Software Testing – Cost or Investment?

There is an interesting thread going on over at LinkedIn Answers where Venkat asks whether testing is a cost or an investment.

Some of the key thoughts that crossed me when I read the trail are:

1. Be it a product or a services setting, software testing is an integral part of the development lifecycle. I would also go ahead and state that in cases (specially in services industry) where client does not pay explicitly for testing, testing should be treated as an internal investment that will help organization satisfy and in some cases, retain clients. Testing is directly related to an organizations reputation (quality of delivery).
2. So, software testing is an important investment from organization’s perspective. For clients, it is a cost that should be budgeted when a project is planned.
3. From Cost of Quality perspective, software testing is an appraisal cost which cannot be completely done away with. It can however be controlled by having good resources on project and making them accountable for unit level checks and basic integration testing. It also calls for streamlined requirements management and design practices.
4. That brings me to another realization that the outcome of a tester depends on quality of developers/designers on the project. I have seen very good testers failing to perform if the development team is average. On the other hand, average testers have performed well on projects where the team was more mature and accountable for unit level checks.
5. Lastly, defect trends should be closely monitored to improve upon the process – also to raise timely escalations on quality (raising alarm bells) so that client’s expectations can be managed early in the lifecycle.

These are some immediate thoughts to jot down – any thoughts to take this further ?

I would love to hear. Thanks again Venkat, for raising this all important question.