Software Testing Is A Non-Value Adding Activity
But you can’t do without it. Or can you?
A lot of software development companies today struggle with selling “testing activities” to their clients. Which makes perfectly sense looking at the title. Software testing is a non-value adding activity, which means that it’s something the customer doesn’t want to pay for. It’s something deemed necessary to deliver good quality software, which in its turn is, something customer is willing to pay for.
There are two key elements in breaking the stigma of having to sell testing to customers and having to justify the cost associated with it. That’s why I want to share with you the following two principles:
Don’t sell testing, sell a quality product
How many times were you asked to pay an additional “researchers fee” when you went to buy some medication? Clinical research and testing takes months or even years and costs millions, but this cost is factored into the price of the product. In this case the research and testing are the non-value adding activities, because no one is willing to pay for this separately. Customers will pay for the medication, because that’s what makes them feel better.
So, with this in mind, why would you try and sell testing as something separate? The activity by itself does not give the customer any value for his money. Not in this context at least. If you are in the business of providing testing services to a customer, then this is a value adding activity, because you are offering a solution for a specific problem, need for testing resources. But not if you are a software vendor developing a product.
A price quote from a software vendor should have the cost for testing/QA incorporated into the product. Same goes for any project management activity, another non-value adding activity in the eyes of the customer. This way you don’t have to sell and justify these activities, customers know that this needs to happen to some extent, they just don’t like to be charged for it.
Non-Value adding activities should be optimised
A non-value adding activity is also often referred to as waste or “muda”, which needs to be reduced or eliminated wherever possible. So, what does this mean for testing and QA? Should we just reduce the amount of testing we do? Or eliminate it all together? HELL NO!
We need to understand what the customer is willing to pay for, in this case it’s a qualitative product. There are different ways on how this can be achieved, one of them is extensive testing. This is also the least cost efficient method for delivering a quality product and often relies heavily on available man power.
Automation
Even though test automation has been around for a while now, it’s surprising to see how many companies don’t leverage it to their advantage. Automation, even outside IT is one of the key methods when it comes to reducing waste in a process. Yet, we still have so many companies only relying on manual testing. Optimising this will already give you a cost benefit, which again makes it easier to incorporate in the end price.
Build-in Quality
When you have a process that fosters quality, you are more likely to deliver a product of good quality at the same price you would deliver a bad one. It all starts by taking your time in understanding what the customer really wants. Often rushing the initial phase will cause problems in the long run.
If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. — Abraham Lincoln
When you took your time in the initial phase, you can later, with a very good understanding drill down into the details. Using collaborative methods like Behaviour Driven Development and Specification By Example (SBE). Where you document, build and test the application in one single flow. Flow is again important as it reduces waste in a process. But more importantly, you are building quality into the product at each step, validating it together with the customer. This will ultimately lead to the best results.
For you as a software vendor, software testing will always be a non-value adding activity in the eyes of customers. Yet, it is an activity that you can’t live without. That doesn’t mean you can’t reshape it to a shape or form that works for you and your customers. By distributing this cost over your deliverables and optimizing your testing process you can maximize your profits and deliver a high-quality product that’s easy to sell.
I’m Sammy De Moor, Managing Partner & Quality Evangelist at ARQS. We help companies with maximizing their software investments. For more tangible information, feel free to visit our website @ www.arqs.be .
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