Test Optimization

Test & QA (including error correction) represent by far the largest expense block in the development & maintenance of software systems. Optimization of this cost block (= quality costs) is possible & necessary and yields significant savings for the IT manager & ultimately the company.

In various ISO standards, the industry defines quality costs in 4 groups:

  • defect prevention & inspection costs
    • costs for preventing defects
    • costs for inspection & test
  • defect costs
    • internal defects (before delivery)
    • external defects (in production)

Similar to the way industry has been practicing this for decades, the IT industry has to measure & optimize quality costs in a standardized way, too. The fundamental logic of any industrial quality assurance is that there is a certain error potential in the production process, which has to be found as early as possible, because this makes it cheaper to eliminate & avoids consequential problems (avalanche effect).

Four essential substantial measures for test optimization should be implemented in every company:

  • QA as an implicit task in the software lifecycle (SLC)

  • standardization of the test methodology with tool support