This post’s subject is software failure and more importantly the prevention of it! Prevention of software failure is one of the main reasons why I have been in business for the past 14 years.

Many people interact with faulty software on daily or regular basis.There are new/modified websites, smartphone applications, electronic car systems, and airplane systems to name a few entering the market as we speak.

Global businesses are under extreme pressure to offer products and services 24/7. To be honest many are struggling to keep pace and the ones that are keeping pace are experiencing quality customer engagement scores and excellent bottom lines as a result.

How do they do that?

They take quality control extremely seriously. More importantly, they take customer satisfaction and their brand reputation even more seriously. It takes discipline and a genuine focus on consistency. If you fail, there are competitors waiting and willing to satisfy your customer’s needs.The digital age is evolving at an incredibility fast pace and it is not stopping for anyone. Releasing fundamentally untested software to the public is unforgivable in today’s world. So what should you do?

Know and understand your exposure to risk!



I have worked with enterprise/corporate level companies all the way through to small businesses. The common problems I observe with underperforming companies are:

Poor customer retention or churn rates.

Forecasted sales targets are missed week on week or month on month.

Call centres are inundated with:

a) Product or service questions from the public because of an underperforming website.

b) Complaints about slow and functional errors or their website

c) Requests that could be easily automated via a website or with a smartphone application.

d) Potential customers visiting your site or smartphone application because of an advertising or promotional campaign and then it instantly crashes.

Internal sales and customer service software is faulty and experiences ongoing failure.



Causes of the above can be related to:

Websites or smartphone applications are released to market and 100% untested.(Management assume it will just work. Big no, no!)

Websites or smartphone applications are released to market, but only a handful of devices or web browsers have been tested.

Example being 60% of your customer base use iPhones to access your smartphone application, but 40% of your customer base also use Samsung Android phones.

Only iPhones were tested due to budget issues and as a result sales targets were missed.

A website and smartphone application was not tested with 30,000 customers logging into it at the same time.

Example being a leading newspaper might do a special editorial on your business on a particular day.

As a result many readers might access your website or application after reading the editorial before leaving for work in the morning, hence causing your website or application to slow down or ultimately crash.

Not knowing why potential customers are not purchasing or visiting their website or smartphone application. (Not using analysis tools like Google Analytics).

No quality control, testing practice or test methodology within the business to begin with. Hence allowing in-house developers or external vendors to release software to your market or staff with a high degree of risk/failure.

Management don’t understand or possess an informed view of when software is suitable for release to market.

My experience always tells me that all technology critical businesses must have an independent gate keeper for quality control to measure and communicate the level of risk.

Software testing as a profession provides that very function. High performing companies possess a great inter-relationship between business and their IT capability. There is mutual respect between both parties.

I hope this has given you some valuable insight today around the importance of software quality within your business success and I would love to hear your opinions, questions or subjects you wish for me to cover.

Please post your feedback to me via the discussion boards below or visit my website at www.mikehamilton.com.au.