Independent Testing

Can you trust the verdict of a judge who is part of the inner circle of people they should judge? For this process to be fair, decision-makers must be impartial. Now that you are actively involved in the development of a product or software, testing it with a neutral mindset is not that easy.

As a developer, you would like to release the product as soon as possible and consider it flawless and eventually overlook some bugs. To avoid this, you need to hire an independent testing team to thoroughly test your product for weaknesses before the release.

Testing by levels of independence:

• The programmer tests their code
• Testing is done by another programmer in the organization
• Internal testing team
• Independent testing organization

If a Programmer Tests Their Code

You would never ask a chef to be their own critic. And even if you do, it will be difficult for you to believe everything they say. This means that a creator can never be a good critic of their own work. The programmer knows their code inside and out. Their goal is to create a product and release it in no time.

Instead of looking for bugs from every possible point of view, they will be tempted to find ways to work around the bugs they find. Writer Glenford Myers, in his book The Art of Software Testing, outlined the difference in thinking between a developer and a tester. He said that the developer thinks as a builder focused on construction, while a tester looks for flaws that will cause a building to collapse if not addressed.

Testing Is Done by Another Programmer in the Company

The compromise is to find someone in the organization. It may be some other programmer who is involved in some other projects. This gives a certain level of independence. But the problem arises because of the same reporting manager. The manager may ask the programmer to skip some tests when there is a time limit. As a result, the product testing is incomplete. In addition, asking other developers to test will result in deploying different resources into the same project. This will be detrimental to the entire work of the organization.

Internal Testing Team

Having another internal testing team is a good decision. But since they are in the company, they are affected by time constraints. In addition, it is expensive to maintain an internal team. This will lead to a large budget and resource constraints for the team. The team may have access to limited tools and software, thus not meeting the requirements of all projects. The testing environment will also vary depending on the number of users and the number of integrations performed. Then testing will be done in a rush, which will lead to the omission of some bugs that may appear after the product is released. The solution that takes care of all these shortcomings is Independent Testing.

Why Independent Testing?

Independent testing organizations will examine all aspects of your product. They work with the mindset of looking for flaws and mistakes. They will not use shortcuts during testing. And since they were not part of the development process, they conduct tests neutrally so that old interests do not interfere with the testing process. The thought of finding the maximum “breakpoints” will benefit your product. Almost all third-party testing organizations provide you with detailed bug reports and suggest corrective measures.