive online market for such products. Business enterprises are literally burning the midnight oil to streamline their value chain by embracing digital transformation. This way, they hope to improve the software quality and do away with the procedural bottlenecks that have stymied outcomes like productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Revamping the SDLC has become the need of the hour given the advent of Agile and DevOps paradigms. What better way to achieve the same than by incorporating software quality engineering in the development, testing, and delivery cycle.

The focus is squarely on shift-left testing to ensure complex software codes are tested during the development stage only. This entails frequent testing of a software application and in the process, ensuring early detection of any hidden glitches. Software quality becomes the first casualty is due to the presence of glitches, which often go undetected in the traditional development and testing process. Software engineering focuses on mitigating glitches in the first place rather than going through the motions of identification and elimination later. It mostly employs test automation to validate the APIs and UI. The engineering of software quality consists of a few essential steps. These steps can ensure the early detection of bugs and pre-empt the following of rather expensive, time-consuming and iterative testing cycle later.

Steps to usher in digital quality engineering

The series of steps to be taken by the software quality assurance engineers to improve the quality of software is as follows:

Functional testing: In this type of black-box testing, the focus is on validating the specifications of software components. The process tests every button, link, and function on the screen wherein the output is analysed against the input without considering the internal architecture. This is mainly a simulated process that mimics the real test conditions and checks the user requirements.

Reviewing the source code: This should be done before the actual testing process. Akin to peer review, the process requires looking at the source code by a different set of developers. This can bring a lot of coding errors or glitches out in the open as a different set of eyes can get the perspective right instead of getting weighed down by the codes.

Usability testing: This is a comprehensive testing process involving the validation of functionality as well as user experience of the software. This differs from user acceptance testing and can be done by engaging either internal or external testers. The external testers should, however, fit into the profile of the actual end users. Usability testing as a part of the quality engineering strategy encompasses steps such as developing a strategy to validate the functions of the software application, identifying the testers, creating test cases, selecting the test automation tool, executing the tests followed by analyzing their results.

Testing the user interface/APIs: A software application comprises several APIs to interact with myriad touchpoints in the digital ecosystem. These touchpoints may include devices, operating systems, browsers etc. The interface testing would test the interactions/communication between the web server and various APIs to ensure they function seamlessly. Moreover, the testing process should ensure any interruption by the user is addressed effectively, both by the web server and APIs.

Unit testing: In this type of testing, methods, classes or components are treated as units and checked across a slew of inputs – valid, as well as, invalid. The test should create an overarching environment where any change in the source code database triggers the execution of unit tests. The tests can involve the use of virtualized inputs to mimic real time scenarios.

Compatibility testing: Today’s software applications interact with a lot of digital touchpoints including browsers (and its versions), operating systems, and devices. The test validates the features and functionalities of the application across browsers by checking JavaScript, authentication requests, web sockets etc. In addition to browsers, the application should be tested for its smooth functioning across operating systems like MacOS, Windows, Linux etc and mobile operating systems like Android, iOS and Windows OS respectively.

Conclusion

In addition to the above-mentioned tests, the QE services should execute load and stress testing as part of the overall performance testing process. This ensures the software works seamlessly for various scenarios and hardware configurations. Thereafter comes security testing to identify and eliminate the inherent system vulnerabilities. Should these tests be deployed and taken to their logical conclusion, the quality of software can be enhanced significantly.

In today’s competitive digital landscape where businesses want to grab the elusive pie of ‘customer satisfaction’, it is software reliability that ensures success. When customer centricity has become the core around which software is designed, developed, tested and delivered, companies have their tasks cut out. The need of the hour is to deliver an omni channel experience to the customers by designing software that is compelling, secure, and robust.

What does it take to make customers happy?

The digital transformation initiatives by businesses and entities have given convenience, communication and speed a whole new meaning. It is ultimately the software that lies at the core of such initiatives wherein complex tasks involving many touchpoints and variables are performed at the twinkle of an eye. In fact, software like Enterprise Resource Management and Customer Relationship Management have redefined how businesses are managed. Also, the advent of advanced technologies like AI, IoT and others has brought in automation, rendering a whole new experience to the business and end customer.

Customers, on their part, have got access to sundry software applications and device platforms to execute a range of activities in a jiffy. The activities include paying for utility services, booking cabs, seats in a restaurant or theatre, and making online purchases among others. Now, since the market is flush with a host of software belonging to every possible domain, customers have a problem of plenty. Given the changing market dynamics, the quest for businesses is to ensure software reliability. In other words, the software should display the following attributes for customers to take note of and possibly stay with.

Robustness: The software should be able to function on a range of devices, operating systems, browsers, and networks without any glitch.

Scalable: It is a subset of robustness wherein software should be able to function seamlessly even when the number of users at a given point of time increases. To ensure the same, the workflow of developing the software should be integrated with a robust software quality testing process, in the Agile-DevOps model.

Security: Arguably the biggest challenge for software quality assurance services is to ensure all vulnerabilities and gaps are duly plugged. Moreover, the security testing aspect should not be a onetime validation process but a continuous one throughout the SDLC. In fact, security should be developed into a culture to be followed across departments in an organization. Thus, if DevOps is about enhancing the quality of software during and beyond the SDLC, DevSecOps is also about incorporating security into the entire scheme of things. Since software stores critical business and personal information, customers should not get at the wrong end of the stick as far as security is concerned. The software testing services should conduct penetration testing exercise to identify and plug security related vulnerabilities.

Rich features: The software should be engaging enough for the customers to take notice. It should come with easy to use interfaces, attractive graphics, visible icons etc. For example, an eCommerce application should have an easy to view product catalog, rich images, and an easy checkout option. To ensure customer centricity, software quality assurance services should provide for the seamless functioning of every feature.

Easy loading: With an increase in mobile penetration and the availability of numerous applications, the attention span of customers has reduced considerably. Software developers and testers have to achieve a fine balance between reducing the size of an application for faster loading and enhancing its features to create the initial connect. In a digital landscape of reducing attention span, the use of software can only increase if it loads and operates fast.

How does the lack of software reliability testing impact a brand?

Should a software application fail in eliminating the glitches by not adhering to software quality testing, the consequences can be telling on the brand.

A bad customer experience can lead     customers to stop using the software. This can have a direct impact on the     ROI unless remedial measures are undertaken by updating its version.

A compromised software can lead to the     theft of critical business or customer data. This can leave customers     dissatisfied and angry leading to the filing of lawsuits.

Regulatory agencies can come down hard     on such brands by imposing stiff penalties.

Conclusion

As the imprint of software applications increases, businesses can gain customer approval only when the software stands firm on the crucible of reliability, security, user friendliness, and convenience. Unless customer centricity is made the focus of software development, brands will continue to do the catching up – for customer approbation.