You’ve plotted out the key points of your application, written the code and almost completed the development process. What’s the next step you should take?
It’s easy to assume that the next step is to release and market your app. After all, many startup gurus and entrepreneurs stress the importance of speed in developing and releasing apps, and there’s no harm in being faster to the market than your competitors, is there?
When releasing early means skipping or breezing through QA testing, there could actually be some harm in being fast to the market. Many developers forget about the immense importance of QA testing in an effort to release as quickly as possible, only to rediscover it even faster after.
Does your startup really need QA testers? In a word, yes. Below, we’ve listed four reasons you need QA testers to make sure your app functions exactly as it should before it’s released. If you were considering a rapid, test-free release, read on to discover four reasons to reconsider.
No, your developers can’t QA test everything on their own
It’s easy to assume that your own developers are the best people to QA test your application, as they’re the people that developed it in the first place. Surely, with their deep understanding of its design and code, they’re the best people to locate and spot potential bugs, right?
Well, not quite. One reason it’s best not to test with your own development team is that they’re often in a state of “development mode,” where the focus is on creation, rather than review and bug detection.
Another reason is that it’s always hardest to spot errors in your own work. A fresh set of eyes, as well as the scale, knowledge and understanding of dedicated QA testers, let you find, solve and move on from bugs that could otherwise negatively affect your application.
It costs far less to fix bugs before release than after
Another common misconception about QA testing is that it’s a cost. It’s not. QA testers are an investment, not a cost. The reason for this is simple: it’s far less expensive to fix a bug before you release your application than it is to fix it once it’s live and release an updated version.
The further a bug makes it in the release process, the more it costs to fix. Create a culture of quality throughout your organization and you’ll locate and fix bugs quickly, reducing the total cost of each release and leading to a smarter, smoother release process.
Poor or no QA testing hurts your product, costing you users
Have you ever given up on an application because it was buggy, unstable or poorly made? It’s no secret that application users can be picky when it comes to quality, and releasing a buggy app is often all it takes to drive away prospective users, clients and customers.
This is particularly important for mobile application startups, where your users might depend on you to deliver a specific, local service at a very important time. Slip up once due to a small bug and it’s easy to drive a user away from your application for life.
The more competitive your market, the more important it is that you’re committed to eliminating bugs in your application before each release. After all, it only takes a single bad experience to drive someone that could have been a loyal user or customer to one of your competitors.
QA testers test features, not just your application’s code
An additional reason to hire QA testers instead of handing QA testing off to your development team is that quality assurance is ultimately about testing features, not testing code. A developer will go into testing focusing on testing their own code, instead of testing a specific function.
This can result in very narrow, overly focused testing that results in buggy features receiving a passing grade because they’re tested with such a limited focus. The code might work from its developer’s perspective, but does the specific feature work from the perspective of a user?
Using dedicated QA testers, and particularly a large-scale crowdtesting team, allows you to test features instead of merely testing code. The end result is a more stable, user-friendly app that’s thoroughly stress tested before release, limiting the potential for end users to break it.
Do you need QA testers for your application?
Are you in the process of developing a mobile application and need a reliable testing team? Our on-demand QA crowdtesting service lets you test your app on hundreds of different devices and get real results within hours.
